Reports

Work and Occupations · 2025

Voiceless at Work: When Workers Are Shut Out of Pandemic-Era Decisions

When Canadian workers were excluded from workplace decisions during the first year of the pandemic, their mental health suffered. New C-QWELS panel evidence shows voicelessness erodes workers' sense of mastery — and that loss of control is what drives the rise in distress and anger.

Atsushi Narisada +18 min read

QES-UPWorkSelf

Social Psychology Quarterly · 2025

Most Workers Are Satisfied — But Nobody Believes It

American workers are, by most measures, quite satisfied with their jobs — yet over half believe the majority of their fellow workers are not at all satisfied. Using a national survey of U.S. workers fielded in early 2023, this study identifies a striking case of pluralistic ignorance: satisfied workers systematically misperceive their own positive experiences as exceptional, and that misperception is associated with lower organizational commitment.

Paul Glavin +17 min read

MESSIWorkSelf

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World · 2025

It's Not You, It's the Market: Why Satisfied Workers Still Consider Quitting

Satisfied workers are generally the least likely to consider quitting — but that protective effect weakens when workers believe most others have good jobs too. Using two nationally representative surveys of American workers fielded in late 2023 and mid-2024, this study finds that perceptions of a thriving labor market pull even contented employees toward the exit, reframing turnover as opportunity-seeking rather than escape.

Scott Schieman +27 min read

Social Currents · 2024

Private Eyes, They See Your Every Move: Workplace Surveillance and Worker Well-Being

Workers who feel closely tracked, monitored, and evaluated suffer measurably worse mental health — but not directly. Job pressures, lost autonomy, and privacy violations together fully account for the link.

Paul Glavin +25 min read

Journal of Marriage and Family · 2024

From Flexibility to Unending Availability: Platform Workers' Work–Family Conflict

Digital platforms promise scheduling freedom. Three years of national survey data show platform workers report higher work–family conflict than employees and the self-employed — especially those who depend on the platform.

Paul Glavin +25 min read

C-QWELSEconomic LifeSelf

Canadian Review of Sociology · 2024

Rising Prices, Eroding Trust: Inflation's Hidden Social Cost

Inflation doesn't just drain wallets — it drains trust. Using Canadian panel data collected during the country's sharpest inflationary surge in three decades, this study finds that people who experienced rising costs became measurably less trusting of others, while those with higher trust were somewhat less likely to perceive costs as rising at all. The effect of inflation on trust was nearly 60% stronger than the reverse.

Cary Wu +27 min read

Work and Occupations · 2023

A Forced Vacation? What Pandemic-Era Layoffs Did — and Didn't — Do to Mental Health

When 1.2 million Canadians were temporarily laid off in early 2020, the textbook prediction was clear: job loss causes distress. The data told a more complicated story.

Scott Schieman +38 min read

C-QWELSWorkEconomic Life

Socius · 2022

Dependency and Hardship in the Gig Economy

For workers who depend on platform work to survive, the psychological toll is measurably higher — and financial hardship is a key reason why. For side-income gig workers, no penalty at all.

Paul Glavin +15 min read

Journal of Marriage and Family · 2022

Did Perceptions of Supportive Work–Life Culture Change During COVID-19?

For most workers, employers became more supportive of work–life needs during the pandemic's early months. But for remote workers, parents of young children, and professionals, the gains were notably muted.

Scott Schieman +26 min read

SSM – Population Health · 2022

Where You Stand Shapes Your Health: Social Status Across the Life Course During COVID-19

How people perceive their own place in society — both now and in childhood — predicted self-rated health during the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Canadian panel data from March and May 2020, this study finds that lower current social status was associated with five times the risk of consistently poor health, and that the protective effects of perceived upward mobility over the life course were visible even amid a global crisis.

Laura Upenieks +27 min read

Journal of Family Issues · 2022

When Work Stress Follows Parents Home—and Hurts Their Kids

Using four waves of Canadian longitudinal data, this study finds that both mothers' and fathers' work-to-family conflict predicts more problems for their children at school, with friends, and with health. Crucially, the damage is amplified in different ways for each parent: lower household income worsens the effect for mothers, while frequent spousal disputes worsen it for fathers.

Lei Chai +17 min read

Social Science Research · 2022

How Socioeconomic Position Shaped Trust During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic didn't affect social trust the same way for everyone. Using eight waves of Canadian panel data, this study identifies three distinct trust trajectories — rising, stable, and falling — and shows that where people stood economically before the pandemic was the strongest predictor of which path they took.

