An Overwhelming Climb

Abstract

This paper examines the complex experiences of full-time employed adults trying to climb the career ladder in their company by making use of company tuition assistance to earn their first college degree. Guided by Savickas’ (2005) career construction theory, emphasizing the personal agency and meaning-making within career development, we conducted phenomenological interviews with a purposive sample of eight men and women from six different companies using company tuition assistance while working full-time. Participants held complex feelings toward dual roles of work and school including feeling overwhelmed and delayed in their progress as well as experiencing positive synergy between school and work roles. Workplace features such as flexible scheduling and having an encouraging supervisor facilitated progress. Implications for understanding and supporting the career development of full-time employed adults are discussed.

Keywords

career barriers career constructive approach/post modern approaches adults employees career aspirations/goals/choices qualitative methods work-school conflict

Extensive research has documented the benefits of persisting in postsecondary education to earn a college degree. Individuals with a 2-year college degree will earn almost twice as much as those with a high school diploma, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income (Bailey, Jenkins, & Leinbach, 2005). Many more jobs now require higher education than they did in the past (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005), linking college degrees to a wider range of career prospects (Day & Newburger, 2002). Unfortunately, obtaining a college degree is increasingly difficult, given growing economic pressures and college costs. Many individuals from lower income backgrounds want a career that requires college, yet do not expect to attain this goal (Pisarik & Shoffner, 2009). Thus, a college degree can open financial doors, and yet, financial constraints often limit adults from having the window of time and money to attend (Packard & Babineau, 2009).

For many adults, maintaining full-time work is the only way to make the pursuit of college feasible. As reported by the U.S. Department of Education (2003), working adults comprise approximately one third of the U.S. undergraduate population and about 1 in 10 people work full-time while going to school. When students work too much, their academic performance tends to suffer (Butler, 2007). Reducing hours on the job may not be possible for adults who need full-time work to satisfy financial responsibilities.

In this paper, we highlight and examine the experiences of adults who are able to enroll in college because they work full-time for a company that provides tuition assistance benefits. According to the U.S. Department of Education (1999), over 90% of U.S. businesses have a company-sponsored tuition assistance program. Though the specifics are unique to each organization, typically only full-time employees are eligible and reimbursement is contingent on earning a grade of C or better in coursework (Eduventures, 2003). If workplaces do not facilitate employee achievement in school, they reduce the return of their investment. Yet at the same time, workplaces need to meet productivity goals. Understanding how adults manage to pursue higher education while working full-time with the financial support of their company is important. Their experiences can provide insight into coping behaviors used by individuals who perceive the need to work full-time while going to school and for whom the income and a company’s sponsorship may be necessary for their access to college and career growth.

Conceptual Framework

Career Construction Theory

This research was guided by Savickas' (2005) career construction theory, which was developed to explain the process through which individuals impose meaning and direction on their vocational behavior. Savickas explained “careers do not unfold; they are constructed as individuals make choices that express their self-concepts and substantiate their goals in the social reality of work roles” (p. 43). Career construction theory is comprised of three central components: vocational personality, life themes, and career adaptability. Vocational personality encompasses an individual’s career-related abilities, needs, values, and interests, such that individuals strive to find a good fit between their own personal interests and strengths and possible careers. Life themes give purpose and meaning to work and guide the expression of vocational personality and help people to adapt their challenges into meaningful contributions for society. For example, a person who grows up facing many financial barriers may later decide to become a career counselor assisting lower income youth.

Finally, career adaptability helps individuals to manage challenges presented by changing work and working conditions through problem-solving or coping behaviors (Savickas, 2005; Super & Knasel, 1981). How people use coping behaviors as they develop careers is especially important as these actions influence the direction of their career. Individuals often “encounter barriers that force them to regress, drift, flounder, stagnate, or stop” as they attempt to construct their careers (p. 50). As a result, individuals continually assess the feasibility of future goals in the face of challenges and barriers tied to the broader ecology of their lives. We were especially interested in how individuals who were working full-time while going to college with company tuition support used coping behaviors in the face of barriers, such as those that arise from managing multiple roles.

Coping With Multiple Roles

Within this project, the dual roles of working full-time and going to college are considered to be roles that inform one another and also present possible conflict. Career development continues across the life span; adults consider and reconsider their careers, including their work role and the work roles to which they aspire (Super, 1953). When adults are in college, while working full-time, they may find themselves facing time-based inter-role conflicts, when the obligations in one role make it physically impossible to meet the obligations in another role or when the pressures from one role cause them to feel preoccupied while they are physically present in another role (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). One’s perception of having limited time will often change, as will one’s perceived feasibility of obtaining a college degree, depending on features of one’s life as a whole. For example, one’s particular work role or family life may influence the experience of inter-role conflict.

