The Issue of Work-Life Balance in Bulgaria

1. The Issue of Work-Life Balance in Bulgaria Siyka Kovacheva University of Plovdiv Bulgaria

2. During communism • The issues of integrating work and family life were largely absent from public discourse. • The official ideology stressed woman’s triple role in society: productive worker, selfless wife and mother, and devoted participant in public (political) events. • Women worked full time and the decline of the birthrate since the 1960s prompted the creation of a network of public kindergartens and the introduction of paid maternity leave.

3. During the transition after 1989 • The dominant anti-state ideology proclaimed the the end of all privileges (including those for women under state family policy). • With the rising unemployment there was an increased pressure for a retreat to more traditional gender roles presented as ‘expansion of choices’. • Places in public childcare declined, child benefits lost their value and the parental leave was further prolonged.

4. Quality of Life Study in Bulgaria • Part of the comparative research project ‘Quality of life in a changing Europe’ • Paper-based survey (spring 2007) at four companies (bank, hospital, supermarket, telecom) with 789 respondents • In-depth interviews with managers and focus groups with working parents • biographical interviews with selected men and women

5. The concept of work-life balance • Social construct of the combination of individual’s multiple roles in different life domains. • Not only individual perception of being able to manage one’s roles in a self-fulfilling way 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.

6. Indicators of work-family balance • Stress from work and family life • Work-family interference • Work-family enrichment • Satisfaction with work-family balance

8. The institutional context • Long working hours for both men and women - 40.5 average number of working hours per week • Low flexibility of work (2.5% working part-time and 6.4% working from home) • 410 days paid parental leave (at 90% of the earnings) plus 1 year parental leave paid at a fixed sum plus one year unpaid leave • Parents can take up to 60 days for paid leave to care for a six child. • Difficulties finding a place in public kindergartens and especially crèches.

9. The organizational context • Companies did not provide work-family policies in addition to the statutory measures. • Employees tended to reduce the use of family policy to express loyalty to the company • Cost-efficiency as dominant concern in organisational cultures, informal social capital as most important for working parents. • OLS regression showed a strong negative impact of job insecurity and working overtime at a short notice and a positive impact of team work and work autonomy.

10. The family context • Satisfaction with household income, health of family members, availability of childcare and understanding partner contributed to WFB. • Having an unemployed partner at home had a negative impact on WLB. The number of children did not make a difference. • Both partners working full time with men expected to invest more in career and women more in unpaid care at home. • The practice of high support with childcare from the extended family.

11. Individual strategies

12. Policy implications • Holistic integrated approach of the policy in support of work-life balance and quality of life • Flexible measures fitting diverse individual and family situations • Greater involvement of trade unions and parental organizations in the development of these policies • Programmes encouraging real social equality (many measures reproduce traditional gender inequalities) • Concerted efforts to influence societal, organizational and individual values to acknowledge the interdependency between quality of work and quality of family life.