Working Mom Guilt: When the Office Cuts Into Home Time

March 9, 2011— -- Thanks to technology, we can link into work anywhere, anytime, but the constant office communication can take a toll on the work-life balance, especially for working mothers.

For Jessica Guberman, 34, an evening without work calls has become a distant memory.

"I struggle often because I love my career, so I have a desire to work at all times and be in the know. When I do take a call at home, my kids are getting old enough now where I am starting to get the 'look' from them, like 'Really Mom? Now you have to take that call?'" said Guberman, who is vice president of marketing and development at Community Options in New Jersey and mother to a 4- and 5-year old.

While Guberman said she feels blessed to have a career she loves so much, she feels "guilty at all times" that she works as much and as hard as she does. "When the workday ends, it never really ends," she said.

Guberman's dilemma is shared by women, who tend to feel more guilt and psychological distress than men do when the office calls at home, according to a study published today in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

The study found that while women could balance work and family life just as well as men could, women tended to feel more guilt when work followed them home.

"Although men did report higher levels of work contact while at home, what we saw was that the level of contact didn't make a difference for men's' feelings of guilt or distress. It did for women," said Scott Schieman, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto and a co-author of the study.