Featured Post from Baylor University

Baylor Expert: Finding Work-Life Balance with Remote Work

One size doesn't fit all when it comes to remote/hybrid work

Nov 22, 2022

3 min

Sara Jansen Perry, Ph.D.


CaptionResizeWrap TextRemove


Before March 2020, the idea of remote work was not a realistic option for many businesses. However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed options drastically for employees almost overnight, and the remote work experiment began. Fast forward to today, and traditional work styles are no longer considered the only option and many employees are looking for the freedom to choose where they work.


Remote work is generally viewed positively, but it has its own distinct set of challenges, and businesses that help employees respond to these challenges will benefit with a more productive and healthier workforce, said remote/hybrid work expert Sara J. Perry, Ph.D., The Ben Williams Professor of Management at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business. This is especially important as remote work continues to be a popular option. According to a Gallup poll conducted in August 2022, 34% of employees prefer to work exclusively remote, 60% said they would like a hybrid model and only 6% would like to return to a traditional full-time on-site model.


Two keys to success for remote work: flexibility and intentionality


Perry has researched the issues around changes to the workplace for over a decade. In a recent article, Interruptions in Remote Work: A Resource-based Model of Work and Family Stress, published in the Journal of Business and Psychology, Perry and her research team surveyed 391 couples to understand the difficulties in finding the balance between work and family when at least one of them works from home. The research shows the keys to success for remote work are flexibility and intentionality.


“You can't have a one-size-fits-all; it has to be a nuanced approach,” Baylor University's Sara J. Perry said.


Perry identified two risks to successful remote working:

  • Increased interruptions from family members
  • Blurring of work life with family life


Develop healthy break habits


Unexpected work interruptions make it difficult to focus on the work tasks, and the lack of boundaries between work and family can turn job duties into a non-stop endeavor for the remote employee. These interruptions can cause frustration, a lack of focus and difficulties getting back on task that can eventually put stress on family relationships.


“The simple act of establishing effective breaks during work hours can help people sustain their well-being and job satisfaction without sacrificing productivity. The negative effects of not establishing healthy break habits include increased stress for the employee and their family,” Perry said. “If you’re using your breaks wisely, the study suggests that those intentional breaks reduce the damage that interruptions.”


A good place to start for remote employees is incorporating some non-work goals into breaks throughout the workday, which can be as simple as starting or finishing a household chore. According to Perry, these activities make a difference in overall stress, engagement and productivity. Breaks focused on self care are also important to include throughout the workday.


“Meditating or taking a nap makes you feel restored because you are doing things that make you feel accomplished and give your brain a break from your actual work,” Perry said.


Employers also have an important role to play in establish a habit of intentional work breaks.


“A lot of people say, ‘I never take breaks,’ or ‘I don't take enough breaks,’” Perry said. “By offering staff the autonomy to plan their own workday that includes breaks without guilt, employers also benefit. Reducing the stress of struggling to maintain a work-life balance will also reduce burnout.”


Understanding how to overcome these and other remote work challenges requires employers and employees be “intentional about meaningful communications and connections,” Perry said.


She added that leaders who recognize the importance of work versus family time can help employees to develop strategies that allow them to grow and learn while maintaining a healthy balance between work and family.


Connect with:
Sara Jansen Perry, Ph.D.

Sara Jansen Perry, Ph.D.

Professor of Management

Nationally recognized expert on employee stress & well-being, including the role of remote/hybrid work & leadership

Industrial and Organizational PsychologyWork Life BalanceOrganizational BehaviorHuman Resource ManagementEmployee Stress and Health
Powered by

You might also like...

