Progressive or Pressuring? The Signaling Effects of Egg Freezing Coverage and Other Work–Life Policies

Flynn, E and Leslie, L M (2023) Progressive or Pressuring? The Signaling Effects of Egg Freezing Coverage and Other Work–Life Policies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 108 (1). pp. 1-26. ISSN 0021-9010

Abstract

In recent years, organizations have expanded the number and types of work–life policies they offer in an attempt to attract and retain talent. We challenge the assumption that work–life policies uniformly signal personal-life support and elicit favorable employee attitudes by investigating a relatively new work–life policy: egg freezing coverage. We theorize that, relative to other work–life policies, egg freezing coverage is more likely to send signals that evoke negative employee attitudes; although framed as intended to support employees’ personal lives, employees interpret egg freezing as signaling that personal-life sacrifice and work prioritization are encouraged, which in turn decrease policy support and organizational attraction. We test these ideas in six studies, including an archival study, a qualitative survey study, a scale development study, two quantitative survey studies, and an experiment. We find egg freezing coverage evokes more negative attitudes than a range of other work–life policies (in vitro fertilization [IVF], on-site childcare, paid parental leave, flextime) as well as no policy at all. More negative reactions to egg freezing than to other policies are driven by perceptions that the policy sends a stronger signal that personal-life sacrifice is encouraged, as well as perceptions that it offers fewer benefits to employees and is more costly to organizations. In all, this work expands understanding of the signaling effects of work–life policies and demonstrates that reactions to a range of work–life policies are both more variable and driven by a larger number of underlying factors than prior theory can account for.