Ska vi göra slut? : En studie om konflikten mellan arbetsliv och familjeliv inom officersyrket ; Shall we break up? : A study of the work – family conflict within the army officer profession

Background: The Swedish Armed Forces is considered an attractive employer, yet chooseofficers to leave their employment. The Swedish Armed Forces is an employer that has uniqueemployment conditions, including an obligation to serve in international conflicts, which meansperiodically long absence from the family. Competence is lost as experienced officers choose toterminate their employment in advance, while the recruitment does not keep up to handleemployee turnovers. A growing problem in society is the difficulty of balancing a working lifewith family life and it helps to wake up the idea or to terminate its employment.Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the conflict between working lifeand family life affects an experienced officer in an army unit to terminate his employment.Method: The study is based on combined methods where the focus is on qualitative datacollection via semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with officers at anarmy unit who chose to terminate their employment in the Swedish Armed Forces. The study issupplemented by a minor survey with partners of former officers.Result and Conclusion: The results show that the majority of interviewed officers have had aconflict between working life and family life during their employment. The conflict has affectedthe officer's decision to terminate their employment. The conflict has been present during theemployment but is primarily a presumptive conflict in the future. In view of their own ambitionregarding development and challenge, the majority of army officers have taken a proactivedecision to terminate their employment in the Armed Forces. This in order to prevent theconflict while achieving its ambitions in another workplace with other conditions. Partners offormer officers do not fully share the same opinion as the officer regarding the conflict betweenworking life and family life during the employment. The partner, like the officer, was anxiousabout the future in the army and what consequences it would have ...