Workers take on many roles in their daily lives, such as, boss, employee, subordinates, spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend and community member. The parts are planned to fill a need, intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically and each of these roles requires time, energy and dedication to fulfill. Work life conflict occurs when the demands of these roles are incompatible, where the demand in one role makes it difficult to meet the demands in the other. The significance of work life balance is a way to help workers manage the boundaries between personal life and workplace life and make small changes that will help them capitalize on productivity without injury to their well-being, their family relationships and other aspects …show more content…
When employers empower workers with the ability to have flexible working schedules, it also produces a benefit to the organization. Studies show that workers are more dedicated and loyal towards their employers and organization. Studies also show that workers with flexible schedules put forth an earnest effort to complete their work task. This flexibility allows for workers the opportunity to work when they are most alert and productive. It will vary for workers depending on their optimal time. Some workers are more engaged in their work duties in the morning while others find the afternoon as an optimal time. Flexibility alleviates the need for work life balance because workers are able to handle personal matters when need and complete work tasks as assigned. The better workers are able to handle the life events while scheduling their work day will result in more productive workers. This method of presentation was effective approach for the reader because it allows employers and organizations to examine their policies to see if this solution will be appropriate for their workers who are experiencing work life integration challenges. However, this article did not offer other solutions for employers and organizations when work schedule flexibility is not an option. In doing so this will position workers to achieve as top performers, while increasing the quality of work and the loyalty of the workers. In order to maintain a competitive edge, when the workplace setting change for workers the benefits and perks need to change to adhere the demands that are present in work and personal
Previous generations have a strong belief of keeping work and home life separate; that work is for work and home is for play (Rampell, 2011, para 21). Today’s professionals do not seem to abide by similar beliefs, constantly crossing the borders of one into the other. While many recognize this as an issue that could result in employees being less productive, it has actually resulted in them accepting that their work may run late into the evening or even into the weekend. I agree with this completely in that I grew up being taught that business is business and personal is personal; you leave your home life at the door. But now times have changed, and my weekends are no longer dedicated to my home life, but for work, because I attend classes during the week. Also, in my line of work in the Allied Health industry, it is a requirement to work off hours. Long gone are the days of working nine to five, Monday through Friday; technology and the demand of wanting affairs done and done as soon as possible, has made it so the “work week” is now 24-7. “Jon Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard Institute of Politics, said, ‘Some experts also believe that today’s young people are better at quickly switching from one task to another, given their exposure to so many stimuli during their childhood and adolescence’” (Rampbell,
This source was very descriptive when defining unknown business phrases in the world. It describes the behaviors of the work-family conflict. The investigation used ordinary people. The benefits for using this source is to help balance the work and family and to find common ground between the two.
The nine to five work hours are a thing of the past, no longer a mandatory work schedule or shift required. People have much more control over their work schedules, making their work time to coincide with their personal time. This makes things much easier and less stressful for everyone involved. Some of the choices I will talk about being terms called work schedules, telecommuting, job sharing and compressed workweek. This is not necessarily a new concept, just a well-kept secret from the past. Flexible work schedules are amazing and can help anyone having a hard time with too many overwhelming things on their plate at one time and trying to get to work on time and keep their job.
The development of the four-day workweek actually began in the 1970s as a theoretical practice to help organizations optimize operations while saving resources and improving worker quality of life (Poor, 2010). Beginning in the 1980s, the use of the four-day workweek began to accelerate and the Department of Labor began keeping records regarding outcomes for companies using this work arrangement (Poor, 2010). Although the Department of Labor continues to track alternative work arrangements, Poor contends that four-hour workweeks have morphed into flexible work arrangements with companies offering workers a wide range of programs to acquire time-off from the traditional 5/40 schedule. Even though efforts to evaluate the impact of the four-day workweek have shifted to a general classification of outcomes for flextime, the four day-workweek remains the principle tool used by organizations to offer ...
Imbalanced, our lives are imbalanced. We do not have time to climb the ladder of success if we want to be home to raise our children. We do not have time to raise our children if we want to climb the ladder of success. There are not enough hours in the day to do all the things that we need to do to have a fulfilled life. We do not have time to cook a healthy meal from scratch. We grab a box of Hamburger Helper, a can of peas, and a bag of rolls and we have dinner. Exercise consists of walking between the car and the door and maybe a little wrestling around with the kids before bed. At work productivity is counted by how many hours you spend doing your job instead of the results that our produced in that time. Mindsets like this hold us back. Flexibility for the employee is the future to balancing our lives.
In addition, the management should enhance flexibility I the workplace. Flexibility makes the workplace environment more manageable. A clear manifestation of a flexible workplace is one that allows employees adjust the hours of work if the adjustment is necessary. It may also include allowing them to work from another place other than the office, for instance working from a nearby restaurant. This seeks to make their working experiences more realistic and manageable. This flexibility will also aid the employees meet their non-work responsibilities and this greatly motivates them.
