work life balance essays

Essay Service Examples Life Work-life Balance

Work-Life Balance Essay: Meaning, Importance And Causes

Introduction, meaning of work-life balance, importance of work-life balance, causes of work-life imbalance, work-life balance programs, personal development and care, practices towards work-life balance, components of work-life balance, self-management, time management, stress management, leisure management, technology management, change management, importance of work-life balance in human resource management, 1. employee engagement at work and quality of customer service, 2. impact on the profitability and growth, 3. rising cost of health care and medications, steps that i want to take in future to enhance my knowledge on this topic.

Proper editing and formatting
Free revision, title page, and bibliography
Flexible prices and money-back guarantee

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.
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.
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.

Our writers will provide you with an essay sample written from scratch: any topic, any deadline, any instructions.

Cite this paper

Join our 150k of happy users

Get original paper written according to your instructions
Save time for what matters most

Fair Use Policy

EduBirdie considers academic integrity to be the essential part of the learning process and does not support any violation of the academic standards. Should you have any questions regarding our Fair Use Policy or become aware of any violations, please do not hesitate to contact us via [email protected].

We are here 24/7 to write your paper in as fast as 3 hours.

Provide your email, and we'll send you this sample!

By providing your email, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy .

Say goodbye to copy-pasting!

Get custom-crafted papers for you.

Enter your email, and we'll promptly send you the full essay. No need to copy piece by piece. It's in your inbox!

Bipolar Disorder
Therapy Center
When To See a Therapist
Types of Therapy
Best Online Therapy
Best Couples Therapy
Best Family Therapy
Managing Stress
Sleep and Dreaming
Understanding Emotions
Self-Improvement
Healthy Relationships
Student Resources
Personality Types
Guided Meditations
Verywell Mind Insights
2024 Verywell Mind 25
Mental Health in the Classroom
Editorial Process
Meet Our Review Board
Crisis Support

Why Work-Life Balance Is So Important—and How to Nail It

When the workday is over, it should really be over

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Rachel Goldman, PhD FTOS, is a licensed psychologist, clinical assistant professor, speaker, wellness expert specializing in eating behaviors, stress management, and health behavior change.

Mixetto / Getty Images

What Do We Mean When We Say "Work-Life Balance"?

How Can I Tell If I Have a Healthy Work-Life Balance?

Can i request a healthier work-life balance (if so, how), how to improve your work-life balance.

Does it ever feel like your job is taking over your life? Or do you seem to have so many personal obligations that you can’t give 100% at work? We know we need work-life balance, but finding harmony between your professional and personal life isn't always as easy as it sounds.

Work plays a major role in our lives. It takes up much of our waking hours during the traditional workweek. That’s why it’s so important to make sure that we are also taking care of the areas of our lives that keep us healthy and happy.

Professional fulfillment can be a part of that, for sure. But well-being also involves all of the things outside of work that makes your life worthwhile, including your family, hobbies, health, and relationships (not to mention sleep, exercise, balanced meals, and relaxation).

At a Glance

Work-life balance generally refers to a balance between your personal and work life. The goal is to strive to keep that balance so that we are managing stress and burnout by fulfilling other areas of our lives that aren't swallowed up by work. Remember: That "balance" may shift at times and is never really a 50/50 split. We can accept that there may not ever be a balance, but we can strive to feel more grounded and balanced by making a personalized plan, exploring ways to improve that balance with our manager, taking breaks, and creating set boundaries between our personal vs. professional duties. If we're in a position to change jobs and our conversations with our manager are unsuccessful, we could also explore other opportunities that offer more flexibility.

What Do We Mean When We Say "Work-Life Balance"?

Work-life balance is usually defined as an equilibrium between your professional and personal life. When you keep things balanced, no single element of your life dominates and overwhelms the others.

"Work-life balance is the concept that you effectively manage your professional life and responsibilities so that you are productive and successful at work while ensuring you have plenty of dedicated time to live a fulfilling, grounded, personal life," says Abbey Sangmeister, MS.Ed, LPC, ACS .

