Work-Life Balance Essay: Meaning, Importance And Causes

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Introduction

We all know that Work plays an important role in everyone’s life whether it is paid or unpaid, but it helps us to shape our identity, allows us to structure our time and brings us in contact with each other. In today’s fast paced society, people in the workforce often move from one task to the next, only to find themselves coming up for air on Friday afternoon. Unsatisfied by their weekend and not accomplishing all they hoped, they begin to dread another week of work, and the never-ending cycle it has become. With some simple rearranging and prioritizing, there is a fix to this solution for the majority of people. Work/Life balance is a serious topic of discussion in the workplace, and the ideas are becoming more popular by the week. CEOs and managers all over the world are being faced with this issue, and constantly implementing ways to resolve it. With the vast amount of research and studies to date, majority of evidence shows the importance of work/life balance from both the standpoints of an employer, as well as an employee, as being critical in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. So, that’s why I have taken this topic to learn about the management of our personal and professional life.

Meaning of Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance doesn’t mean an equal balance. It is the power to control and stay competitive at work while maintaining a healthy and happy lifestyle at home as well as work with enough leisure. The main motive of work-life balance is to create balance in each and every area of life, which in turn increases self-fulfillment as well as helps to maintain safe from self-injury like depression and stress. A well-balanced life is when we put equal efforts in both areas. It encourages employees to divide their time on the basis of their own significances and maintain a balance by giving time to their family, health, vacations, and so on along with business travels and career. The field of Human resource management is developing day by day and the innovative techniques are developed for the improvement of the atmosphere at the workplace so that the employees can give their best and come up with a successful life and career. Moreover, it is an important concept which helps in increasing their loyalty towards the company or business.

Importance of Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is an important aspect of a healthy work environment. Maintaining a work-life balance helps reduce stress and helps to prevent burnout in the workplace. Long-term pressure is one of the workplace’s most common health issues. It can lead to physical symptoms such as diabetes, digestive disorders, chronic pain, and heart problems. Chronic stress can also have a negative impact on mental health as it is associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

Excessive pressure over a long period of time leads to burnout in the workplace. Employees who work a lot of overtime hours are at a high risk of burnout. Burnout can cause fatigue, mood swings, irritability and a decrease in work performance. By creating a work environment that prioritizes work-life balance, employers can save money and maintain a healthier, more productive workforce.

You cannot let your business consume you completely. Focusing on your company 100% of every waking hour will ruin your life, your relationships, and your ability to sleep. This is especially true for married entrepreneurs. While your family is likely to depend on your success, they need to be able to spend quality time with you as well. If your relationship gets to the point that you are in trouble feeling more like roommates and less like a married couple. The worst situation for an entrepreneur to be in is that things at the workplace are rough and there’s a lack of support at home because the wife feels depressed.

Causes of Work-Life Imbalance

There are some moderators that are linked to work-life imbalance, like:

Time: Spending long hours at work due to ‘inflexibility, changing work requirements, overtime or work duties at night’ may lead to inconsistency with work and family duties. It has been shown that ‘time spent at work was positively correlated with work interaction with family and work involvement, but it was not related to cross-domain satisfaction.’
Gender differences: According to the distinct understanding of role identity, gender differences may contribute to a job-life imbalance. It has been shown that men prefer their work duties to provide financial support to their families over their social responsibilities, whereas women prioritize their family life.

Besides these regulators that could contribute to a disparity, most people are exposed to unsolicited stress at work as they enjoy high social recognition. This aspect of life may also be the source of a mismatch. Certain workplace activities. however, it could also contribute to such an imbalance, such as contributing to house and garden duties, preserving and supporting family members or voluntary tasks. The strong pressure of time leads to increased psychological strain, which in turn affects health. Psychological strain is also affected by the complexity of the work, increasing responsibilities, long-term existential protection concerns, and more. The stresses and strains mentioned could lead to irreversible, physical signs of wear and negative effects on the cardiovascular and immune systems in the long term.

Work-life Balance Programs

To maintain the proper balance in life, the Employer should be aware of these responsibilities to balance work-life as well as personal life.

