Integrating Work and Family Life in Bulgaria Siyka Kovacheva and Stanimir Kabaivanov New Europe Center for Regional Studies Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Outline of the presentation : Background of the study Data and methods Descriptive results Results of the logistic regressions Conclusions

Public debates in Bulgaria before three separate discourses Negative population growth and dropping birth rate Work-efficiency and company competitiveness Unemployment and poverty

Research questions How do employees in the service sector in post- communist Bulgaria manage the integration of work and personal life? What are the main supports for achieving a work-life balance at the state, company and household level? How satisfied are employees with these opportunities?

The concept of integration of work and family life Individualised and reflexive perception of being able to manage the domains of one’s life in a self-fulfilling way. Not only individual attitudes but also wider social influences from households, companies, welfare state. Not only negative (lack of conflict) but also positive interface (enrichment). Bi-directional influence – from work to family life but also from family care to paid work.

The study in Bulgaria (part of the Quality project) Paper-based survey (spring 2007) Four Bulgarian companies (bank, hospital, supermarket, telecom) 789 respondents 146 indicators

Measures  Stress from work and family life  Work-family interference  Work-family enrichment  Satisfaction with work-family balance  Independent variables: Individual characteristics (gender, age, education, health) Family context (household members, children, income) Workplace context (type of contract, workinghours, team work, parental leaves, work-family organisational culture)

Measures of work/life integrationRetailTelecomHospitalBank Stress 1.56 (0.67) 1.76 (0.61) 1.77 (0.64) 1.80 (0.63) Interference (work-to-home) 2.02 (0.72) 2.22 (0.58) 2.15 (0.56) 2.47 (0.63) Interference (home-to-work) 1.49 (0.50) 1.58 (0.48) 1.61 (0.57) 1.60 (0.52) Interference 1.82 (0.47) 1.94 (0.49) 1.93 (0.46) 2.54 (0.93) Enrichment (home-to-work) 3.42 (1.18) 3.25 (1.03) 3.64 (1.28) 3.22 (1.34) Enrichment (work-to-home) 3.15 (1.28) 3.12 (1.06) 3.56 (1.12) 3.14 (1.26) Enrichment 3.26 (1.08) 3.17 (0.95) 3.58 (1.11) 3.14 (1.21) Satisfaction Work-Life balance 3.40 (0.86) 3.19 (0.97) 3.49 (0.97) 3.02 (1.04)

Results from the OLS regression analysis (independent variable ‘satisfaction with WLB’ Age + Health status + Household income + Satisfaction with public childcare + Working overtime on a short notice – Long working hours - Teamwork + Organizational culture +

Conclusions o Long statutory paid maternity and parental leaves and available public childcare centres are the main forms of state support. o Low formal flexibility of work (part-time jobs, telework) is characteristic of the BG economy even in the service sector, matched with higher degree of informal flexibility at the workplace level. o Great role of family-friendly organisational culture (best in the hospital, worst in the bank). o Interesting lack of statistically significant correlation between WLB satisfaction and gender, shift work, number of children living in the household, the sense of equal sharing of household tasks. o We will test our model using the common data set for the 8 partner- countries to try to understand better the influences of supports and constraints of working people in Bulgaria.