Check out some other posts from Baylor University

National Cancer Research Month: Baylor Researchers at Forefront of New Discoveries featured image

2 min

National Cancer Research Month: Baylor Researchers at Forefront of New Discoveries

May is National Cancer Research Month, which highlights the importance of lifesaving research to the millions of people around the world affected by cancer. Thanks to spectacular advances made by cancer researchers, approximately 18.6 million people in the United States and millions more worldwide are living with, through and beyond their disease. Over the past year, Baylor University Media and Public Relations has reported on Baylor research at the forefront of discovering novel approaches to effective cancer therapies. University researchers are using tumor starvation techniques, natural products, phages, modified bacteria, precision nutrition and more in their trailblazing work on some of the most aggressive cancers, including kidney, pancreatic, oral, colorectal and breast cancers. In a recent article published by the University, it featured the hard work and research of eight Baylor experts driving those discoveries forward: • Kevin G. Pinney is developing a next-generation treatment for kidney cancer that targets the blood vessels feeding tumors. His research focuses on specialized drug conjugates designed to cut off oxygen and nutrients to renal cell carcinoma tumors — essentially starving cancer cells to death. • Daniel Romo is accelerating new therapies for pancreatic cancer using compounds derived from marine natural products. His work on a simplified version of pateamine A could offer a new therapeutic pathway for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat cancers. • Joseph Taube is investigating how breast cancers spread and resist treatment. His recent work examines whether a natural compound called Ophiobolin A can trigger inflammatory forms of cancer cell death that may work alongside immunotherapy — particularly in treatment-resistant triple-negative breast cancers. • Leigh Greathouse is combining cancer biology, nutrition science, and AI to personalize cancer prevention and treatment strategies. Her research explores how diet and the gut microbiome influence cancer outcomes and survivorship. • Michael S. VanNieuwenhze is leading groundbreaking colorectal cancer research using modified bacteria to deliver cancer-killing proteins directly into tumor cells. His team is engineering Listeria monocytogenes as a targeted therapeutic delivery system. • Aaron Wright is helping lead a major ARPA-H initiative exploring the use of bacteriophages — viruses that attack bacteria — to reshape the human microbiome and improve health. The project could eventually help prevent diseases linked to oral and colorectal cancers through low-cost phage-based treatments. • Savannah Rauschendorfer is researching how exercise interventions may reduce the harmful cardiac side effects of chemotherapy in adolescent and young adult cancer patients. Her work aims to identify patients at risk of cardiotoxicity earlier and improve long-term survivorship outcomes. • Jonathan Kelber studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind aggressive breast and pancreatic cancers. Through his Developmental Oncogene Laboratory, Kelber investigates how cancer cells evolve during tumor progression and tissue regeneration. Together, these researchers showcase how cancer science is rapidly evolving beyond traditional treatments – integrating biology, chemistry, nutrition, exercise science, microbiome research, and artificial intelligence in the search for more effective and personalized therapies.

Expert Perspective: Race and Representation Take Center Stage in Texas’ Democratic U.S. Senate Primary featured image

1 min

Expert Perspective: Race and Representation Take Center Stage in Texas’ Democratic U.S. Senate Primary

As Texas Democrats head toward a competitive 2026 U.S. Senate primary, conversations about race and representation are playing a visible role in the campaign. In a recent Spectrum News segment, Baylor University political analyst Dr. Mia Moody discusses how racial identity, voter perceptions, and candidate messaging are influencing the dynamics of the race. Mia Moody, Ph.D., is a professor and former chair of the Department of Journalism, Public Relations, and New Media in the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences. She is a nationally recognized expert on mass media and image repair, intersectionality, critical race theory, and the media framing of women and people of color. View her profile The story explores how candidates are navigating issues of representation within a diverse Democratic electorate, and how those discussions could impact turnout and coalition-building ahead of the primary. Watch the full report for expert insight into how race is shaping one of Texas’ most closely watched political contests. The full story is available below:

Tales of Christmas Past: Preserving Your Family History During the Holidays featured image

