Exploring the relationship between bodily pain and work-life balance among manual/non-managerial construction workers

A qualitative investigation of the relationship between the experience of bodily pain and work-life balance was conducted in a sample of manual/non-managerial workers in the Australian construction industry. Participants were purposefully selected for the study on the basis that they reported experiencing ongoing bodily pain. Thematic analysis of the interview data revealed that participants perceive their pain to have substantial impacts on their ability to participate successfully in family life and in social and leisure activities, indicating that the experience of bodily pain has a negative impact on the work-life balance of these manual/non-managerial construction workers. Participants regularly seek remedial treatment outside of work and adapt their activities in order to cope with their pain. Results suggest that for workers in physically demanding jobs, work-life conflict may extend beyond a time-, strain- and behaviour-based model and include a physical capacity component. The research also proposes a new form of time-based work-life conflict which occurs through an indirect pathway through which pain negatively impacts time available for non-work activities. These findings suggest that organisational work-life balance initiatives should also consider the physicality of work, which can contribute, through musculoskeletal pain, to work-life conflict.