General Causes of Imbalance in Work Life
Work life balance is the proper equilibrium maintained between one’s professional life and personal life. In the fast-paced lifestyle of the present century, one has to balance between several roles at the same time; difficulties are faced when managing time becomes difficult and the interests of the several roles clashes with one another. This contradiction between the responsibilities of different roles in a person’s life creates work life imbalance or conflict. The organizations have adopted several new measures to encourage work life balance; these measures have made the lives of the employees easier and have increased employee retention rates in the organizations. In recent years a lot of research has been focused on the same topic in Australia, which has led to certain discussions about the impacts of poor work life balance in the society and in the lives of the individuals. In this report, analysis will be conducted on the topic, work life balance, and certain aspects associated with it.
The topic of work life balance is broad in aspect, which involves the careers of individuals, the goals that they set for their future on one hand and family life, leisure, health and other personal attributes on another. According to a certain research conducted by Harvard Business School almost 94% of the professionals work for 50 hours in a week. The stress related to work is becoming a major issue in the present scenario, people are suffering from various health issues, and psychological problems like depressions, personal relationships of the people are suffering a major blow (SmartCompany 2017). It has been discovered in a survey that more than half of the population in Australia does not have a proper balance between their professional and personal life. An investigation was conducted in the form of email survey to find out the reasons behind work life conflict in which 3675 people submitted their responses. 38% of the people condemned the increase in the workload, while 22% said that certain practices in the workplace contributes to the imbalance. The urgency to meet the deadlines is another factor as mentioned by 12% of the people, the need to meet the expectations of the management is another factor suggested by 11%, and finally about 9% of the people said that habit of the individuals also play a significant role in creating imbalance between work and life (SmartCompany 2017).
Burden of Multitasking
Impacts of Work life Imbalance on Individuals
The desire to achieve a lot within a restricted amount of time creates a scenario that compels one to multitask at an excessive level. This creates a disturbance in the lifestyle and also in the professional front (Wiese 2015). Trying to complete several tasks at the same time causes stress and neither of the tasks is completed with good quality.
Increase in Responsibility at Work
Responsibilities increase at work over a period of time as one gets promotions or responsibilities are added with passing time and seniority. An individual has to work in a smart manner and manage time accordingly or else the person will not be able to maintain equity in life.
Setting Unrealistic Goals
At times people tend to set goals, which are beyond their limits and are unachievable. This results in making promises, which are broken later on, as it was not set in a realistic manner (Isaacs 2016). One should not promise something, which one cannot achieve within the given period of time. Setting unrealistic goals creates unnecessary pressure on the professional front due to which the person will not be able to pay attention to personal issues. Inability to deliver the promised task also creates disappointment in the other person to whom it was promised.
Expectations of the Management
In some organizations, the management set goals for their employees and sometimes these goals put pressure on the employees (Shanafelt et al. 2015). To achieve these goals the employees of the organizations double their efforts in their professional front and start neglecting their personal lives. This also cause work life conflict.
Psychological problems
Imbalance created between work and life leads to several psychological problems, when a person is unable to enjoy quality personal time then he suffers from depression and frustration (Jones, Burke and Westman 2013). Stress at work creates mental dissatisfaction; humans are social beings, so when one is unable to find leisure time then it creates irritation, shortness of temper, which may result in frequent lashing out at others. People who work continuously also suffer from lack of concentration as continuously working without any break can hamper productivity of the brain. The feeling of constant worry and muddled judgment is other effects of work life imbalance.
Physical problems
Work life imbalance can also cause several physical problems like headaches, joint pain, and muscle pain, if a person works continuously without any breaks or the body does not get enough exercise then several physical ailments start occurring (Richmond and Rohlfing 2013). Due to excessive stress, one might feel tensed all the time and in such condition panic attacks are very common along with loss of appetite, nausea, and insomnia.
Importance of Maintaining Work Life Balance
Developing Addictions
Constant tension and pressure causes one to develop several unnecessary addictions and some of that can be harmful (Lewis et al. 2014). Smoking is one of the most popular forms of addiction adopted by majority of the people when they experience stress as they claim that smoking helps in soothing the nerves. Some cases can become extreme and the individuals can resort to substance abuse and start taking drugs or become alcoholic. These addictions can cause long term damage to the body thus creating even more problems for the people who adopt such practices.