5 min

Tales of Christmas Past: Preserving Your Family History During the Holidays

During past family Christmas gatherings, many of us remember when older relatives regaled everyone with tales about their fascinating life stories, firsthand experiences as an eyewitness to history or simply sharing how favorite family traditions started. So how do you preserve those precious family memories during the holidays? Baylor University oral historians Stephen Sloan and Adrienne Cain Darough have recorded and preserved the oral history memoirs of thousands of individuals through their work with Baylor’s renowned Institute for Oral History, home of the national Oral History Association. Together, the historians share seven simple best practices to help family members begin oral history conversations that enrich recollections of the past and capture your family memories. “The holiday season brings about the opportunity to spend time with family members, especially those you may not be able to see on a frequent basis,” Cain Darough said. “This presents the perfect opportunity to conduct oral histories to capture the stories and experiences of your family and loved ones, to learn more about them, the history of your family, traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation and more.” Seven best practices for preserving your family’s oral history 1. Ask first! Make sure your family member wants their story to be documented or recorded. That is the first – and most important – question to ask, said Adrienne Cain Darough, M.L.S., assistant director and senior lecturer with the Institute for Oral History. Ask first. “Many oral historians have run into the spot where someone says, ‘Oh, my grandpa would be great for that topic,’ and you get there and it's, ‘Grandpa does not want to talk to you.’ So first, make sure they want their story recorded,” she said. 2. Determine the type of recording equipment you want to use. Decide if you want to record your interview with an audio recorder or use a video recording device. It all depends on your needs and comfort level with the technology. For family members who are unable to travel this holiday season, you can include them by capturing their stories using a remote recording platform like Zoom, which became a vital tool for oral historians when COVID struck in 2020. Helpful resources from Baylor’s Institute for Oral History include: How to choose the right digital recorder Oral History at a Distance webinar on the dynamics of conducting remote oral history interviews Remote Interviewing Resources guide (Oral History Association) 3. Research your family member’s life and their timeline to help you formulate your questions. Recording a family member’s oral history is more than just putting down a recorder in front of them and saying, “Talk.” If you’re recording an oral history over Christmas with a family member, are there specific things that you want to know that are related to the holiday? For example, what was Christmas morning like for them as a child? How did your favorite family traditions start? What is their favorite holiday dish? (Maybe they could even share the recipe. “You can finally learn why Nana’s banana pudding doesn’t even have bananas in it,” Cain Darough said.) “Doing your research to try to form those questions will help you get around the reluctance to talk sometimes,” Cain Darough added. “The favorite thing that I love to hear is, ‘Oh, I don't have much to say,’ or ‘I'm not that important.’ And then you sit down with them, and you listen to their stories, and your mind is just blown by the things that they've seen and experienced.” 4. Start with the basics: “Where are you from?” When Baylor oral historians conduct an interview, they generally begin with some life history of the subject, providing important context for historians. “Ask questions early on that are easy for them to answer: a little bit of the backstory, a little bit of where they're from, where they grew up,” said Stephen Sloan, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Oral History, executive director of Oral History Association and professor of history at Baylor. “I want to understand the lens through which they experienced events, and the only way I can do that is, who was this? What was formative in their life growing up? Who spoke into who they were? What did they learn? Where did they go? What did they do? Those are the sorts of things that I would be exploring early in the interview.” One of the questions Cain Darough enjoys asking is, “What did you want to be when you grew up?” “You want to give them something that's very easy and comfortable to talk about,” Cain Darough said. “What was your favorite subject in school, just to see if that was something that continued on in their life. If there's a certain hobby or something that you know that they're affiliated with, when did you learn about that? Tell me more. What's your interest with this? And then they'll get to talking.” 5. Ask open-ended questions – without making any assumptions. With oral history, it is important that you don’t go into the interview with a specific agenda or try to lead anyone to a certain conclusion. “We can do this very subtly by assuming information, but you can't assume anything about their experience with the topic,’” Sloan said. “If we assume information, it could be very far from how they encountered whatever event that may have been. Allow them to relate the ways in which they lived these experiences.” 6. Listen closely. Listening is an important facet of gathering oral history. But historians say you are not only listening for what they're saying, you're also listening for what they're not saying. “Are there things that are being skipped around?” Cain Darough said. “For example, sometimes when you're talking to veterans about their combat experience, it may be the first time that they're reliving or retelling these stories. They need time, and you just have to be prepared for that.” 7. Be patient. It might take your subject some time to warm up to the conversation. “If you're talking to someone who is 80, 90 or even 100, that's a lot of memories that they have to go through, so patience is important,” Cain Darough said. Looking to know more or arrange an interview? Simply click on Stephen's icon or contact: Shelby Cefaratti-Bertin today to connect with  Adrienne Cain Darough.

View all posts
Powered by