The more hours students work, the more likely they will experience inter-role conflicts, such as work–school conflict (Butler, 2007). As work–school conflict increases, the less prepared students tend to be for their academic roles, resulting in a decrease in academic performance (Markel & Frone, 1998). As a result, over time, working many hours is negatively associated with degree completion (e.g., Taniguchi & Kaufman, 2005). Therefore, learning how working adults combine their multiple roles successfully despite the propensity for conflict is important for understanding their educational progress.

Little is understood about how working adults manage conflict as they attempt to maintain full-time positions at a company that is sponsoring their education. In fact, much of the literature on work–school conflict has been conducted on high school students and full-time college students who work part-time (e.g., Warren, 2002), where reduced hours at work or reduced time on academics (Blaxter & Tight, 1994) are used as coping behaviors for managing work–school conflicts. However, in situations where a company is paying for school, reducing time spent on academics is a risky strategy since employees need to obtain a minimum grade to qualify for reimbursement, and reducing hours is not possible when full-time status is required to remain eligible for tuition assistance. Thus, adults utilizing a company-sponsored tuition assistance program are in a complex situation where they must combine work and school in a way that will not jeopardize the quality of their school efforts nor the quantity of time on the job.

Current Study

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe the experiences of eight working adults from six different organizations that provide company-sponsored tuition assistance for postsecondary study. Overall, this research contributes to the emerging knowledge of work–school conflict of working adult undergraduates as it examines this question: How do adults experience and manage the demands associated with combining full-time work and school when relying on a company’s tuition assistance program?

Method

Participants

Eight adults working full-time while pursuing their first college degree participated in this phenomenological study. The sample consisted of five White females, one Filipina woman, one Black male, and one White male. Participants' ages ranged from 22 to 54 years in age, with a mean age of 34 years. Three participants were married; two were living with a partner, while three were single. Two had children and one was expecting her first child (see Table 1).

Table 1.

Demographic Information

Name	Sex	Age	Race	Company Type	Marital Status	Children	Degree Pursued
Alice	F	29	White	Aerospace	Single	0	B.A. Business
Betty	F	33	White	Nonprofit financial	Married	0	B.A. Business
Cristina	F	34	Filipina	Nonprofit financial	Living with partner	0*	A.S. Business
Donna	F	28	White	Nonprofit financial	Married	0	A.S. Business
Edgar	M	32	Black	Financial group	Living with partner	1*	A.S. Computers
Faith	F	22	White	Manufacturing	Single	0	B.A. Accounting
Gary	M	37	White	Manufacturing	Single	0	B.S. Business
Helen	F	54	White	Retail food company	Married	4	A.S. Marketing

Note. Asterisk indicates participant was expecting a child.

To recruit participants, a list of companies was generated for the New England region of the United States using area business directories. Recruiting financial institutions, manufacturing, and engineering industries was a priority as these industries were cited as more likely to offer company-sponsored tuition programs to employees (U.S. Department of Education, 1999). Each organization’s president received a letter explaining the study’s purpose, after which an on-site meeting was arranged with human resource personnel to gain insight into each company’s tuition program and to ask for permission to circulate flyers to recruit participants. Human resource personnel encouraged us to interview additional employees who were going to college so the company could learn more about how their employees were experiencing the combination of work and school; this was helpful to us in our need to protect the confidentiality of our participants because in some cases, only one employee was working full-time and using the tuition program at that particular time.

In total, we interviewed individuals at 14 companies, with 27 adults who were working and going to college. Of these adults who were combining work and school, only 13 were working full-time while going to school, with the remaining 14 working part-time. Of the 13 full-time employees, only 9 were pursuing their first undergraduate degree, and of these, 8 were using the company-sponsored tuition program. Since we were seeking to understand the ways in which full-time employees, who were using a company-sponsored tuition program, experienced and managed the demands associated with combining full-time work (working 37.5 hr or more) and college going in their pursuit of their first college degree, only the experiences of the eight participants, drawn from 6 companies, fitting these criteria, were analyzed.