That’s a general definition of the concept, but "work-life" balance can also mean different things to different people. Researchers suggest that this is because this balance is all about individual perception. It's something you feel when your work and non-work activities are in harmony and are compatible with your current goals and priorities.

The things that make your own work-life situation feel manageable may differ depending on your needs and your situation.

For working parents, it often means finding a way to juggle the responsibilities of a career while still finding time for a fulfilling family life. With rising numbers of older workers, work-life balance may focus more on staying active in the workforce while finding ways to manage health issues or disabilities.

Major shifts in how we work have also helped change the definition of work-life balance for many people. For many people, work-life balance meant clocking out at 5 p.m. and not thinking about work until you showed up at the office at 9 a.m. the next day.

Being tethered to an office is a thing of the past for many folks. It makes sense that, for many of us, the option for flexible or remote work is an essential part of work-life balance. This means that work-life balance is much more personal and nuanced these days–but it also makes finding a balance harder than ever before.

Many times people think balance is a 50/50 split but that is not always the case. For each person, the balance may look different and will shift during different seasons of their life. The important part of having balance is that the person does not feel that one area of life is draining and depleting the other.

What Work-Life Balance Is Not

Work-life balance isn’t about slacking off, skipping work, or putting in less effort . Obviously, we all have our good and bad days, but there are ways to manage the days we’re feeling a little "off" that don’t involve hurting yourself professionally.

Procrastinating or shirking your responsibilities aren’t effective ways to cope. You might feel a little better for a bit, but it ultimately creates more problems in the future. Work piles up, deadlines fly by, and your employer might start to notice that you’re not putting in your best effort.

The goal is to find a harmonious balance that works for you, between the demands on your time and energy, without neglecting important areas of your life.

You don’t want to ignore your personal life in favor of your job, but you also shouldn’t deal with stress by neglecting your workplace duties.

So how exactly can you tell if you have a healthy work-life balance? It can look a little different for everyone (since we all have different work, family, and relationship situations).

"Lack of regular overwhelm and frustration are good signs that one does have good work-life balance. People who struggle with the Sunday scaries and dread or have a case of [the] Mondays more times than not are most likely struggling with an imbalance," Sangmeister suggests.

The following are a few signs that you’re striking a good balance between your job and other areas of your life:

You don't feel like the demands of your work roles and personal obligations are constantly in conflict
You're able to meet your deadlines at work without having to work overtime
You're getting plenty of sleep at night and eating a healthy, balanced diet
You don't spend the end of your weekend consumed by the " Sunday Scaries "
You have plenty of time to relax and enjoy your hobbies
You feel like you're spending enough time with family and friends
You don't worry about your job when you're not at work
You feel like you're being productive at work and making progress toward your professional goals, but you don't feel like your whole identity hinges on your job
You're taking your vacation days (and using your sick days when you need them)
You're taking advantage of any work-life benefits your employer offers, like gym memberships, flexible scheduling, and childcare vouchers

Remember that work-life balance isn't something you can just check off your to-do list. It’s only natural that the demands of your job and outside life shift and change over time. That means that what you need to keep the balance will change over time.

"With a good work-life balance, a person is less likely to be rigid with their schedule," Sangmeister says. "Instead, they are able to be flexible and can adapt to include demands that may come up professionally or personally without disrupting the feeling of balance."

To figure out if you have a good work-life balance, think about what's most important to you. What helps you to feel your best? Are you taking care of yourself personally and professionally? Are you managing your stress and watching for signs of burnout?

If you're struggling to find a balance between work and the rest of your life, it might be time to have a conversation with your supervisor. This includes work-life benefits like hybrid, flexible, or remote work. Flextime, alternative work schedules, child care options, and access to mental health services are important work-life benefits employers offer to attract employees.

There are things that your employer can do to help foster a better work-life balance. It's something that benefits them as well. Research has shown that workers with better work-life balance are more satisfied with their jobs , perform better at work, and are more committed to their organizations.

