Work-family interface and job outcomes among professional translators and interpreters. Do COVID-19 and parenting alter the relationship?

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mutual relationship between work and family among translators and how that affects their job satisfaction and performance. More specifically, the study centres around the notions of work-family conflict (Greenhaus, and Beutell 1985) and work-family facilitation (Frone 2003) and analyses what effect they have on translators’ job satisfaction and performance. The study also tests the influence of the changes imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the parenting role. Following Choi and Kim (2012), a survey was conducted among a group of professional translators which contained questions on all variables under study: work-family conflict, family-work conflict, work-family facilitation, family-work facilitation, job satisfaction and job performance. The results reveal the influence of the work-family interface on job outcomes. The findings of the study have implications for professional translators and the clients they work for.