Keeping up with the Joneses: Social comparison of integrating work and family lives

Does everyone around you seem to be juggling the work and family roles more successfully than you? This research examines the influence of social comparison of work–family balance in the work role overload to emotional exhaustion relationship through two paths – a spillover path to both job and family emotional exhaustion for the job incumbent and a crossover path to the spouse to their own family emotional exhaustion. Further, we examine whether the personality trait of social comparison orientation exacerbates these processes. We used matched responses over two time periods from 403 dual-earning, married couples living in the United States to test our hypotheses. We found support for all our hypothesized relationships. Social comparison plays a role in individuals’ perception of work–family demands, which may contribute to undesirable consequences for both the job incumbent and the spouse.