Cary Wu +27 min read

Work and Occupations · 2021

Über-Alienated: Powerless and Alone in the Gig Economy

Platform workers report significantly higher levels of powerlessness and loneliness than other workers, and money troubles don't explain it away. Across 4,929 Canadian workers.

Paul Glavin +25 min read

Alex Bierman +25 min read

Social Currents · 2021

Socially Distant? How COVID-19 Eroded Our Social Networks — and Our Health

When social distancing measures cut people off from their close confidants, loneliness surged — and so did declines in self-rated health. Tracked in real time across two pandemic-onset waves.

C-QWELS & CAN-WSHWorkEconomic Life

Social Justice Research · 2021

When Extra Work Goes Uncompensated: Pay Fairness in the Modern Workplace

Using focus groups and a national survey of 2,111 Canadian workers, this study introduces two new concepts—downloaded work (extra tasks pushed down from management) and sideloaded work (extra tasks absorbed from colleagues)—and shows both inflate workers' sense of being underpaid. Financial strain amplifies the effect: workers bearing extra duties while struggling to make ends meet feel most shortchanged.

Atsushi Narisada +27 min read

C-QWELSWorkEconomic Life

Research in Social Stratification and Mobility · 2021

When Workers Stop Complaining: Work–Life Conflict and Pay Fairness During COVID-19

Before COVID-19, workers who experienced conflict between their jobs and personal lives consistently felt unjustly underpaid. During the pandemic's first months, that link weakened — and weakened most sharply among visible minorities, younger workers, and those with low incomes or high financial strain. The findings suggest that economic vulnerability silenced grievances rather than resolved them.

C-QWELSHealthEconomic Life

Social Science & Medicine · 2021

Does Pandemic Hardship Harm Health — or Does Poor Health Invite Hardship?

Economic hardship during COVID-19 raised psychological distress directly — but for physical health, the story ran the other way: people already in poor health before the pandemic were most likely to accumulate hardship once it hit. Using four monthly waves of Canadian panel data, this study shows the causal arrow points in different directions depending on which health outcome you measure.

Alex Bierman +37 min read

Scott Schieman +38 min read

Socius · 2021

Did the Pandemic Reduce Work–Life Conflict? It Depends on Whether You Had Young Children

When lockdowns shut down social life and brought work into the home, the tension between work and the rest of life shifted in unexpected ways — but not for everyone equally.

Scott Schieman +15 min read

Socius · 2020

The Status Dynamics of Role Blurring in the Time of COVID-19

Answering emails after hours used to signal dedication and boost your social standing. Then the pandemic made it everyone's reality — and the status boost quietly disappeared.

Journal of Health and Social Behavior · 2020

Disconnected and Distressed: Social Estrangement and Mental Health at Pandemic Onset

When COVID-19 social distancing measures took effect in Canada, feelings of isolation and community distrust rose sharply — and psychological distress rose with them. Using two national surveys of Canadian workers collected six months apart, this study shows that subjective isolation was the primary driver of rising distress, and that older workers bore the heaviest burden.

Alex Bierman +17 min read

Journal of Family Issues · 2019

When Family Calls: Contact, Conflict, and Who Bears the Cost

Using six years of panel data from over 6,000 Canadian workers, this study finds that more frequent family contact during work hours steadily increases the sense that family life is crowding out the job, and that women, financially strained workers, caregivers, and parents managing children's problems feel that tension most acutely.

Philip J. Badawy +17 min read

Journal of Marriage and Family · 2018

How Mothers and Fathers Respond Differently to Work–Family Conflict

When work bleeds into family life, mothers and fathers don't respond the same way—and the age of their children matters enormously. Using two-wave Canadian panel data, this study finds that mothers with young children are far more likely to cut back on work demands and seek schedule flexibility than fathers in the same situation, while fathers with older children show the reverse pattern.

Marisa Young +17 min read

Work and Occupations · 2016

Higher Status Amplifies How Job Pressure Blurs Work–Family Boundaries

When job pressure is high, workers with more education, professional standing, managerial authority, or top earnings blur the line between work and home life more—not less—than their lower-status peers. Using 4,527 Canadian workers, this study shows that the advantages of higher status do not buffer against work encroachment; they amplify it, especially for men.

