The role of employee assistance programs under COVID‐19‐induced work–family conflict: Effects on service employees' work engagement and burnout

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic places substantial stress on service employees’ work and home lives. Little research has explored the negative effects of perceived stress from COVID‐19 on work and home domains in terms of employees’ attitudes toward work. We adopt a job demands–resources perspective to examine how perceived stress from COVID‐19 affects employees' work (i.e., work engagement and burnout) and home life (i.e., work–family conflict and family–work conflict). In particular, we address whether organizational employee assistance programs can buffer these negative effects. We sampled service employees (n = 248), and results show that perceived stress from COVID‐19 increases work engagement and burnout through work–family conflict and family–work conflict. Furthermore, employee assistance programs mean that employees are less likely to experience work–family conflict and family–work conflict when faced with perceived stress from COVID‐19. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings and propose directions for future research.