Abstract

Learning at work is usually seen as beneficial for the professional and personal lives of workers. In this article, we propose that learning's relationship to worker well-being may be more complicated. We posit that learning can become a burden (instead of always being a benefit) in occupations that are learning intensive and tightly associated with the postindustrial economy. Results of analyses using data from the General Social Survey suggest that learning lessens work-family conflict by increasing job satisfaction, but at the same time, learning makes work-family conflict worse by leading people to work longer hours and exacerbating work-related stress.