When home burdens spill over to work: how invisible family load predicts women's work performance in technology

Purpose This study aims to examine how invisible family load affects women's work performance in the technology sector through family emotional exhaustion and family–work conflict and explores the moderating role of husbands' family role perceptions. Design/methodology/approach Using three-wave, multi-source survey data from women technology workers in China, the proposed moderated chain mediation model was tested with PROCESS in SPSS. Findings Invisible family load reduces both routine- and innovation-oriented work performance. Family emotional exhaustion and family–work conflict sequentially mediate this relationship. Husbands' family role perceptions buffer the impact of invisible family load on emotional exhaustion and weaken the overall indirect effect. Practical implications Husbands are the primary intervention target: genuine sharing of invisible family load reduces women's emotional depletion. Organizations should reinforce this with family-friendly structures and a gender-equity culture. Originality/value This study links invisible family load to both routine- and innovation-dominant performance in technology, reveals the chain mechanism through which it operates by integrating COR theory and spillover theory, and identifies husbands' family role perceptions as a couple-level boundary condition.