Lieke ten Brummelhuis
I am an Associate Professor in Management at SFU’s Beedie School of Business and the author of “Work-Life Strategy: Finding Happiness While Juggling Multiple Roles.” Since 2005, I have researched how work and family life are interconnected and how, for instance, our personal lives affect how we perform at work. When I became a mom in 2014, I became even more motivated to find an answer to how we can be happy while juggling family life with a career.
Based on insights from more than 18 years of research, the book offers insights and concrete steps to help people thrive while combining multiple roles. For many people, those roles might be work and family, but Work-Life Strategy is for anyone as most of us juggle multiple roles (e.g., being a friend and employee).
In the past ten years, my family life has developed from being a single mom to one kid to being married and having a patchwork family of three kids. My life certainly is not perfect, but I am happy. By sharing some research insights, tips, and tricks, I hope you will be, too.
Since August 2024, I have been a Contributor to Forbes, sharing evidence-based management insights on topics such as work-life balance, long work hours, and employee health.
I am proud to be a Dutch and Canadian citizen, and I’m particularly grateful to live in Canada with my husband and our kids. I love the outdoors and staying active, including hiking, swimming, skiing, and running.
Research & Education
My research interests are all related to well-being at work and at home. They include employee recovery, workaholism, work-life balance, and physical activity. I am motivated to find an answer to why people work in the way they do, and what work styles improve work outcomes, work-life balance, and well-being.
My work has been published in top academic journals such as American Psychologist, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Academy of Management Discoveries, and Journal of Organizational Behavior. My research has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, The Conversation, and Globe & Mail.
I obtained my PhD (2009) in organizational sociology from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, followed by postdoc positions at Erasmus University Rotterdam. In 2011, I received a Rubicon grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), which allows young researchers to gain research experience abroad. Hosted by Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), I spent two years in Philadelphia doing research on work-life balance before starting my job at SFU.