An increasing amount of companies are implementing flexible work practices as more US households have dual incomes, working longer hours, and labor force participation rates increase (Winder, 2009). Flexible work practices can enable workers with care giving responsibilities to perform at their peak capacity instead of conforming to standard work schedules that stifle their efforts to succeed (Glass, 2004). If, true the productivity of workers should rise with the use of flexible work practices and should be positively correlated with enhanced wage growth over time. This productivity enhancing effect should particularly lead to higher wage growth among those impeded by rigid work schedules and long hours of work, namely mothers of dependent children (Sharpe, Hermsen & Billings, 2002). However this may not be the case with women. Currently women are not on par dollar for dollar with men. Yet economists think that the gap between pay for women and men is due to different personal choices men and women make about personal fulfillment, child rearing and hours at work. Following this further, in the past women would choose to work less hours to allot more time to their children, but there is an increasing number of women who continue to work fulltime throughout motherhood with the help of flextime (Glass, 2004). However these women still encounter the same pattern of wage stagnation (McCrate, 2005). Parents are using flexible work options but mothers appear to be penalized for it.
Flexible working hours or self-roistering consists of flexible start and finish times and a possibility for employees to request specific working hours on a regular basis thereby increasing choice and control by the employee. The system may be base on a paper version or by use of computer. Such increased influence has in several cases shown to increase work-life balance. Part-time may be one way to reduce working hours and thereby improve work-life balance. There are, however, some potential built-in negatives e.g. risk of reduced career opportunities and increased workload, because the demands are not lowered in the same way.
Workplace support is in the form of cooperation with employees who face work burden, family issues and both together. It is proved that workplace support provides the major contribution for the solution of work-family conflicts at workplace.
The Balancing Act: Juggling Family Life and Work “The conflict and stress inherent in managing work and family responsibilities have been found to be counterbalanced by the social and psychological benefits that stem from participating in the work and family role
The subject of overtime hours has been a debated topic in the employment sector for decades. It is not only a topic that encompasses the legal viewpoints of everyone involved but it also presents itself as an ethical issue. There are continuous discussions on how many hours a week is considered normal and how should companies handle the hours that are worked above and beyond a traditional work week. Another issue that presents itself is even if these additional work hours are paid at a premium, do these additional work hours affect the well-being of the employee. The new generation of young employees is a group that values the balance between family and career. Many in this generation are not interested in more than 40 hours per week.
To achieve the balance between job and rest, the company will always respect employees' personal time and make reasonable accommodations for personal and family commitments when employee has free
The impact from changes in economy, technology, social and lifestyle in today’s environments have boosted the awareness of flexible working arrangements in an organisation. Evidence from the previous study indicated that the competitive working environment and increasing workload had caused family and personal life being neglected (Mary & Chris, 1998). Smith (1993) pointed out that working women should have balance between tasks in the office and responsibility to the family especially on safety, health and children needs. Therefore, Cook (1992) suggested that through the implementation of flexible working hour’s schedule, the responsibilities over children’s safety and education will be more secured. This is due to the fact that they are able to engage for a better coordination between work and responsibilities to the family. This statement is than further supported by Emmott and Hutchinson (1998). They found out that the implementation of flexible working hours schedule could increase and balance women’s responsibilities in work and family. It is a fact that children need love, food, safety and parents’ attention to ensure that children lead to a normal life. This complies with Maslow’s theory of motivation that emphasizes the aspects of safety, love, needs for food, esteem and self-actualisation that needs to be fulfilled by individual in order to increase the motivation at work.
What do people think about their life purpose? Most of us think about life that is studying hard in order to get a wonderful job, working hard, and getting married. They have dreamed of one day having an eternal vacation for themselves and not having to work anymore. The traditional people around the world consider that overworking is an essential condition for the early stage of their life. Especially in most of Asian countries, the average workweek is 48 hours. According to the fulltime employment, people work 35 to 40 hours per week to be defined as full-time. If more than that number, that should be considered overworking. Overworking is an important issue because that can lead to some serious consequences. Thus, we should consider work-life balance more seriously.
There have been various questions that have been asked concerning how people can balance their family lives and work life. Some researchers decided to do a research which showed that many people are not able to balance their family and work life. This is because they do not know how to do it (Fine-Davis, 2005). There is always too much pressure on one side of their life which leads to some of them ignoring one part of it. The other part gets too much attention. This then leads to an imbalance in the family life and work life. This has been the main problem that many employees are facing. They have to do it because when one side is neglected, it becomes relay difficult to make up f...