A conversation with your employer might help you find ways to work together to make things more manageable. This might involve reprioritizing your tasks, delegating some work to others, hiring additional help, or allowing you to work remotely when needed.

Unfortunately, these aren't always options, depending on the nature of your profession or your role in the workplace. In many cases, making a change hinges on how you approach your job. It might mean changing your priorities, delegating tasks at home, or letting your colleagues know you can no longer respond to work-related problems during your downtime.

It's also important to be aware of your legal rights. If you need certain accommodations because you are pregnant or have a disability, these needs may be protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

This includes protections if you are dealing with depression , anxiety , or another mental health condition. (You will need to have your condition diagnosed by your doctor, and you may need to provide documentation for your employer when you request an accommodation.)

How to Ask Your Boss for Better Work-Life Balance

Schedule a time to talk to your employer and tell them what you plan to discuss. During your meeting, explain your problem, and share your ideas for how you think you can work together to resolve the issue.

If you've been overwhelmed by your workload and putting in too many hours, you might suggest redistributing some of your tasks to other team members to help lighten the load.

Remember to stay professional and show respect for your employer's needs. Reiterate your commitment, and explain that you think finding a better balance will help you feel more productive and satisfied with your job.

So what’s next if you feel like your work-life balance is in shambles? It's time to take a step back, figure out what is wrong, and make a plan to fix it. Your health literally depends on it.

Many studies have demonstrated that people who have more conflict between their work and non-work life are more likely to experience health problems, mental health conditions, and poor overall health outcomes.

Make a Plan

Bringing more balance to your life starts with figuring out what’s causing the problem in the first place. Are your work hours too long? Or are work obligations encroaching on your off-time? Do you feel like you have no control over your schedule? Or are you taking on too many demands and need some relief?

Creating a personalized plan for how you are going to tackle your work-life balance can help you figure out what's wrong and which strategies will be most effective .

Create Divisions Between Your Work and Non-Work Life

Flexible and remote work can be a great way to promote balance in your life, but it often blurs the lines between your personal and professional life. You may find yourself working longer than normal hours, catching up on work when you should be relaxing, or staying up late to answer those last few emails you forgot to send earlier.

The problem is that, over time, there is a distinct lack of balance. Because you never feel like you have any mental space from your job, it starts to feel like you’re always working. Your home life becomes your work life.

If you are fully or partially remote, there are things you can do to help promote better work-life balance:

Create a schedule : Figure out which hours you can work during the day and stick with it. Creating a regular schedule can help you feel more productive. “ Start your mornings off with routines and rituals that are grounded. If you start your day sprinting the moment your alarm goes off, that energy carries through the day and leads to burnout,” Sangmeister says.
Get ready for work : While you don't need to wear a suit and tie to work from your home office (unless you want to), consider wearing something other than your favorite 'lounging around the house' outfit. Dressing professionally when you are working can help create a mental division between your job and your home life.
Let other people know when you're offline : Use different communication tools to let others know when you are offline. For example, put your work hours on your Google Calendar, set your Slack availability to prevent notifications during your off-time, and set up out-of-office emails when you are on vacation.
Plan activities during your non-work hours : Give yourself things to look forward to once you are off work. It might involve getting together with friends, but it can be as simple as preparing a nice meal and settling in to stream an episode of a series you’re watching.

Take Breaks

Taking breaks is also essential. This includes mini-breaks during the work day and periodic days off or vacations.

"Taking an intentional day off periodically is a great way to improve work-life balance,” Sangmeister explains. "On these intentional days off, don’t just tackle a to-do list and chores; instead, work on personal development and mindfulness."

She also recommends mini-vacations and tech-free weekends . Even scheduling a little tech-free time each day can be helpful.

Don't Work When You're Not at Work

It might sound obvious (and simple), but it can be harder to stick with than you might expect. When your workday is over, it needs to be over. That means no checking work emails, looking at notifications, or logging in to finish "one last thing."