Data Collection

All interviews were conducted over the telephone, and conversations ranged in length from 45 to 90 min. Researchers transcribed the interviews as they were being conducted. All interviews began with a general question asking participants to describe how they combined and managed the demands of work with college. Consistent with Savickas' (2005) career construction theory, which emphasizes the analysis of personal life themes, and phenomenology, which focuses on how individuals interpret their experiences (Moustakas, 1994), the interviews were semistructured. Each person was encouraged to tell his or her story of engaging in full-time work and college while using company tuition assistance (Gilgun, 2005).

Data Analysis

In a hermeneutical phenomenological study, researchers temporarily suspend prior knowledge of a topic by bracketing presuppositions (Morrow, 2005; Moustakas, 1994). By suspending prior knowledge, researchers can create a catalyst for their curiosity, and in turn, a new perception of the phenomenon may occur (LeVasseur, 2003). Since hermeneutical phenomenology is located in a constructivist–interpretivist paradigm, it is not only a description of an experience but also an interpretative process (Ponterotto, 2005). Therefore, it is important that researchers disclose prior knowledge so that readers may understand how prior assumptions may influence the approach and presentation of the study (Creswell, 2007). We had reviewed the literature about company-sponsored tuition assistance programs. In addition, one author had experience working full-time while attending school. Although she did not use company tuition assistance, she did work with individuals who had utilized such policies. The second author had combined work and school and had years of experience working with and learning from low-income individuals as they developed their careers while combining work and school. Following Moustakas' (1994) recommendations, prior to data collection and analysis, we acknowledged this previous exposure to the topic in an effort to bracket our knowledge and to encourage our study of the topic with a focus on the experiences of the participants in the study.

To further increase the trustworthiness of the results, we sought informant feedback. This informant feedback occurred both during the interview, when the interviewer summarized participants' experiences and coping behaviors, and after a report was generated and shared with participants to ensure that the researchers accurately understood their experiences. According to Lincoln and Guba (1985), member checking is “the most critical technique for establishing credibility” (p. 314). Similarly, Ponterotto (2005) asserted that findings are jointly created by researchers and participants. Therefore, participant feedback was incorporated to ensure that an accurate interpretation and presentation of the findings occurred.

Analyses of transcribed interviews were conducted using the procedures of phenomenological analysis as described by Moustakas (1994). First, the interviews were read in their entirety multiple times by two researchers to get an overall sense of participants' experiences of combining work and school. According to Morrow (2005), immersion in the interviews can lead the researchers to a deeper understanding of the data. Close attention was paid to statements that were repeated and to the choice of language used by participants to describe their experiences. After relevant statements were identified, they were abstracted and labeled. Once the data were reduced, participants' statements were examined and clustered into overarching themes.

After this process was completed individually, the researchers discussed how each person developed the themes to ensure that there was mutual agreement. Any differences were resolved through a discussion of viewpoints. For example, the first researcher identified and abstracted a theme labeled Day Students, referring to experiences where adult learners compared their learning to traditional aged, full-time day students. However, the second researcher argued that it was equally as compelling that participants described themselves as “older” and “more mature.”

The discussion that followed resulted in a mutually agreeable theme labeled Nontraditional Experience. Finally, the themes derived from each protocol were compared across interviews. Thematic similarities were organized into 4 essential or overarching themes and 14 subthemes.

Results

Four overarching themes emerged from the data, elucidating the ways in which participants experienced tuition reimbursement programs and the ways in which they coped with challenges they faced while combining work and school roles. Representing experiences from all eight participants, these four themes were (a) Participants held complex feelings toward dual roles of work and school and toward the tuition program, (b) Participants utilized career adaptable coping behaviors that delayed school progress, (c) Workplace features including policies and supervisors influenced the nature of participants' conflicts and supports, and (d) Participants expressed nontraditional, yet integrative student experiences. In addition, within each theme, subthemes are described (see Table 2).

Table 2.

Number of Participants Experiencing Each Theme and Subtheme

Theme	Participants	Subthemes
Participants held complex feelings toward dual roles of work and school and toward the tuition program	8
	3	Company opened door for higher education
	5	Company restricted choice of major and place of study
	5	Participants' hoped-for career advancement goals
	6	Participants expressed feelings about the duality of work-school importance
	8	Participants felt overwhelmed
Participants utilized career adaptable coping behaviors that delayed school progress	8
	8	Reduced number of courses accompanied with a longer academic year
	8	Reduced effort at school
	6	Reduced leisure time and sleep
Workplace features including policies and supervisors influenced the nature of participants' conflicts and supports	8
	6	Scheduling conflicts and lack of supervisor flexibility created delays
	6	Company’s flexible scheduling and school-going culture facilitated progress
Participants expressed nontraditional, yet integrative student experiences	8
	4	Nontraditional experience
	7	Synergy between work and school roles
	3	Experienced flexibility from understanding professors
	5	Utilized personal supports for school