Scheduling their time: It is one of the main components that the employer should take care of. They can schedule their time by following these steps-
Telecommuting: An employee can also work online at home with the help of innovative technology. It is one of the easiest ways for computer-based job employees.
Compressed workweeks: Some companies also offer 10 hours a day, to give an extra day off as well as offer some amenities like onsite meal preparation and concierge services and so on, to make the home life a bit easier.
Health and Wellness: We all know that Health and medical insurance is the most widely offered benefit in most of the companies. In most places, there are onsite gym or discounted gym premiums for the employees as well as some wellness programs like diet and fitness workshops.

Moreover, there is one another benefit that can help employers to keep their personal issues under control is the Employee Assistance Program. The most common benefits that are provided in this program are mental health care, elder care, alcohol or drug treatment, and so on.

Personal Development and Care

In many small businesses, just one person handles the human resources function, and sometimes it is the owner of the company. Empowering employees to take responsibility for their own professional development is, therefore, a priority. Internally the company paid training and formal mentoring programs can help the employees to gain the skills to improve their growth in their current roles or help them to move further to the higher roles or positions. Moreover, some companies also offer tuition reimbursement for the employers who want to obtain a degree, certification or specialized training, so this is very helpful for the employees who never attended college or did not complete their degree requirements.

Vacations

So many companies have different norms of vacations. They provide vacation pay to their employees so that they can live their life to the fullest and enjoy their life and quality time with their family and friends. Moreover, seniors receive more vacations in some places as well as there are some of the vacation trips that are given to the employees as a reward for their good work.

Practices towards Work-Life Balance

An employer should learn to say NO when you are assigned a task that does not fall under your job description and could be easily accomplished by the person who is asking it. It’s important to say no at work because it earns you respect.
An employer should work out to be de-stress because stress is one of the main problems that can create so many issues in life. We know that there is so much workload, which can put so much pressure on us. That’s why a person should give some time every day to do Yoga, Meditation or deep breathing, which will help in de-stressing and make you feel much better and fresh.
An employer should also try to share the load with their co-workers. Each and every person in a company should share their feelings, workload or problems with others so that they can help you if you need it. In this way, you can also feel stress-free.
Each and every person should have a positive approach always, which will help them to be positive and more punctual regarding their work as well as the company.
A person should always focus on whatever they are doing. However, we should always put our best effort even if its not our core competence. We should maximize our productivity at work and make sure that the unfinished work should never come over in our personal time.
Moreover, you can have a second phone with you because if you receive phone calls and emails from clients and colleagues on one phone, then you can use another phone for the family and friends. Whenever you leave work you can off the work phone and use another one. So, in this way you can balance your time with family and work.
An employer should set SMART goals in their life which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
The last and important step to maintain work-life balance is to be organized always because we should manage our day properly instead of having the day to manage you.

Components of Work-life Balance

There are six main components of work-life balance as following:

Self-Management

It can be difficult to maintain one’s self properly, particularly to get proper sleep, exercise and food. Self-management is the understanding that it is important to use spaces wisely in our lives and that the money, energy and life available are limited. It means being our own ship’s captain; no one will come for us to guide.

Time Management

Effective time management means making the best use of your day and the tools that can be mobilised to help you–you keep pace as the resources exceed the challenges. Time control is improved by clear priorities and the discernment of what is important and immediate, as opposed to important or urgent. This involves knowing what you are doing best and when and getting together the appropriate tools to support you.

Stress Management

In the period of time, societies tend to become more complex. Stress on the person is inevitable, in front of increasing uncertainty. More people, distractions, and noise require each of us to be able to maintain quietly and work out of situations that are full of pressure. Basically, most ways of multi-tasking raise the pressure as opposed to focusing on one thing at a time.

Leisure Management

The most neglected of the work-life balance that encompasses professions, leisure management recognises the importance of rest and relaxation— that one can not cut recreation, and that ‘time off’ is a critical component of human interaction. Curiously, however fun, too much of the same leisure activity will result in monotony. Good recreational planning thus includes a variety of activities

Technology Management

Good innovation leadership means ensuring that you are served by software rather than abussing you. From the first walking stick, flint, knife, and drum, engineering has always been with us. The rate of change is now rising, fuelled by vendors seeking to expand market share. There is often no alternative but to keep up with the Joneses technologies, but innovation must be regulated, not vice versa.

