The effect of flextime on absenteeism and turnover for male and female employees

Interrole conflict resulting from the demands of work and family roles has become increasingly common over the past decade due to significant societal changes. Females are seen as more susceptible to this interrole conflict because maintaining the home is still perceived as primarily a woman's role. As such, females tend to have higher interrole conflict than males. Flextime may be instrumental in reducing work/family conflict because of the discretion it permits. In turn, the improved integration of conflicting roles is hypothesized to reduce absenteeism and turnover. Thus a longitudinal investigation of potential differences in absenteeism and turnover for females and males on-flextime and females and males not-on-flextime was conducted. Significant decreases in absenteeism but not turnover for females and males on-flextime were found. It was concluded that flextime, by reducing the need for absenteeism, has positive benefits for employees with interrole conflict problems (e.g., dual career families) and for the Organization.