Theme 1: Participants Held Complex Feelings Toward Dual Roles of Work and School and Toward the Tuition Program

Although participants saw the company tuition assistance program as an opportunity to receive a low-cost education and increase their chances of advancing in their careers, combining work and school was challenging. The five subthemes, highlighting the complex nature of their feelings toward their dual work–school roles and toward the tuition program, were (a) company opened door for higher education, (b) company restricted choice of major and place of study, (c) participants' hoped-for career advancement goals, (d) participants expressed feelings about the duality of work–school importance, and (e) participants felt overwhelmed.

Company opened door for higher education

Making the choice to return to school using the company tuition assistance program, these individuals were able to make progress toward their career goals. For some, this was an important benefit of their employment. In fact, three participants shared that their company’s tuition program made college possible. As Betty said, “If they didn’t have the policy I wouldn’t have gone [back to school].”

Company restricted choice of major and place of study

Although participants expressed gratitude toward having their education paid by their employer, they also shared that their company’s tuition assistance program limited their educational choices by either limiting the choice of institutions they could attend or the particular majors that they could study. For example, one participant, Cristina, shared that she saw getting a degree in business as helpful toward her career goals, but she wished that she could have studied computer science. She explained that her reason for picking business was “honestly, [because it] was the degree my employer would pay for.” Others echoed this sentiment. Adapting their educational goals to meet the restrictions of their employers' tuition program, participants illustrated the ways in which careers are constructed within the ecology of one’s life. In an attempt to grow in their education and career goals, they made choices to adapt their majors to fit the criteria of their workplace’s tuition program. The meaning they made from this experience was expressed in their hoped-for career advancement goals.

Participants' hoped-for career advancement goals

Participants focused on opportunities to advance or as several described it, “to move up the career ladder” once school was completed. For example, Edgar shared that “if a [higher] position opened up, I would like to stay with [my current company]” and Gary shared:

It is my hope that this degree will help me escalate in the field. If I get the credentials in the field, I will be more likely to move up in my career… They have corporate executive or plant manager positions … all positions that will take more than a high school diploma.

Each participant expressed an interest in growing at their current place of employment, with the exception of one participant, and the youngest, a 22-year-old female named Faith, who shared that she viewed her education as an opportunity to advance outside the company. Despite the obstacles they faced between competing work and school responsibilities, motivated by the possibility of career advancement at their current place of employment, participants demonstrated resilience because they felt, as Alice shared, “[advancement] would be worth it.”

Participants expressed feelings about the duality of work–school importance

Noting the complexities that these participants faced, it was clear that their desire to advance and attain a higher education was inspired by the career opportunities they hoped to have one day. However, within the broader ecology of their lives, the feasibility of attaining a higher education was sometimes questionable. Since employment provided participants with a means for living and an opportunity to pursue a higher education with hoped-for career advancement, it was not surprising to learn that they had difficulty deciding which role was more important to them. In fact, only two participants stated that work took priority over school, while the remaining shared that work was equally as important to school or that they were unable to decide. Cristina shared:

They are equally as important. I know that if I don’t do well my employer won’t pay for my education. I need to do well at my job so they will pay for school and I need to do well at school so my employer continues to pay for the classes I want to take.

In addition, Alice noted that although school was important to her “to succeed in [her] life”, work was necessary “to pay the bills.”

Participants felt overwhelmed

Each and every participant described his or her experience of juggling work with school as consistently overwhelming. With competing demands, participants shared that they often considered combining these two roles to be “very stressful.” Statements of being overwhelmed were repeated in narratives when they said, “I broke down last year” and “I do feel overwhelmed, because I have a lot going on.” Oftentimes, these feelings of being overwhelmed surfaced when adult learners were asked to work overtime on the job or when classwork required extra attention, for example, during exams. Alice emphasized her feelings of being overwhelmed when she said, “I always feel overwhelmed, but I have to do it … I don’t have a choice.”

Theme 2: Participants Utilized Career Adaptable Coping Behaviors That Delayed School Progress

Participants described career adaptable coping behaviors that delayed their progress in school over time but made it possible to meet the demands of both roles. These strategies were (a) reduced number of courses accompanied with a longer academic year, (b) reduced effort at school, and (c) reduced leisure time and sleep.

