“This Job has Changed Me”: Work Life Conflict, Self and Social Identity in Correctional Work

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/07340168221121314
• Author: Laura McKendy,Rosemary Ricciardelli
• Date: 01 December 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

“This Job has Changed Me”:

Work Life Conf‌lict, Self and

Social Identity in Correctional

Work

Laura McKendy

1

and Rosemary Ricciardelli

1

Abstract

Growing research demonstrates the toll of correctional work on the mental health and well-being

of staff. Within this body of work, researchers note that work life conf‌lict is a signif‌icant stressor

faced by correctional workers, though minimal research has examined this topic qualitatively.

Drawing on open-ended survey responses from a study on provincial and territorial correctional

worker well-being in Canada, we consider how different types of work life conf‌lict, including

time, strain and behavior based conf‌licts, impact sense of self and social identities among workers.

More specif‌ically, we examine how work life conf‌licts give way to: changes in self tied to negative

impacts on personality, disposition, and attitudes; loss of self due to lack of time and emotional

energy to enact non-work roles and identities; and loss of social identities as a result of both exter-

nally and self-imposed forms of social isolation. Findings highlight how work life conf‌lict can have

cumulative effects resulting in estrangement with respect to one’s self, others, and society more

generally.

Keywords

correctional work, work life conf‌lict, social identity, occupational stress, correctional worker

well-being

Introduction

Correctional work environments are often emotionally and physically demanding, with staff facing

exposure to different types of operational and organizational stressors (Denhof et al., 2014). A

growing body of literature examining correctional worker well-being demonstrates that work envi-

ronments can have negative effects on staff mental health and quality of life (Brower, 2013; Ferdik &

Smith, 2017; Viotti, 2016). A subset of research on correctional worker well-being has examined

how work negatively spills into private lives; i.e., the problem of “work life conf‌lict,”or the

1

Fisheries and Marine Institute, Memorial University of Newfound, St. John’s, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Rosemary Ricciardelli, School of Maritime Studies, Fisheries and Marine Institute at Memorial University of Newfound,

St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.

Email: rose.ricciardelli@mi.mun.ca

Article

Criminal Justice Review

2023, Vol. 48(4) 458-473

© 2022 Georgia State University

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/07340168221121314

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incongruence and tensions between home and work roles (Triplett et al., 1999). Such research high-

lights how the personal lives and relationships of correctional workers can be adversely shaped by the

features of correctional work due to different types of time, strain, and behavior-based conf‌lict

(Lambert et al., 2020; Triplett et al., 1999).

The topic of work life conf‌lict has been explored in terms of occupational causes (e.g., Kinman

et al., 2017), socio-demographic correlates (e.g., Triplett et al., 1999) and individual and organiza-

tional outcomes associated with work life conf‌lict (e.g., Armstrong et al., 2015; Vickovic &

Morrow, 2020). Given the extent to which correctional work impacts personal lives –through

forms of time, strain and behavior-based conf‌lict –surprisingly little research has examined subjective

experiences of work life conf‌lict. In the current study, we draw on qualitative survey data from

provincial/territorial correctional workers in Canada, collected prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, to

unpack how different types of work life conf‌lict impact workers’sense of selves and social identities.

The Work and Private Lives of Correctional Workers

Work Life Conf‌lict in Correctional Work

Mounting research on correctional worker well-being overwhelmingly and consistently points to the

f‌inding that the features of correctional work can have detrimental impacts on the mental health, well-

being, and relationships of staff (Brower, 2013; Ferdik & Smith, 2017; Viotti, 2016). The spillover of

work into private lives is captured by the concept of work life conf‌lict, referring to the process

whereby the domains of work and private life collide or are incongruent (Triplett et al., 1999).

While conf‌lict can emerge in both directions (Frone et al., 1996), studies involving correctional

staff typically emphasize work life conf‌lict in terms of the spillover of work into personal lives

(e.g., Lambert et al., 2004).

The incongruence between work and home lives takes different forms. Studies of work life con-

f‌lict among correctional workers highlight three main types, namely time, strain, and behavior-based

conf‌lict (Lambert et al., 2020; Triplett et al., 1999). Time-based conf‌lict speaks to competing

demands all emerging at one time, with time spent performing one role taking away from time

spent carrying out other roles. Time-based conf‌lict can be an issue in work f‌ields, such as correctional

services, marked by schedules and patterns that ref‌lect the need for ongoing and constant staff‌ing,

including shift work and overtime (Lambert et al., 2004, 2010a). Numerous studies have emphasized

that time-based conf‌lict is a key concern for correctional workers (e.g., Lambert et al., 2004). Long

hours and work schedules may, for example, lead to a lack of time to fulf‌ill family responsibilities,

including an inability to attend family events and celebrations (Akoensi, 2018). In this sense, time

conf‌licts may result in workers missing out on events as well as the processes of relational develop-

ment and maintenance.

Strain-based conf‌lict emerges “when the demands and tensions from work negatively impact the

quality of a worker’s home life”(Lambert et al., 2006, p. 372). Those working in stressful atmo-

spheres may experience adverse impacts on mood and energy, which in turn can be brought home

and precipitate family conf‌lict (Lambert et al., 2002). For example, following exposure to stressful

work situations, workers may come home “on edge, tense, irritable, or even in shock”(Lambert

et al., 2010a, p. 42). In this sense, the emotional reactions triggered by work events are not left at

the door, and negative disruptions to mood and disposition can in turn negatively affect personal rela-

tionships (Lambert et al., 2015b). Beyond critical incidents, everyday interactions in prison occur in a

highly emotional space (Crawley, 2004, 2011). The routine aspects of correctional work can involve

a high degree of emotional labor; i.e., work to manage one’s emotional performance in line with

occupational emotion “rules,”as well as to manage the emotions of prisoners/clients (Crawley,

McKendy and Ricciardelli 459