Change Management

Shift is essentially the only constant in our fast-paced world. Adopting new methods on an ongoing basis and adapting others is key to a successful career and a happy home life. Effective change management involves regular and concerted efforts to ensure that you are not overwhelmed or defeated by the volume and rate of change at work and at home.

Importance of Work-life Balance in Human Resource Management

Work-life balance is about creating and maintaining inclusive and stable work environments so that work and personal responsibilities can be managed, and employee satisfaction and performance can be improved. Today’s employees have many overlapping commitments such as school, youth, housework, fundraising, partner and elderly parent care, and this puts stress on the people, households, and neighbourhoods they live in. Conflict in work and life is a major issue that affects employees, employers and societies. Extended hours of work and highly stressful careers not only hamper the ability to harmonise work and family life but are also associated with health risks such as increased consumption of smoking and alcohol, weight gain and anxiety. There have been many physical and mental health effects associated with work-life dispute.

However, it is very important part of an organization because when employees are balanced, then everything is balanced. A more positive mood develops as stress is controlled and has been shown to help protect physical and mental health. A healthy, satisfied community is becoming more positive and productive. In response to the strategic aim of organization, work-life balance is about creating and maintaining inclusive and stable work environments that will allow for a balance between work and personal responsibility. Employers are increasingly aware of the financial effects of overworked practises such as operational and production expenses, absenteeism, timeliness, dedication and efficiency. There are five main reasons that companies engage in work-life balance programmes: high investment gains, recruitment and retention, policy, expenses, and labour rules. So, in these ways it plays a very important role in HR as well as a company wellness and growth.

Work life can influence organizational productivity and the well being of the employees in different ways. Given below are some of the areas in terms of opportunities and concerns on which work life issues can have an impact:

1. Employee Engagement at Work and Quality of Customer Service

A work-life disparity would adversely affect the workers ‘ full participation in the workforce and hamper the quality of the services provided to consumers. On the other hand, the quality of service will be reliable and consistent if the workers believe that the leadership appreciates their contributions, or their involvement and that the organisation is dedicated to both personal and professional success of the employees.

2. Impact on the Profitability and Growth

Excessive pressure to achieve the goals of efficiency and development creates stress, hampers workers ‘ overall productivity and disturbs their work-life balance. A well-planned and executed work-life balance approach will significantly alleviate the work burden on both the workplace and perceived work pressure, which in effect can encourage productivity for workers and lead to a career. A well-planned and executed work-life balance approach will significantly alleviate career pressure as well as potential workforce stresses, which in turn can positively improve employee productivity and lead to a good return on investment.

3. Rising Cost of Health Care and Medications

A large percentage of workers are faced with lifestyle-related diseases and major health issues due to an increase in the rate of job stress and never changing demands. This has become a serious concern for companies due to rising health care costs and a drastic reduction in the worker productivity rate. Such questions prompted the management to give the importance to work-life balance priorities and creating a healthier workplace by executing many developmental initiatives.

So, I think that Work-life initiatives is not a choice but an imperious component for the management. It is because the staff look forward to the management’s guidance and care about issues related to their work-life.

Steps that I Want to Take in Future to Enhance my Knowledge on this Topic

According to me, I think that Work-life balance is one of the main parts of our life because balance is a key toward success and we should manage our time properly. I want to enhance more knowledge on this topic in future because I need to develop and prioritize realistic goals. By working on this topic, I learnt to manage my time effectively at work when it is difficult and busy as well as I can’t delegate most of my tasks. That’s why I want to learn more about work life balancing so that I can be stress-free and happy in my personal as well as professional life.

Conclusion

Work-life balance is a best elusive ideal and useful in everybody’s life. Through work life balance the individual will feel relaxed and organized as well as the productivity of the person increases which will lead to accomplishing tasks efficiently as well as to attain greater success. It will improve relationships with families and friends. Moreover, there will be better mental and physical health as well as enough leisure time.

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