Even if all you're doing is reading your messages that you plan to work on tomorrow, you're letting your work interfere with your personal time. It creates pressure and stress that distracts you from feeling fully relaxed or completely present during non-work hours.

Set boundaries around the hours you work and create no work zones. That means even when you have “free time,” you aren’t going to open your phone or laptop to do work at certain times or in certain places.

Know What Burnout Looks Like

When your work-life balance is seriously screwed up (i.e., you're spending every waking moment working, thinking about work, stressing about work, or dreading work), there's a good chance you're headed for burnout .

Being burned out is more than just being tired and unmotivated—it means you've reached a state where you feel so exhausted and empty that you can hardly cope with daily life, let alone care about work.

Signs of burnout can be physical, such as headaches, high blood pressure, stomach aches, and frequent illness. But they are also mental and include problems sleeping, depressed moods, loss of interest, fatigue, problems concentrating, and apathy .

If you’ve reached this point, it means you need to make serious changes to your work environment. That might mean taking time off or switching to a different position. Sometimes, it might even mean thinking about changing jobs altogether.

Consider Changing Jobs

So you’ve had a conversation (or more than one) with your boss, but they are refusing to offer any flexibility to make any changes that will help you feel better about your relationship with your job–what now?

If poor work-life balance is taking a toll on your well-being and isn't something you can solve on your own or by working with your employer, it might be time to consider taking a more serious step–changing your job altogether.

Wait until you’ve had time to consider the problem and your options. Spend some time looking at other positions in your field (or even other fields if you’re ready to make a more significant change). Look at job review sites to see what other current and past employees are saying to learn more about what you might find in terms of work-life balance if you take a job with another company.

Finding a job you truly love can be a great way to feel more positively about the balance between your work and your outside life.

What This Means For You

Finding that perfect balance between your work and your life can seem like performing a tightrope act. If you're struggling, it might be worth talking to your boss about how they can help support your well-being (and foster greater job satisfaction and loyalty). Remember: the goal is not to have a 50/50 balance—it's about finding a balance that feels good to you and, most importantly, works for you.

Taking steps to manage your time and boundaries is also essential. Make time for family, friends, hobbies, health, and self-care—the things that help you feel personally fulfilled outside of work. "Schedule, schedule, schedule," Sangmeister recommends. "Make these appointments just as important as any work meeting."

Gragnano A, Simbula S, Miglioretti M. Work-life balance: Weighing the importance of work-family and work-health balance . Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2020;17(3):907. doi:10.3390/ijerph17030907

Wong KP, Lee FCH, Teh PL, Chan AHS. The interplay of socioecological determinants of work-life balance, subjective wellbeing and employee wellbeing . Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2021;18(9):4525. doi:10.3390/ijerph18094525

Sirgy MJ, Lee D-J. Work-life balance: An integrative review . Appl Res Qual Life . 2018;13:229–254. doi: 10.1007/s11482-017-9509-8

Borowiec AA, Drygas W. Work-life balance and mental and physical health among Warsaw specialists, managers and entrepreneurs . Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2022;20(1):492. doi:10.3390/ijerph20010492

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Essay on Work Life Balance

Students are often asked to write an essay on Work Life Balance in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Work Life Balance

Understanding work-life balance.

Work-life balance is about dividing your time between work and personal activities. It is important because it helps you stay happy, healthy, and productive.

Importance of Work-Life Balance

When you have a good work-life balance, you can focus on your job and still have time for hobbies, family, and friends. This balance can reduce stress and increase job satisfaction.

Strategies for Achieving Balance

To achieve work-life balance, set boundaries between work and personal time. Prioritize tasks and take breaks to relax. Remember, balance is key to a fulfilling life.

Also check:

250 Words Essay on Work Life Balance

Introduction.

Work-life balance, a concept that once seemed like a far-off dream, has now become a central discussion point in modern society. It represents the equilibrium that an individual needs between their work and personal life.

