by: Maura Mills, Julie Wayne, Yi-Ren Wang, Russell Matthews, Marilyn Whitman
Are you running low on milk? When does your father-in-law’s birthday card need to be in the mail? When do soccer sign-ups end? Who’s scheduling the dog’s annual vet appointment? Have you filled out that field trip form yet? Signed up to bring a dish to the PTA potluck?
The list goes on.
(And – spoiler alert – it never ends.)
In our recent research in the Journal of Business Psychology, we aimed to make critical strides in understanding the mental load and its impact on those who bear it. The mental load, or the “invisible family load”, is the managerial (e.g., planning, organizing), cognitive (e.g., thinking about, remembering), and emotional (e.g., worrying about) tasks involved in keeping a family running.
The invisible family load is all of the “stuff” that nobody sees but that has to live in somebody’s head if it’s going to get done – and it has to get done. It can be likened to project management – someone is usually the household “Project Manager” or the “Captain of the Ship” – and this role disproportionately falls on women.
And often, these tasks are invisible – and as a result, go unnoticed.
But, as critically important as this role is, it doesn’t come without costs.
Our research bore out the many negative implications of being the responsible party for the emotional family load– including exhaustion, compromised sleep, increased work-family conflict, and even lower life satisfaction.
Interestingly, we also find some positive outcomes to taking on the cognitive and managerial load, such as a sense of enrichment and better life satisfaction. However, this shouldn’t overshadow the negative outcomes, particularly for the emotional aspect of bearing the invisible family load, which was overwhelmingly detrimental.
It’s also imperative that the extent to which the invisible family load falls disproportionately on women is made known, as it has implications for women’s total workload and scope of responsibility in addition to their health and well-being. Especially at a time when women are increasingly likely to be working outside the home full-time, in dual-earner partnerships, and even serving as the family breadwinners, the extent of their “invisible” household labor must be made visible, so that efforts can be made to recalibrate accordingly. Somehow, even in otherwise egalitarian households, more women are increasingly finding themselves to be both the breadwinner and the household manager – and that’s both unreasonable and unsustainable.
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You can access the full article by clicking here or by emailing Maura Mills (mjmills1@ua.edu).
The article has garnered a lot of interest from scholarly and lay communities alike, from being picked up by Forbes to winning the highly competitive Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research.
Wayne, J. H., Mills, M. J., Wang, Y. R., Matthews, R. A., & Whitman, M. V. (2023). Who’s remembering to buy the eggs? The meaning, measurement, and implications of invisible family load. Journal of Business and Psychology, 38, 1159-1184.
About the authors:
Maura Mills, PhD
Twitter: @MillsMaura
Maura Mills, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Management at the Culverhouse College of Business, University of Alabama. Her research falls under the umbrella of positive organizational behavior, with foci on the work-family interface and gender, employee attitudes and well-being, and the psychometrically appropriate assessment of each. She has published over 40 peer-refereed articles and an edited book (Gender and the Work-Family Experience: An Intersection of Two Domains, 2015, Springer), and is a state leader for the Alabama Chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network, facilitating the translation of research to inform practice and policy.
Julie Holliday Wayne, PhD
Julie Holliday Wayne, Ph.D. is a Professor in the School of Business at Wake Forest University. Her research examines the effects of work-life experiences on organizational attraction, employee attitudes, behaviors, health and well-being. She has published in journals such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Organizational Research Methods, and is a Fellow of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Her Tedx talk “One Turn on Earth: Lessons from the BoardRoom to the Dinner Table” can be found here.
Yi-Ren Wang, PhD
Yi-Ren Wang, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Asia School of Business. She received her Ph.D. in Management from the University of Alabama in 2020. Her research interests include precarious work, workplace inequality, behavioral poverty trap, socioeconomic mobility, work motivation, fairness, work-family dynamics, employee well-being, and workplace trauma. She has published in journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Business and Psychology, and the Journal of Vocational Behavior.
Russell Matthews, PhD
Russell Matthews, Ph.D. is a Miller Professor of Management in The Culverhouse College of Business at the University of Alabama. He earned his Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology, with graduate certificates in occupational health psychology and quantitative research methods, from the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on employee attitudes, health, and well-being. He has published in journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Business and Psychology, and Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, and is a Fellow of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology.
Marilyn Whitman, PhD
Marilyn Whitman, Ph.D. is a Professor and HealthSouth Endowed Chair in the Management Department, Culverhouse College of Business, University of Alabama. Her research focuses on cultural competence in healthcare, and social and ethical issues in organizational behavior. She has published articles in journals such as Health Services Research, Health Care Management Review, Journal of Healthcare Management, Nursing Outlook, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.