The changing economic conditions and social demands have changed the nature of work throughout the world. Originally, work was a matter
of necessity and survival. Throughout the years, the role of "work" has evolved and the composition of the workforce has changed.
Today, work is widely viewed as a source of personal satisfaction. A good balance in work and
life can play a phenomenal role in the attainment of personal and professional goals The objective of this paper is to understand the various
issues that have come to the forefront due to the dynamic nature of work.
Can the existence of work-life balance programs be attributed to a realization of social responsibility by the employers towards their
employees or to a realization of the competitive advantage it offers to employers? Before we can answer this question, we need to define what
work-life balance is and various factors associated with it, which is also the purpose of this blog.
What is Work Life Balance?
By definition work life balance is about people having measure of
control over when, where and how they work. There is a view that work-life
balance only in the framework of what the company does for the
individual.
However, work-life balance is a two-pronged approach. The other prong
of work-life balance, which many individuals overlook, relates to
what individuals do for themselves. The core of work life balance could also
be summed as achievement with enjoyment.
If an individual goes on
working his or her best at work place but not really enjoying the same
then happiness and satisfaction can never be achieved. Achievement can be viewed
as motive of life while enjoyment is the fuel that drives that motive.
While we strike a work life balance, we are not merely balancing our
profession and family, we are also balancing our mental and status quo
and thereby balancing our emotional intelligence, which is the worldly
ability to manage you and to handle others. Organizations can help
facilitate work-life balance for their employees through work-life programs and
training.
Achievement and enjoyment at work is a critical part of
work-life balance. Furthermore, achievement andenjoyment in the other three
quadrants of one's life (e.g. family, friends andself) is critical as
well. Work cultures have often demanded a transformation from
inflexibility to flexibility. The underlying principle perhaps is the increasing
realization that certain issues pertaining to the imbalance in working life
and personal life of an individual are being overlooked.
There is a life
at work and at home and also a life having space for leisure. With
globalization becoming the norm ofthe day, these issues seem to have taken a
back seat for quite a while. Worklife 'imbalance' has over a period of
time attracted concern because of increasing problems related to
employee health, monotony at work place, declining levels of productivity and
efficiency at the employee level. The imbalance also has a negative
impact in the personal life of working people-some of which have even become
social hazards- increasing number of divorces, infertility due high
stress levels, advent of nuclear families etc.
Professionals today seem to be more interested in jobs that give them increased flexibility at work.
Working people have different needs at different stages of their working
life. As a result, people strive for balance in their working hours and
their personal commitments. Work life balance has nowbecome a sensitive
issue because it offers obvious benefits to organizations and its
employees.
Successfully addressing this issue can lead to a healthy synergy in
the working environment of an organization and its
employees. Organizations can look forward to a phenomenal increase in efficiency and working
hours and their personal commitments. Work life balance has nowbecome a
sensitive issue because it offers obvious benefits to organizations and
its employees.
Successfully addressing this issue can lead to a
healthy synergy in the working environment of an organization and its
employees. Organizations can look forward to a phenomenal increase in efficiency
and as an ideal place to work in - a place that endows greater volition
(flexi-timings etc.) and freedom; and a place that is fun to work in. Employees with a working environment that is conducive.
Employee retention may also be seen as an important driver to this. Organizations
now focus on grooming their employees who are now not considered merely a work
force but regarded as the 'Human Capital' of the organization.
Employees with a working environment that is conducive. Employee retention may
also be seen as an important driver to this. Organizations now focus on
grooming their employees who are now not considered merely a work force
but regarded as the 'Human Capital' of the organization.
Need and Benefits of Work Life Balance
To understand the need of work life balance, one first needs to
understand about work life imbalance, as with the understanding of the origin,
causes and effects of this imbalance, the balancing act becomes
easier. The corporate world of today is exceedingly demanding. The work
culture varies from organization to organization.
Today the deadlines are
getting tighter and an individual's job is not only to match that deadline but
also to give quality output. Due to this work pressure it becomes
exceedingly difficult to maintain a family life. It becomes very difficult to
have the engagement of mind with the engagement of body. In every
individual's life there are four stakeholders- own personality, job, family and
society.
It is very important to give equal importance to all
the stakeholders. A person who is a workaholic and does not enjoy his family
life cannot be termed a successful person. When a life encounters such
imbalance then the peace and harmony of life vanishes and there is an adverse
effect of it on the work life too. To avoid such situation one
should always try to avoid this imbalance in life. The transition from work
life imbalance to work life balance has obvious benefits to an organization
andits employees.
At the organizational level, balanced nature of work
enables increase in productivity and efficiency of employees. Employees
become more creativea nd they derive more satisfaction from work. Better
teamwork and communication offer a conducive working environment. This
leads to enjoyment at work and increased passion for it. Stress levels
are well in commitment levels from the employee increase thereby helping
an commitment levels from the employee increase thereby helping an
organization to inherently develop a strong value system.