Conflicts in Personal Life
Daily interactions with families and loved ones is a necessary thing to maintain a happy and secure mind, but imbalance created between work and personal time creates a number of conflicts with the families and relatives and that has adverse effects on the working individuals. Time management becomes a huge issue when it comes to choose between personal and professional life. Such instance are common where an individual is the sole earning member of the family and thus the person has to take extra initiatives in the office to gain promotion and is left with a very little time to spend with the near and dear ones(Lyness and Judiesch 2014). This results in frequent heated confrontations with the family members or the loved ones. These conflicts linger in the minds of the individuals and they suffer from depression and feel guilty. The impact on the working mothers is more serious as it also involves the rearing of a child and in the initial stages, the bond shared between a mother and her child is very important for the overall development of the child. The various problems faced in the personal life have serious impacts on the individuals, which in turn affects their productivity at work.
Personal Wellbeing
Personal wellbeing is a pivotal component in a joyous and content life. Wellbeing can be related with happiness of an individual, the level of energy, optimistic approach of the person, and self-confidence. Personal wellbeing includes the measures taken by individuals to keep their mental as well as physical faculties in a healthy state (Elmer 2015). An individual’s personal life and professional life are the two most important aspects that ascertain the person’s wellbeing. The proper management of time between the two spheres of the individual’s life can lead to personal wellbeing of the person.
Minimizing Health Problems
There are several diseases, which are associated with stress like asthma, cardiac problems, obesity, gastrointestinal problems, Alzheimer’s disease, blood pressure, diabetes and others, out of which heart related problems are most common have resulted in a high rate of mortality among working professionals (Chmiel, Fraccaroli and Sverke 2017). Lack of exercise can cause the immune system of a person to go weak and increases the chances of catching infectious diseases(Brough et al. 2014). As stress cause serious health related problems, thus it is more important to maintain work life balance. It has been also been seen in medical studies that if individuals have hectic lifestyle and go through continuous stress everyday in youth it can result into poor health conditions in the later life as well maybe decades later. All these health complications can be easily avoided by adopting healthy life choices and avoiding unrealistic pressures at work.
Maintaining Healthy Relationships
Achieving a healthy work life balance means, that one can focus their attention on developing their personal relationships, if a person is continuously stressed then it becomes hard for the person to foster any relationships instead it results in withdrawal from the society (Williams, Long and Morey 2014). While spending time with family and friends one should focus on enjoying with them and keep all the worries aside. One should learn to balance between the work and family and it bringing equity in all the aspects of life will help becoming efficient in all the roles together.
Less Susceptibility to Burnouts
At times when one becomes devastated with constant needs to meet with the demands of the management, it results into exhaustion or burnout in a person(Fujimoto and Azmat 2014). There are several negative effects of burnout in private as well as in social life. Achieving work life balance means to keep the pressure of work at the office and forget about it all once the office hours are over. The people who experience such kind of exhaustion at work should discuss the problems with the management and try to resolve the issues as it will impact negatively on both personal and professional fronts.
Increase in Productivity and Enjoying the Work
Having a proper balance in work and life has positive impacts on life. For example taking a holiday will boost the energy levels of an employee the person will feel rejuvenated and will start on the pending work with renewed energy. The organizations can also help this process by arranging various recreational fun activities so that the employees do not dread while coming to the office and instead enjoy the work (Todd and Binns 2013). Favorable environment at workplace will encourage the employees to devote their attention to work and thus it will increase individual productivity. Still if people feel extremely depressed while coming to work then the person should take some time to think about the reasons behind the feeling are not solved then different options in career should be considered.
- Knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses and taking responsibilities accordingly.
- Every person has several roles to play at a time, thus knowing how to prioritize tasks will help in maintaining a balance between these roles.
- Spending adequate personal time is important to maintain a healthy mind it reduces stress. Personal time includes family and friends as well.
- Managing time is the most important aspect to maintain work life balance. Dividing time according to the priorities in an individual’s life is important and that helps in keeping track of the personal events and also the important schedules related to work ((Roche.com, 2017).
- Exercising is vital to keep a healthy body, as staying healthy will also ensure a clear mind. Exercising will reduce the chances of having physical and psychological problems related to stress and burnout. A healthy person will always be more productive.
- Taking vacations helps in refreshing the mind which in turn makes one feel happy and content.
