work life balance

Management of employees? work-life balance in the 20th and 21st century

Work-life balance is a concept about properly collaborating work life with leisure life on the whole, which is very important in people?s health and happiness. With the increasingly numbers of women workers, single parents and dual working couples, employees are facing more challenging situation in dealing with work and family life properly. Imbalance life/work can result in job stress, lesser family closeness and other effects.

When comparing employees? work-life balance in the 20th with the one in 21st century, the most oblivious difference is the separation between work and leisure. In the late 1970s, the term \–life balance\was firstly employed in the United Kingdom to describe the balance between an individual's work and personal life (Dragani 2005). In the 20th century, this also called pre-information technology era, this separation essentially refers to the physical separation between the work and the home. Nowadays due to the appearance of new technologies, we can connect with work through telephones, remote server access, tablets, office-software and emails. Thus, in the 21st century, the separation is no longer the physical separation between the worksite and the home.

Moreover, there are differences in employees on whom work-life balance programs and policies focus between the 20th and 21st century. In the 1980s, initial work-life balance programs and policies were mainly concentrated on women with

children (Lockwood 2003). Since 1990s, this range broadens to focus on more people, men or women regardless of married or not and with or without children. Their policy shifts from “work-family” and “family-friendly” to a larger “work-life balance” (Lewis et al, 2007).

A survey of 77 workers from the oil and gas industry shows that 80% of respondents admit the importance of the work-life balance and 12% says that their current work/life balance is dismal or unsatisfactory (Dragani 2005). Moreover, 93% of respondents feel obligated to take work home with them (Dragani 2005). This fact stands for the difference between 20th and 21st century work-life balance because most of current workers use work-related electronic devices. In 21st century, employees bring work to home because they want to spend more times with their families and friends. On the other hand, new technology related work also make more work hours possible for the employee and therefore life/work imbalance are more possible to occur.

One effects that life/work imbalance may cause is job stress for the reason of overtime work and modern working ways. Nowadays, job stress is pervasive and widely experience that it influences people from all industries, ranks and socio-economic status levels (Scott, 2014). Moreover, there is a close link between job stress and chronic stress. Hence, job stress can make significant effects on overall health and wellness. Job stress can make people away from others because when they are not in a good mood and they may be anxious or impatient with others.

There are three consequences of the life/work imbalance. Spending lots of time on the work can make employees fatigue and further influences their physical and mental health. Then friendship will be shaded for the reason that long time on the work means the lesser time with friend. Moreover, they will miss big family events and lost opportunities with their families which endanger the closeness between families. Thirdly, the overtime work brings increased expectations from leaders and employers as well as more concerns and challenges (Staff 2012).

Reference

Lockwood, N.R. (2003). Work-Life Balance: Challenges and Solutions, SHRM Research Quarterly No 2. Society for Human Resource Management, USA.

Lewis, S. Gambles, R. & Rapoport, R. (2007). The constraints of a ?work–life balance? approach: an international perspective. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(3), 360–373.

Jarrett Dragani (2005). Work-life balance in the 21st century. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Naithani Pranav (2010). Overview of work-life balance discourse and its relevance in current economic scenario. Asian Social Science, 6(6): 148-155.

Elizabeth Scott (June 05, 2014). Chronic Job Stress is a Risk Factor for Heart Disease: Stress and Metabolic Syndrome. 31 October, 2014.

http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/jobstress.htm

Mayo Clinic Staff (Jul 12, 2012). Work-life balance: Tips to reclaim control. Healthy lifestyle: Adult health. 31 October, 2014.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/adult-health/in-depth/work-life-balance/art-20048134