Reactions to male and female employees requesting family leave for childcare and eldercare

Abstract

This research was designed to better understand how employees who take advantage of the provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act may be perceived by others in the organization. Two key variables were considered: gender of the person requesting leave and the reason for the requested leave (childcare or eldercare). It was hypothesized that men requesting leave would be perceived more negatively than women. Further, it was hypothesized that those requesting leave for childcare would be perceived more negatively than those requesting leave for eldercare. And finally, an interaction between the two variables was hypothesized. Subjects were 194 male and female employees from four large organizations. The dependent measures considered perceptions of work attitudes and future performance, perceptions of fairness, effects on the organization, and the extent to which a request for family leave violates the psychological contract. A significant MANOVA result for Perceptions of Fairness supported the hypothesis for gender; requesting a family leave was perceived as less fair, or appropriate, for men than women. One finding supporting the hypothesized main effect for leave reason was found suggesting that those requesting leave for childcare are more likely to be doing so for their own convenience than those requesting leave for eldercare. MANOVA results for perceptions of work attitudes and future performance, effects on the organization, and violating the psychological contract were not significant. Exploratory analyses were conducted to consider the effect of subject gender. It was found that female subjects provided more positive ratings on a number of dependent measures than did male subjects. Implications of study, strengths and weaknesses, and future research considerations are also discussed.