Until work from home do us apart? Couples' segmentation preferences and relationship dissolution in the era of remote work
Author(s)
Hermida Carrillo, Alejandro Canek
Bölingen, Felix
Matthews, Russell A
Weller, Ingo
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Work from home (WFH) is recognized as carrying both risks and benefits for individuals. However, its impact on romantic couples remains poorly understood. Drawing on boundary theory and family systems theory, we propose that WFH can render certain couples vulnerable to separation and trace the process through which this occurs. Specifically, when romantic partners hold incongruent preferences for segmenting work and home, or when both have a high preference for segmentation, WFH employees might experience heightened work-to-home conflict. This conflict drains resources needed for intimacy, fostering mutual loneliness and, ultimately, relationship dissolution deliberations. Across two longitudinal studies of dual-earner couples in Germany (n = 170, n = 1561), we found nuanced support for this model. Dyadic response surface analyses showed that incongruent segmentation preferences affected the work-to-home conflict of employees in divergent ways—exacerbating it for some, mitigating it for others. As expected, a joint preference for segmentation was consistently associated with heightened work-to-home conflict in WFH employees. Work-to-home conflict was linked to loneliness in both partners, which explained dissolution deliberations. Overall, our research highlights that WFH is a work arrangement that has couple-level consequences—beneficial for some, but a risk factor for others.
Date Issued
2026-07-01
Date Acceptance
2026-05-11
Citation
Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2026, 47 (6), pp.1005-1025
ISSN
0894-3796
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
1005
End Page
1025
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Organizational Behavior
Volume
47
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2026 The Author(s). Journal of Organizational Behavior published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
10.1002/job.70095
Subjects
dyadic response surface analysis
family systems
loneliness
remote work
work-to-home conflict
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2026-06-09