CAN-WSH & AM-WSHWorkHealth

Social Indicators Research · 2015

Who Juggles Work and Home at the Same Time—and Why

Using two large national surveys—one Canadian, one American—this study maps exactly who tries to handle job tasks and home tasks at the same time. Higher earners, professionals, business owners, and people who work from home or keep irregular hours multitask most often, and the real driver turns out to be job demands, not personal choice.

Social Psychology Quarterly · 2014

When Believing You're in Control Makes Things Worse

A strong sense of personal control usually protects mental health—but not always. Across two national panel surveys of American and Canadian workers, this study shows that for people facing the threat of job loss, high levels of perceived control are associated with more distress, not less, once a critical threshold is crossed.

Paul Glavin +18 min read

Canadian Review of Sociology · 2014

Who Feels in Control? Work, Money, and Mastery among Canadians

Drawing on a 2011 national survey of 5,576 Canadian workers, this study maps the social conditions that shape whether people feel in command of their lives or pushed around by forces beyond their control. Income turns out to matter more than education for that sense of mastery, but work-family conflict is the single strongest drain on it.

Society and Mental Health · 2014

When a Partner's Work Stress Becomes Your Own

When one partner's job bleeds into family life, the other partner pays a mental health price—not just through empathy, but through a cascade of family conflicts and work disruptions. Drawing on 1,348 dual-earning Canadian parents, this study traces the exact path from a spouse's work-to-family conflict to distress and anger, revealing that spousal disputes and children's problems carry the stress forward.

Marisa Young +27 min read

Work & Stress · 2013

After-Hours Work Messages: Who Pays the Price in Health and Sleep?

Using a nationally representative sample of 5,729 Canadian workers, this study shows that sending and receiving work communications outside regular hours is linked to more work-to-family conflict, psychological distress, and sleep problems. Job resources—autonomy, schedule control, and challenging work—buffer these harms, while job pressure amplifies them, largely by increasing work-to-family conflict.

Social Science Research · 2013

Not All Job Resources Reduce Pressure — Some Add to It

Using a nationally representative sample of 5,750 Canadian workers, this study tests whether job resources — autonomy, schedule control, authority, and challenging work — reduce workplace pressure as conventional theory predicts. The answer splits cleanly in two: autonomy and schedule control do reduce pressure, but authority and challenging work are linked to <em>more</em> of it — a pattern the author calls the "stress of higher status."

Scott Schieman7 min read

Work and Occupations · 2012

When Work Bleeds Into Home Life — and Why It Hurts

Using a national U.S. survey of 1,075 workers, this study finds that blurring the line between work and family roles consistently raises the risk of work-to-family conflict. Crucially, the damage is worse for workers under excessive job pressures, and somewhat buffered for those who have meaningful control over their own decisions.

Paul Glavin +17 min read

Journal of Health and Social Behavior · 2011

After-Hours Work Contact Makes Women Feel Guilty — and Unwell

In a national U.S. survey of 1,042 workers, frequent after-hours work contact was associated with higher guilt and psychological distress among women only. Guilt fully explained the link between work contact and distress for women — a pathway that did not appear for men.

Paul Glavin +27 min read

The Sociological Quarterly · 2010

Who Calls After Hours Shapes How Much It Hurts

Whether a late-night work call feels like a lifeline or an intrusion depends less on the call itself and more on who you work with. A 2007 U.S. survey of 1,090 workers shows that supportive workplaces reduce work-to-family conflict, while conflictive ones amplify it—and that both contexts increase after-hours contact, but with opposite effects on how workers experience it.

Paul Glavin +17 min read

Journal of Family Issues · 2010

Schedule Control's Hidden Cost: More Multitasking, More Conflict

In a U.S. survey of 1,100 workers, schedule control was associated with more working at home and more work–family multitasking — and that role blurring suppressed schedule control's benefits for reducing conflict. Workers with schedule control would report even less conflict were it not for their greater exposure to blurring.

Social Problems · 2008

Flexible Work Conditions Can Blur the Work-Home Border — Especially for Men

Using a nationally representative U.S. sample of 2,671 workers, this study finds that schedule control and job autonomy — typically seen as resources — are positively associated with work-home role blurring, but mainly for men. Both forms of role blurring raise work-to-home conflict, and those effects are amplified or buffered depending on workers' level of job control.