According to the reports of The Sydney Morning Herald, the work life balance in Australia has been becoming worse with time, it has been found in a study that out of 10 people 4 of them are suffering from various issues regarding imbalance between work and life. The Australians are providing almost $110 billion worth of free labour every year (Patty, 2017). Lack of job security is causing the individuals to work beyond their abilities permit and the Australians are devoting more and more of their personal time into doing overtime at work (Baker, Johnson and Denniss 2014). On an average, a full time employee is spending six hours of overtime in a week, which amounts to an estimation of $9471 by the end of the year, this report was provided by the Australian think tank, The Australia Institute. Several of the Australians are providing free services to the organizations who are supposed to pay them for their extra efforts legally (Patty, 2017).
In a survey in which 1000 people participated, it was found that 46% of the people worked for long hours and 27% said that they have no security in their respective jobs (Patty, 2017). Majority of the people said that they are willing to reduce their salary if they can get fixed week offs to increase their work life balance but some said that they are not ready to reduce their pay. Among the developed countries, Australia is far behind in achieving work life balance for its population and its time that certain measures should be taken by the organizations to rectify their poor work policies (Gatrell et al. 2013). The government should also introduce necessary measures to ensure that the organizations follow proper working hours and that extra hours are compensated with proper pay.
In the two year study the AIHW found that one out of 5 male and almost seven percent of the female population have worked for more than 50 hours per week in the year 2015. Only seven countries have worse records apart from Australia, thus the Australians have lowest record of having leisure time (Strong et al. 2013). Although the people are devoting more hours in work but still reports are showing that majority of the people do not experience job satisfaction and thus feeling depressed. Reports show that a lot of men are trying to get part time jobs and the number has tripled since 1970s. In the past three decades, the number of people retiring at the age of 65 has also decreased, more and more people are working beyond the age of 65, within past three decades the percentage of people working beyond sixty-five has risen from 5.1 percent to 13 percent.
To remedy the situation many companies are taking certain initiatives, some companies allow work from home and encourage the employees to go on vacations to have a break from work if their productivity suffers (Pocock, Charlesworth and Chapman 2013). Some companies deactivate the work email id of the employee while on a holiday the person can have fun without worrying about office work.
Considering the fact, that effective work-life balance is beneficial for both the organizations and the employees, it is crucial to implement proper work-life polices in order to increase the work-life productivity and employee retention (Folkman2013). Besides that, work-life balance imposes positive impact on the health and relationship of the family, which in turn increases employee efficiency and loyalty (Yuile et al. 2012).
It can be clearly understood that work life balance of employees working in a majority of Australian Organizations need crucial improvement, especially when it comes to Australian Hospitality Industries. Therefore, implementation of efficient work like strategies by the CEOs and management of the organizations is majorly needed. Some of the strategies that can be implemented by a CEO to ensure effective work-life balance of the employees are stated below:
- Basic requirements of a proper work life balance includes flexibility in location or hours, elimination of overtime, implementation of time bank policy and most importantly implementation of policies for preventing disruption of personal life due to work (Mazerolle et al.2013).
- A nine to five model should be implemented and the employees should be allowed to choose the working hours that they are comfortable with. In order to motivate the employees summer hours can be implemented which involves implementation of half days on certain Fridays.
- The work from home strategy acts as a major motivation for employees since it allows them to work in the comfort of home and reduce their stress and transportation costs (Mazerolle and Goodman 2013). Hence, employees should be given the freedom of working from home for a day per week.
- The lunch schedule should be made less rigid in order to ensure the employees are able to have decent mealand refreshment to perform with efficiency.
- Social activities like after-work dinners, movie night and various fun activities should be encouraged in order to make the employees more comfortable with both the colleagues and the work environment.
- Team building exercises can also be implemented in order to encourage teamwork and understanding between the employees. Exercises like escape rooms, problem solving puzzles and trust games can be organized.
- A good number of leave options should be available to the employees that includes service leave, maternal leave, pet care leaves along with the basic leaves.
- Restriction should be implemented on taking work to home regularly and it should be the responsibility of the supervisors to get the work done in the office within office hours.
- Employee surveys should be conducted on regular basis in order to understand employee requirements.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that effective work-life balance can efficiently reduce absenteeism, enhance the ability to retain staffs and organizational knowledge along with the enhancement of employee morale. It falls under the responsibility of the human resource professionals of an organization to understand and solve the issues of employees’ work- life balance. Considering the fact that majority of the employees from generation X and generation Y value their personal life, improper work life balance can make them quit the organization for other opportunities. This impose negative impact on the organizations since along with losing efficient employees, the companies also lose important knowledge. However, it can be understood developing work life balance policies is not enough. Efficient supervision by top-level managers is needed in order to implement the policies effectively. Considering the fact that expectations of employees are high when it comes to flexibility of work, it is crucial for organizations to have highly functional work-life balance to cope up with the competition and to attack highly skilled employees.
