Professional parents’ loyalty to employer: The role of workplace social support

• We explore how three forms of workplace social support relate to professional parents’ loyalty to employer.
• We consider the experiences of both professional mothers and professional fathers.
• We find that supervisor support is positively related to only professional mothers’ loyalty to employer.
• We find that supportive workplace culture is positively related to only professional fathers’ loyalty to employer.

Professional mothers are more likely than professional fathers to leave workplaces—a phenomenon referred to as opting out. Previous research asserts that work–family challenges, including lack of access to supportive workplaces, are among the main reasons for this pattern. Despite revived interest in the study of opting out, little is known about factors shaping the loyalty to employer of those currently employed. Using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (N = 160 professional mothers; 114 professional fathers) we explore how three important forms of workplace social support – coworker support, supervisor support, and supportive workplace culture – are associated with professional mothers’ and fathers’ loyalty to their employees. Including fathers allows us to determine if gender dynamics are present in these patterns. The results suggest gendered patterns where supportive workplace culture relates to professional fathers’ employer loyalty and supervisor support relates to professional mothers’ employer loyalty.