The Work Passion Paradox: Understanding Employee Well-being in Hybrid Work Environments
- 11 December 2025
- Organisational Development
- Academy for Organisational Change
The Work Passion Paradox: Understanding Employee Well-being in Hybrid Work Environments
As organizations worldwide navigate the post-pandemic landscape of flexible work arrangements, new psychological dynamics are emerging that demand our attention. Research from North-West University examining 445 South African employees across traditional, semi-remote, and remote work settings reveals complex relationships between job insecurity, work passion, and work-life balance.
Two Faces of Work Passion
The study distinguishes between two fundamentally different types of work passion that manifest in today's diverse work arrangements:
Harmonious Passion occurs when work is integrated healthily into one's identity—employees choose to engage with work because they find it meaningful, but it doesn't dominate their sense of self.
Obsessive Passion develops when employees feel an uncontrollable urge to work, often driven by external pressures like job insecurity or the need to prove their value, particularly in remote settings where visibility is reduced.
The Flexibility Paradox
The research reveals surprising findings: harmonious work passion generally enhances work flexibility but actually decreases family flexibility-willingness. This suggests that employees who genuinely enjoy their work may be less willing to adjust their family commitments—they've already achieved a balance they're satisfied with.
Conversely, obsessive work passion decreases work flexibility-willingness while enhancing family flexibility. This counterintuitive finding suggests that employees driven by compulsive work patterns may paradoxically be more willing to rearrange family commitments to accommodate work demands.
The Job Insecurity Factor
Job insecurity emerged as a significant threat to work-life balance, reducing both work flexibility-ability and family flexibility-willingness. In an era of economic uncertainty, this finding highlights how perceived job threats can ripple through both professional and personal domains, constraining employees' ability to navigate competing demands effectively.
Implications for Organizational Development
These insights present critical considerations for OD practitioners and HR leaders:
- Cultivate Harmonious Over Obsessive Passion: Organizations need to foster environments where engagement comes from intrinsic motivation rather than fear or compulsion. This requires shifting from surveillance-based remote management to outcome-focused performance systems.
- Address Job Security Concerns: The psychological impact of job insecurity extends far beyond workplace productivity. Organizations must recognize that providing stability—or at least transparency about organizational changes—is essential for employee well-being.
- Recognize Work Arrangement Nuances: The effects of work passion and job insecurity vary across traditional, semi-remote, and remote arrangements. One-size-fits-all policies may miss important psychological dynamics specific to each work mode.
- Develop "Switching Off" Competencies: In hybrid and remote settings, the ability to establish boundaries becomes a critical skill. Organizations should actively support employees in developing these competencies through training, policy, and cultural reinforcement.
Moving Forward: A Balanced Approach
The pandemic accelerated a workplace transformation that continues to evolve. As we adapt to these new realities, understanding the psychological underpinnings of employee experience becomes increasingly vital.
Organizations that successfully navigate this landscape will be those that recognize work passion as a double-edged sword—powerful when harmonious, potentially destructive when obsessive. The challenge lies in creating structures and cultures that nurture the former while preventing the latter.
The ability to maintain well-being across diverse work arrangements isn't just about flexibility policies or technology tools—it's about understanding and addressing the fundamental psychological needs of employees navigating an increasingly complex work-life interface.
Source: Ribas, C., et al. (2025). Job insecurity, work passion, and work–life balance in diverse work arrangements. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology. (https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/2266)
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