Reference:
Baker, D.G., Johnson, M. and Denniss, R., 2014. Walking the tightrope: Have Australians achieved work/life balance?. Australia Institute.
Brough, P., Timms, C., O’Driscoll, M.P., Kalliath, T., Siu, O.L., Sit, C. and Lo, D., 2014. Work–life balance: A longitudinal evaluation of a new measure across Australia and New Zealand workers. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(19), pp.2724-2744.
Chmiel, N., Fraccaroli, F. and Sverke, M. eds., 2017. An Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology: An International Perspective. John Wiley & Sons.
Elmer, V., 2015. Work–Life Balance. Journal of Sage businessresearcher, pp.1-5.
Folkman, S., 2013. Stress: appraisal and coping. In Encyclopedia of behavioral medicine (pp. 1913-1915). Springer New York.
Fujimoto, Y. and Azmat, F., 2014. Organizational justice of work–life balance for professional/managerial group and non-professional group in Australia: Creation of inclusive and fair organizations. Journal of Management & Organization, 20(5), pp.587-607.
Gatrell, C.J., Burnett, S.B., Cooper, C.L. and Sparrow, P., 2013. Work–life balance and parenthood: A comparative review of definitions, equity and enrichment. International Journal of management reviews, 15(3), pp.300-316.
Isaacs, D., 2016. Work?life balance. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 52(1), pp.5-6.
Jones, F., Burke, R.J. and Westman, M. eds., 2013. Work-life balance: A psychological perspective. Psychology Press.
Lewis, S., Anderson, D., Lyonette, C., Payne, N. and Wood, S., 2014. Work-life balance policies, practices and discourse in the context of public sector cuts. In first ESRC Seminar on Work-Life Balance in the Recession and Beyond, Middlesex University.
Lyness, K.S. and Judiesch, M.K., 2014. Gender egalitarianism and work–life balance for managers: Multisource perspectives in 36 countries. Applied Psychology, 63(1), pp.96-129.
Mazerolle, S.M. and Goodman, A., 2013. Fulfillment of work–life balance from the organizational perspective: a case study. Journal of athletic training, 48(5), pp.668-677.
Mazerolle, S.M., Ferraro, E.M., Eason, C.M. and Goodman, A., 2013. Factors and strategies contributing to the work–life balance of female athletic trainers employed in the NCAA Division I setting. Athletic Training and Sports Health Care, 5(5), pp.211-222.
Patty, A. (2017). Work-life balance is getting worse for Australians: new report. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. [Accessed 31 Dec. 2017].
Pocock, B., Charlesworth, S. and Chapman, J., 2013. Work-family and work-life pressures in Australia: advancing gender equality in “good times”?. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 33(9/10), pp.594-612.
Richmond, G.L. and Rohlfing, C.M., 2013. Work-Life Balance.
Roche.com. (2017). 20 tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. [Accessed 31 Dec. 2017].
Shanafelt, T.D., Hasan, O., Dyrbye, L.N., Sinsky, C., Satele, D., Sloan, J. and West, C.P., 2015, December. Changes in burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance in physicians and the general US working population between 2011 and 2014. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 90, No. 12, pp. 1600-1613). Elsevier.
SmartCompany. (2017). Work-life imbalance – SmartCompany. [Accessed 31 Dec. 2017].
Strong, E.A., De Castro, R., Sambuco, D., Stewart, A., Ubel, P.A., Griffith, K.A. and Jagsi, R., 2013. Work–life balance in academic medicine: Narratives of physician-researchers and their mentors. Journal of general internal medicine, 28(12), pp.1596-1603.
Todd, P. and Binns, J., 2013. Work–life balance: is it now a problem for management?. Gender, Work & Organization, 20(3), pp.219-231.
Wiese, B.S., 2015. Work-life-balance. In Wirtschaftspsychologie (pp. 227-244). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Williams, P., Long, W.R. and Morey, P., 2014. Anytime Email and Work-Life Balance: An Exploration into the Views of Adventist Schools Australia Employees. TEACH Journal of Christian Education, 8(2), p.8.
Yuile, C., Chang, A., Gudmundsson, A. and Sawang, S., 2012. The role of life friendly policies on employees’ work-life balance. Journal of Management & Organization, 18(1), pp.53-63.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