Reduced number of courses accompanied with a longer academic year

One prominent coping behavior used by adult learners to manage with time constraints was to reduce the number of courses they chose to take during a given semester. They did this to make study more manageable during the workweek. Helen shared, “That’s why I only do one class per semester. If I had another class or two I would be overwhelmed.” To compensate for lost credits, if possible, those who reduced their course loads attended school year round. Gary explained:

They help [summer classes] speed up my progress toward my degree. With this set up I can take three or four classes in the spring semester, one class in the fall, and then two classes during the summer. So it’s almost like I’m going to school full-time.

In addition to reducing the number of courses they took in a semester, adult learners scheduled courses outside of work hours, such as during the evening or taking on-line courses.

Reduced effort at school

Interestingly, although most participants shared that both roles were equally important to them, when something occurred at work to disrupt the flow of their normal scheduling arrangement (i.e., overtime was needed on the job) working adults unanimously put school demands second to workplace demands, stating that they would work the overtime and school demands would simply have to take second priority. For instance, when Gary needed to work overtime at his job he explained, “I would just bite the bullet and skip class. My job takes precedence over my schoolwork. I have a responsibility to the company I work for.” Participants viewed both roles as important; however, they clearly felt pressured to meet workplace demands over school demands as the workplace held the key to their access to both domains, such that vocational identity, financial means, and school access were potentially compromised if they failed to meet workplace obligations.

Reduced leisure time and sleep

Some coped with competing demands by fitting schoolwork in throughout the work day, such as during lunch breaks, or using vacation time as a way to make more time for study. Others shared that they used vacation time during mid-terms and final exams as a way of coping with the excess schoolwork without disrupting their commitment to their job. Other strategies identified by participants included staying up late into the night and sacrificing sleep and leisure time with friends and family for study. This response, shared by most, was explained by Alice, “I have a lot on my plate, but I stay up and get it done. If it’s me not getting sleep to get my homework done then that’s what has to happen.” Participants shared that they tended to stay up late into the evening completing school assignments. Cristina explained that she did this because:

I want to do well [at school] to show them at work that I am trying very hard. But I also want to continue to do my job well at work to show them that I can handle both [work and study].

Indeed, these concerns about academic progress were warranted as each participant worked for a company that required a minimum grade point average for reimbursement through the tuition assistance program. This put working adults in a difficult position; if they failed to do well in their studies, the cost of their schooling became their financial responsibility. Due to this company stipulation of the tuition assistance program, participants expressed that they often felt that despite the stress they were under that they had no choice but to make sacrifices and keep pushing forward. To illustrate this point, Donna shared:

You basically juggle by making sacrifices. It’s kind of sad. You can’t go out. It takes time away from family; that is sad, too. But so far it has been manageable. If it would be a choice to work less it would be good, but right now, it’s not an option.

Theme 3: Workplace Features Including Policies and Supervisors Influenced the Nature of Participants' Conflicts and Supports

Participants described ways in which their particular workplace and their role within their workplace influenced the nature of their conflict and the supports they could utilize. Their experiences of workplace position-related conflicts impeded their academic progress, while their experiences of workplace supports facilitated learning. The essence of this theme was captured with two subthemes: (a) scheduling conflicts and lack of supervisor flexibility created delays and (b) company’s flexible scheduling and school-going culture facilitated progress.

Scheduling conflicts and lack of supervisor flexibility created delays

The presence of time constraints was emphasized by participants often when jobs required overtime. They felt that position-related pressures delayed educational progress. Alice shared:

For the longest time I was taking two classes because at that time three classes was too much, especially because of my [leadership] position. Even though I had school they expected the same from me [production wise] … so I had to go down to two classes so it’s taking me longer to graduate.

Limited flexibility offered by employers often led to a delay in educational progress and a frustration with regard to pinning down a graduation date. The most common complaint among participants with scheduling conflicts was that the coursework needed to complete their college degree was offered at a time they needed to be present at work and therefore created a hardship on them to finish their education. For example, Betty explained:

My semester coming up, the one class that I need [to graduate] is only offered during the day and it’s not offered at night. I know my supervisor won’t let me leave early for that one class … and it’s just not convenient and I don’t think it’s fair [the school] doesn’t have an evening class scheduled for it.

Participants shared experiences of trying to resolve this predicament with employers, but any request to alter shifts for an entire semester was denied. This resulted in one of two reactions from participants: disappointment regarding the educational delay they faced or frustration directed toward the educational institution they were attending because it lacked the resources they needed to graduate on time. It is worth noting, however, that none of the adult learners interviewed reported feelings of anger or frustration toward their respective employer.

