The purpose of this research work is the comparison of the effects on social life of individual, one who work 6 days a week and second who works 5 days a week. The topic, which is selected as mentioned above, is practical experience of my own, my colleagues at workplace and friends working in other organizations. The basic concept to do research on this topic is to identify the effects of 6 days work in a week (9 a.m. - 6 p.m.) in an individual’s life (both male and female). From observation, it is found that working long six days a week is affecting social life of individuals who work 6 days a week as compared to individuals who work 5 days a week. There are many factors and issues on the basis of which the differentiation can be made between 6 days workers and 5 days workers social life, generally observation includes problems arise after long working hours and days some are like psychological effects, frustration, poor health, less time for self, family and friends, effect on leisure activities and household task, absence or expensive domestic help in house work, dissatisfaction, etc. Normally in Pakistan, one family member earns and rest of the family depends on him/her income to fulfill their needs. Father, brother, husband, wife, etc., work for long hours mostly 6 days a week and do not find enough time to spend with him/her self and family or to take part in family matters or to perform the other things that they want to do eventually it creates lot of problems and disturbs their social life. People in Pakistan are poor, income of people is low, their working hours and days are long, proper health and safety standards are not provided to them. The conditions of work differ both in 6 days and in 5 days workers, which com... ... middle of paper ... ... Cooper, C.L. (1997). Health and safety problems associated with long working hours: a review of the current position. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 54, 367-375. Voydanoff, P. (2002). Linkages between the work-family interface and work, family, and individual outcomes—an integrative model. Journal of Family Issues, Vol 23, pp 138–164. Wallace, J.E. (1999). Work to non-work conflict among married male and female lawyers. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 20, 797-816. Westman, M., Eden, D. and Shirom, A. (1985). Job stress, cigarette smoking and cessation: The conditioning effects of peer support. Social Science and Medicine, 20, 637-644. White J., and Beswick J. (2003). Working Long Hours. Health & Safety Laboratory (HSL/2003/02), Sheffield, S# 7HQ Work-life balance. Retrieved Mar 10, 2010 from the World Wide Web: www.worklifebalance.ie
In 2011 The Joint Commission called attention to healthcare worker fatigue and the impact it was having on patient safety. They found a direct link between healthcare worker fatigue and adverse events. They recommended healthcare facilities assessed their policies to identify fatigue-related risks, such as off-shift hours and consecutive shift work, and review their staffing to address areas that may be contributing to nurse fatigue (Martin, 2015).
Harrington, J. M. (2001). Health Effects of Shift Work and Extended Hours of Work. OEM Education. Retrieved on December 3, 2013, from http://oem.bmj.com/content/58/1/68.full. doi: 10.1136.oem.58.1.68
U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2011). Nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses requiring days away from work, 2010. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2011/ted_20111117.htm
Through life, one must make choices in their personal and professional lives in order to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Through the plays Bull, Waste, Little Eyolf, The Homecoming, and the musical Kinky Boots, it is evident that creating a distinction between one’s personal and one’s professional life is essential to living a healthy life. When one’s personal life and professional life overlap completely, trouble ensues.
Harrington, J. M. (2001). Health Effects of Shift Work and Extended Hours of Work. OEM Education. Retrieved on December 3, 2013, from http://oem.bmj.com/content/58/1/68.full. doi: 10.1136.oem.58.1.68
The evolution of the American workforce has undergone drastic change. As a result of increased participation in the workforce through the late 20th Century, 70 percent of American families consider themselves dual-income, meaning both partners share the breadwinning duties. Although dual-earner families are better able to enjoy economic freedom and maintain a standard of living similar to earlier families, there are many conflicts that can arise, particularly among parents and women (Blithe, pp. 392-393, 2014). Therefore, it is essential that families and employers communicate with one another to ensure all their needs are satisfied.
Given that rotating shift work can lead to exhaustion and decreased mental efficiency, individuals working under
Witkoski Stimpfel, Amy , Douglas M. Sloane, and Linda H. Aiken. "The Loger the shifts for hosital nurses, the higher the levels of burnout and patient disstisfaction." Health Affairs 31.11 (2012): 2501-2509. Proquest. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
Hoobler, J., Wayne, S., & Lemmon, G. (2009). Boss' Perceptions of Family-Work Conflict and Women's Promotability: Glass Ceiling Effects. Academy of Management Journal, 52(5), 939-957.
Northam, S. (2009). Conflict in the workplace: Part 1. American Journal of Nursing, 109(6), 70-73. doi:10.1097/01.NAJ.0000352483.09112.b4.
Women face an unofficial barrier called the glass ceiling, which limits how high a women can advance in a profession. “Women holding the titles of chairman, CEO, COO (chief operating officer), and executive vice president remain at about 7 percent of the population of executives in the United States” (Hoobler, Wayne, & Lemmon, 2009). Women seem to have more of a family-work conflict then men, so bosses don’t seem to have as much desire, to promote females compared to men (Hoobler, Wayne, & Lemmon 939-940). Men still view women as having a social role, examples are cooking, childcare, and household chores. Men feel threatened, and scared when females are able to handle both work and their personal life. Excuses are created by men, where they believe females should focus on one role, because they won’t be able to accomplish family roles and work roles efficiently. Women can help themselves with this issue of family-work conflict, by, improving communication with their employers. Women can communicate to their employer, by explaining and clarifying their expectations on how much workload they can
Working in a fast-paced environment and being on their feet can really take a toll on a person. In addition they have to be prepared for anything to happen during their shift. A study of overworked and stressed nurses found that nurses are overworked suffered from physical sickness like type two diabetes (Stress and overworked 2006). For most nurses, their work week consists of more than sixty hours. Working that many hours can double their chances of sicknesses. When they compare the working week hours of nurses who worked the normal 21 to 40 hours with those that work more than 40 or 60 hours a week, they found that in comparison the ones who worked 40 hours or more a week increased the risk by almost 50 percent for type 2 diabetes (Stress and overwork 2006). If nurses were to work their normal work hours without mandatory overtime, then their health would improve.
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.
Long working hours continue to be one of the largest health concerns in the world. Currently, the world population has become so busy due to the pressure from harsh economic conditions. People are therefore spending long working hours in the workplace, which is an aspect that has negative impact on their health conditions. Statistics from Working Condition Survey indicates that approximately 30% of workers residing in European Union believe that their health is at risk due to the hours they spent in the workplace (Gurung, 2010:16)
When hospitals do not have enough staff to care for patients, nurses are required to work overtime and because of that, 50% of nurses quit their job (Martin). This is not healthy for nurses and not safe for patients because if nurses are constantly working overtime, they can become tired and dissatisfied with their job. Moreover, when nurses are dissatisfied with their job because of always working overtime, it lead nurses to quit their job which can become a problem for hospitals because it is hard to keep training new nurses all the time. This can cost money and effort. In addition, it will affect patients because it nurses are tired from working overtime, quality of care for patients can suffer. According to Sung-Heui Bae, author of “Nursing Overtime: Why, How Much, and Under What Working Conditions?”, When a nurse works for over 12 hours or more than 60 hours a week, nurses are more prone to making medical errors which can compromise a patient’s safety (Bae). Like what Fackelmann says, “Overworked nurse may not get to a patient quickly enough to catch a subtle sign of a potentially deadly complication”. This can be one of the reason of 20,000 death of patients each year because of overworked nurses