Work life balance
on an individual level can bring phenomenal changes in his life and can
also heavily impact a society. A balanced work life is of advantage to
an employee's health. Stress levels decline drastically to healthy
levels. Individuals derive more value from their work and from life that
leads to greater satisfaction and is also seen as a mode of
self-actualization.
The employee can better understand the nature of his work
life balance as work life balance can vary among individuals. It is at this point
oftime that an employee starts resting immense trust in the
organization and his commitment levels to the organization increase. On the social
front, the individual gains when relationships improve. The individual
can now willingly devote more time and energy to his social commitments,
which is also vital for a happy life.
Thus, work-life balance can bring
a huge transformation at the organizational and individual levels. It
helps an organization to inherently build a strong value system, which is
attributed to the work life balance enjoyed at the employee level.
Consequently, the organization does not have to impose a formulated framework
of organizational values because they now become intrinsic to it.
Work
life balance at the individual level enjoys its success in addressing
to societal issues. It helps in healing a society off its problems such
as increasing infertility among working people, increasing number of
divorces and its adverse affect on children.
Roles and Responsibilities
Organizations are becoming more and more demanding in terms of
output. The businesses are being operated in terms of volume and not in terms
of values. This disturbs the balance between work and life in employees'
lives. The organizations are too exacting in their demands and because of
the very high competition, they are able to dictate terms upon the
individuals.
As the organizations are basically the profit driven entities
they are rarely bothered about the personal life and work-satisfaction
issues of the employees. Thus they are least concerned at their level
with work life satisfaction. Organizations have the work force in
plenitude and as far as the people are ready to work as three people instead of
one, they don't bother about the consequences the employees may face
with this stressful work atmosphere.
Individuals are equally responsible for creating work life imbalance, as the silence adopted by the
individuals is a major factor responsible for work life imbalance. As people
do not raise their voice against the unfair amount of work delegated
upon them, they land up with unfair amount of work for themselves. Due to
'high ambitions' of the individuals they put themselves under much more
pressure than they can handle. People tend to escape from making decisions
and from taking stands. Work life imbalance is creating a different kind
of lifestyle. People are having different professional and personal
goals, which are often contradictory, and this is ultimately bringing
imbalance intheir lives.
The Eternal See-Saw: Efforts made by Organizations & Individuals
Organizations today have realized the importance of the
employee-work-life balance and its importance in the efficiency of the employees.
Organizations work-life balance, so that neither the work nor the
employee's personal life work-life balance, so that neither the work nor the
employee's personal life is affected.
The ideas like employees working
from virtual offices in theirhomes are well established now and have been
accepted with organizations world over. Not only the employee can have
total flexibility in their work,they are always close to their family.
In
offices also, efforts are being made to provide friendly work
atmosphere for the employees by providing all sorts of refreshments available for
the employee. The employees are given the freedom to have their own ways
ofdoing the work. They are given the assignments with deadlines and
they can have their own schedule as far as they are meeting the deadlines.
Some organizations have gone to the extent of providing family
atmosphere for the employees by involving the families of the employees.
The
idea is to make the family realize that they are also a part of the
organization. Besides, these organizations are introducing special leaves for
attending to sick parents, to attend to children, etc.
Maternity leaves
and various holiday packages are being designed for the employees, and
also various insurance schemes are there for the employees and their
families. Organizations are trying to take care of all the overloads of
the employees,so that the employees can better concentrate on the work,
so that the employee can enjoy the work and can have a proper work life
balance. The thought process of the employees has also evolved and now
they have become more decisive when it comes to job.
Working Women: Are they being discriminated?
Work life imbalance also comes with a different social perspective- How
to address the work - life imbalance in the lives of the women work
force. The society over the years has recognized women's need to legal and
financial independence. Women work force now constitutes a significant
percentage ofthe total work force in any organization today.
Gender equality and responsibility for caring however, are contested issues. The
transition to motherhood still continues to have practical and emotional
consequences. When women take break from their careers to fulfill their
right to motherhood, it is considered unprofessional. Moreover, it also
affects their professional stature when they return to work.
These tend to reinforce gender in-equalities at work place. As a result many women
have to make the difficult choice between family and career. Surprisingly
the situation in homemaker and as a professional person. So if she has
to make a trade-off sometimes, she must take it in her stride and balance
it in the other spheres as soon as possible.
Homemaker and as a professional person. So if she has to make a trade-off sometimes, she must take
it in her stride and balance it in the other spheres as soon as
possible.
Summary
The concept of Work life balance is becoming more and more relevant in a never-dynamic working environment. The role played by the individual
is as important as that of the organization in managing this tumultuous see saw. One of the novel approaches to this is by the use of one's
emotional intelligence.
This will help people realize what they want to do, which in turn will lead to stronger organizations based on stronger
values, orientations and ethics.
Singh, a Software Analyst from Noida, contributes for the first time to e-pao.net . The Writer can be contacted at [email protected] .
This article was webcasted on November 02nd, 2006
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