Company’s flexible scheduling and school-going culture facilitated progress

Although scheduling conflicts created obstacles for these adults, six participants reported that their organization offered some degree of flextime or short-term scheduling flexibility that they could use on a rare occasion such as during exam periods. However, participants who used flextime in this manner were responsible for repaying the time they borrowed from a shift within the same workweek it was used or vacation time had to be utilized. Although this scheduling flexibility was considered helpful, adult learners generally described this benefit as a “one-time deal” rather than a benefit to be used on a recurrent basis.

Workplaces also provided employees with support through emotional encouragement and academic resources. This appeared to communicate a school-going culture that made them feel supported. Cristina described:

My supervisor at work really encourages me to go to school. And when I was in an accounting class if I had a question about my schoolwork, I would just go to my co-workers [in the accounting department] and get that extra support there.

Theme 4: Participants Expressed Nontraditional, Yet Integrative Student Experiences

Being in a college environment was different for these participants. They felt their experiences were nontraditional as compared to full-time day students or traditional aged students. Yet, they also described the synergy they experienced when learning both at work and at school and the support and flexibility they received from understanding professors and their personal support networks. The essence of this theme was captured with four subthemes: (a) nontraditional experience, (b) synergy between work and school roles, (c) experienced flexibility from understanding professors, and (d) utilized personal supports for school.

Nontraditional experience

Participants noticed differences that existed between themselves and traditional aged, full-time day students. When asked to describe how it felt being an adult learner in the classroom, Betty explained, “We are the adults and the rest of the class is day students. It’s weird for me because they see each other every day and here I come in and just try to fit in … I guess.” Also, they felt envious that they had to split their attention between work and school responsibilities while they perceived the younger students only had to focus on schooling. For instance, Cristina said:

I’m older too and I kind of envy the younger students. They are going to school full-time and they don’t have to juggle between the demands of work and school. They get to focus only on their schooling and I wish I could do that.

Helen also emphasized her status as a nontraditional night student and how the school catered to day students. She vented, “Well, I think there are some important classes that I’d love to take that aren’t [offered] at night or online … only during the day. They’re focusing on the day student.”

Additionally, adult learners felt it was difficult to relate to the traditional aged students in the classroom. As Gary shared:

I am the oldest person there. It is hard to relate to the other students because my time in life is different than theirs. Being older I have more responsibility and I have a lot more going on in terms of having to pay bills and my house, whereas with the younger students some of them are barely paying for their own cars … in conversations with younger people it can be awkward simply because we don’t see the world the same way.

Synergy between work and school roles

For some participants work and school worked together to facilitate their educational and career growth. For example, Donna described taking an accounting class as helping her “to see how the ledgers work at my job and understand how the [banking] system works.” Cristina added:

I think a lot of things I have learned at my job have helped me in some of the classes I’ve taken. What I learn at work I can apply to my studies and what I learn at school I can apply to my job.

Betty, who worked at a nonprofit financial institution, also shared a compelling narrative that illustrated the synergy between her academic and work roles:

Because I take a lot of real world work situations to class with me I feel like I’m bringing more to the classroom—I can contribute more … [and] when I worked in the accounting department and I was in an accounting class—[what I did at work] made more sense that way. Some people just take classes, but when you get to work with what you are learning and you get to apply it—it is pretty exciting.

Experienced flexibility from understanding professors

Support from professors played an essential part in helping adult learners cope with school demands. Gary noted that “professors are usually flexible when it comes to personal duties. They know that you are obligated to do your job more than to satisfy your personal needs, this includes school.” For others having an understanding professor felt like having an ally in the classroom, where they otherwise may have felt left out among their younger peers. For example, Betty shared that her professor emailed her to offer her a chance to make up a missed question on an exam because he knew that she worked hard at juggling full-time work and school.

Utilized personal supports for school

The role of friend and familial support in participants' lives was salient. Some participants shared that having friends peer edit papers and check schoolwork played a part in their academic success. Others shared that friends and family were key to helping them to combine both work and study in their lives. For example, Gary shared, “Family and friends are key. You can’t get by with only job support.”

Discussion

This phenomenological study described the experiences of full-time employed adults who combined work and school with the support of company tuition assistance. Specifically, we focused on the element of career adaptability from career construction theory (Savickas, 2005) as relevant to the coping behaviors that working adults adopted as they made progress toward attaining a higher education. As illustrated in this study, individuals faced with work–school conflicts sought to make meaning out their experience by focusing on the career advancement opportunities that they hoped to attain once school was complete. Consistent with career construction theory, rather than a vertical climb, participants often described their progress as delayed by challenges and barriers, such as work requirements for overtime and scheduling dilemmas. As a result, these individuals sought to use coping behaviors that could aid them in their journey toward a college degree and enhance the meaningfulness of their career.

The results of this study have some important implications for both individuals and companies. Participants shared complex feelings toward juggling work and school with the help of company tuition assistance. They felt constrained by their company’s particular restrictions such as which majors were eligible for reimbursement. Working adults may wish to consider the consequences of selecting a career based on the constraints of an educational policy. This study complements a growing body of work focused on the important role of socioeconomic status in our understanding of career development (e.g., Blustein, Phillips, Jobin-Davis, Finkelberg, & Roarke, 1997; Chaves et al., 2004; Pisarik & Shoffner, 2009). Choosing a major because a company tuition policy will finance the cost may, initially, seem appealing; however, the result of allowing such a policy to dictate career prospects may have some enduring consequences for individuals in terms of the meaning and satisfaction they garner from their future career. Companies may suffer too, especially if the return of the investment from employee education does not appear to translate into financial growth for an organization. This may be especially evident if employee turnover seems to increase among those who chose majors based on policy restrictions rather than personal interest.

We learned that participants felt overwhelmed and utilized career adaptable coping behaviors to manage with work–school conflicts, such as reducing effort in school and sacrificing sleep. Both individuals and workplaces may wish to consider the implications of utilizing coping behaviors of this nature over the long term, since sustaining these strategies may compromise the quality of education employees receive and the quality of work contributed to the organization. We also learned that certain workplace features also helped participants to manage as they navigated their way through tight time schedules and late evening homework sessions. Results from this study are consistent with Perry-Jenkins, Bourne, and Meteyer’s (2007) research that discovered that supervisory support and scheduling flexibility were associated with less role overload for new fathers. Similar to their study, our research illustrated that supervisory support and scheduling flexibility was an important feature for helping participants manage with role conflicts. These findings are important because they help us to understand the role the workplace can play beyond financial support in facilitating progress in school.

From these narratives, we also learned that in addition to the barriers working adults faced within the work setting, they also faced challenges within the school environment, such as feeling like an outsider because of their age or full-time work status. Working adults returning to school must not only adjust their lives to meet work–school demands but they must also adapt themselves to an educational system that, in their perspective, places their needs as secondary to traditional aged students. Calling on peer and family supports, along with flexibility from an understanding professor, helped working adults manage these complexities.

Despite these feelings, participants also expressed experiences of synergy between school and work roles. Similarly, Perrone, Ægisdóttir, Webb, and Blalock (2006) found that commitment to dual roles, such as family and work, was related positively to satisfaction in both roles rather than to strain or conflict. Whether termed facilitation (Butler, 2007) or enrichment (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006), it is possible for individuals to experience dual roles, such as work and school, as a synergistic experience. It is likely that most individuals experience the combination of work and school as complementary such that engaging in both roles helps them to envision their long-term career goals and make progress in constructing a path toward them. Workplaces may benefit from this finding by providing employees with opportunities to share school knowledge at work and encourage employees to seek support from colleagues when needed. Perhaps by allowing these types of interactions in the workplace, the company may benefit more directly from the employee’s shared knowledge, and the employee may feel more supported in school goals, which may help to reduce feelings of work–school conflict. Future research can probe further into this phenomenon to increase understanding the nature of synergy between roles amidst the struggles of managing them.

Limitations and Future Research

This research has some limitations. As this study examined the experiences of individuals employed at six organizations, it is unclear how workplace supports may differ within industries and whether the same factors that appeared to create obstacles or facilitate academic progress in this study would have similar effects in various workplace settings. Additionally, the sample size prohibited deep exploration of the experiences of participants with children as a separate group (Allen, 2001; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Therefore, it is unclear how individuals would manage or prioritize inter-role conflicts when additional layers of conflict are involved (i.e., meeting competing parental, workplace, and school demands). When working parents are utilizing a company’s tuition assistance program, for example, supervisors may face situations where employees are requesting leave for more than one type of reason. Possibly, supervisors may perceive a family-leave request to facilitate an employee’s personal needs, whereas a school request, for those who are utilizing workplace tuition assistance, could be viewed as facilitating organizational growth. Future research can examine both parents' and supervisors' decision-making processes when faced with these complex work–life balance issues.

Another limitation to this study is that we did not learn about the impact of utilizing the company’s tuition program after the degree was completed. For example, how did participants see themselves within the company context after they completed their college education and were they motivated to stay with the company? Longitudinal research would allow for a greater understanding of how initial choices may be revised over time (Packard & Babineau, 2009). Having this knowledge would then allow researchers to better understand participants' motivations for adapting career and educational goals to fit within their life themes over time.

Considering the limitations of this research, we recommend future research that probes further into the experiences of individuals as they take on multiple roles in the course of developing their careers. Work often plays a central role in people’s abilities to garner meaning from not only their career identities but also from their lives. As noted by Richardson (1993), the ways in which individuals from across the socioeconomic spectrum experience work within their lives can vary immensely. Some individuals see work as a place within which to grow one’s vocational personality, whereas others see work as a means through which to support other aspects of one’s identity outside of work. Future research can learn more about the ways in which work is conceived of in relation to career development within the lives of individuals who vary in their socioeconomic backgrounds.

Future research can also help to increase our understanding as to how the features of the workplace can enhance or buffer individuals as they encounter conflicts within their multiple roles. Barriers and facilitators in the workplace can shape the career adaptability decisions that individuals can make as they make progress within their career development. Additional workplace features, beyond supervisory support and flexible scheduling arrangements, may help people to manage their multiple roles and positively influence the quality of their lives. Future research can build upon the research focused on how workplaces support the combination of work and family (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). For example, workplace features that support the combination of work and family may be similar to or different from workplace features that support work and school. Specifically, future research could investigate how supervisors decide whether or not to provide an employee with flexibility. Are decisions based on how a supervisor perceives the company’s needs, an employee’s performance, or a supervisor’s own values? Knowledge of these mechanisms will help to increase awareness of supervisors' decision-making processes and its impact on the coping behaviors available to employees.

Implications for Career Counselors and Workplaces

Despite the limitations described, this study has relevant implications for career counselors working with adults and the workplaces in which they are employed. Career counselors can help by advising adults to be strategic when choosing a place of work so that the workplace will fit not only their current talents and interests but also their future ambitions. When reviewing the benefits offered, questions can address the tuition assistance program to learn about workplace support for the program. Career counselors working with employed adults who are contemplating using a tuition assistance program can help them assess the feasibility of their educational and career goals to advance within a company. Counselors may first start by helping their clients identify the strengths and talents they wish to develop and consider whether their career goals will likely be supported and nurtured within an organization. Higher education has become more flexible, with weekend programs and on-line classes at colleges growing significantly (Kirby, Biever, Martinez, & Gomez, 2004). These options can help adult students who work full-time to obtain a college degree.

Our results suggest that supervisors and professors who are supportive and understanding help adults to cope with managing their multiple life roles. Supervisory support can help to decrease levels of work–family conflict (Daalen, Willensen, & Sanders, 2006) by granting individuals feelings of control over their situations (Thomas & Ganster, 1995) and schedule flexibility can defuse feelings of overload (Perry-Jenkins, Bourne, & Meteyer, 2007). Therefore, it is recommended that career counselors help clients to consider various support structures, especially if they are experiencing difficulty with work–school or work–life balance issues. For example, if an employee is failing a course because he or she is experiencing difficulty managing both roles, career counselors can coach adults to think broadly about the people in their support network and the individuals who may have the opportunity to alleviate some of the conflict. Additionally, a client could be encouraged to consult with the professor of the course to find out what kinds of flexibility might be available.

Companies can encourage supervisors to think creatively about how they can provide more scheduling flexibility without sacrificing productivity goals. For instance, instead of requiring employees to use a whole vacation day, companies could divide up vacation days into hourly leave passes, helping to minimize scheduling conflicts and losses to productivity. Organizational support can help to increase employee satisfaction and reduce intentions to leave (Allen, 2001). These changes may also benefit companies by retaining employees with a broader set of skills and knowledge.

Human resources specialists may play a role in facilitating these changes within a workplace’s culture by offering workshops to supervisors and senior staff, explaining the changing landscape of employment and higher education. Companies could consider the skills they need to develop in their workforce as well as the training and education they can offer employees to enhance their career prospects within the company. Additionally, human resource specialists may help to facilitate a stronger school-going culture by actively seeking collaborations with colleges. Given that a college education is often a ticket to a living wage and maintaining a competitive edge in the workforce, it is crucial that researchers and policy makers alike continue to investigate the varying ways in which the workplace can help to facilitate the progress of adults pursuing postsecondary education.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article: The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation grant 0347309 to B. Packard, but the authors take full responsibility for the views expressed.

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