The Importance of Balance

A well-balanced life is crucial for personal happiness, relationships, and overall well-being. It also impacts productivity, job satisfaction, and even the quality of work. An imbalance can lead to stress, burnout, and health issues.

The Role of Employers

Employers play a significant role in promoting work-life balance. They can implement flexible working hours, remote working opportunities, and limit overtime. Encouraging employees to take regular breaks and vacation time also contributes to a healthier work environment.

Personal Responsibility

However, the onus is not solely on employers. Individuals must also take responsibility for managing their time effectively. This includes setting boundaries, prioritizing tasks, and ensuring they allocate time for leisure and relaxation.

In conclusion, work-life balance is not a luxury but a necessity in the modern world. It requires a collective effort from both employers and employees. By prioritizing this balance, we can create a healthier, happier, and more productive society.

500 Words Essay on Work Life Balance

Introduction to work-life balance.

Work-life balance, a term that has gained significant traction in recent years, refers to the equilibrium that an individual needs to maintain between work-related activities and personal life. In a fast-paced world where the boundaries between work and personal life are increasingly blurred, achieving this balance is both challenging and crucial.

The Importance of Work-Life Balance

Challenges to work-life balance.

In today’s era of technological advancements, the line between work and personal life has become increasingly blurred. The ability to work remotely or from home, while offering flexibility, can also lead to “always-on” work culture. This culture can create an environment where employees feel they are expected to be available around the clock, leading to increased stress and decreased personal time.

Moreover, societal and peer pressure can also create a culture of overwork. The glorification of being busy and the association of long hours with dedication and productivity often leads to an imbalance, affecting both mental and physical health.

Strategies for Achieving Work-Life Balance

1. Setting Boundaries: It’s crucial to establish clear boundaries between work and personal life. This could mean setting specific work hours, taking regular breaks, and ensuring time for relaxation and leisure activities.

2. Time Management: Effective time management is key. Prioritizing tasks, delegating when possible, and using productivity tools can help manage workload and free up time for personal activities.

4. Organizational Policies: Companies can foster work-life balance by implementing policies such as flexible working hours, remote work options, and promoting a culture that values employee well-being.

Work-life balance is not a luxury, but a necessity for holistic well-being. It is a dynamic process that requires continuous effort and adaptation to the changing demands of our personal and professional lives. By prioritizing both work and personal life, individuals can achieve a sense of harmony and satisfaction, leading to a healthier and more productive life.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Happy studying!

One Comment

Work-Life Balance in Psychology: 12 Examples and Theories

We might be a professional, a parent, a partner, a sports person, a community member, a friend, a child.

Our roles and responsibilities differ for each role, and the challenge is to meaningfully satisfy these requirements with as little conflict as possible. This is known as work–life balance.

In this post, we explore the concept of work–life balance: what it is, why it’s important, and if it’s possible to achieve.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Happiness & Subjective Wellbeing Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients identify sources of authentic happiness and strategies to boost wellbeing.

This Article Contains:

What is work–life balance, 4 real-life examples, is balance important 3 benefits according to research, 8 psychology theories & models, is it possible to achieve work–life balance, work–life balance vs work–life integration, positivepsychology.com’s relevant resources, a take-home message.

Work–life balance (WLB) is a somewhat recent phenomenon, arising from employees’ concerns about the demands expected by their work (Guest, 2002). The perceived increase in these demands can be traced to three factors (Guest, 2002):

Changes in the work environment
Changes in life
Changes in individual attitudes

History surrounding the concept of ‘work–life balance’

In the 1970s, the concept of WLB was initially framed as one concerning work–family balance (Lockwood, 2003). This was partly due to concerns surrounding women joining the workforce (Fleetwood, 2007). The workforce primarily comprised men, whereas women were often employed informally. However, when women could engage in formal employment, the result was that they had to juggle both work and family-life responsibilities.

However, the concept of WLB doesn’t affect women only.

For example:

Men also play an essential role in child rearing.
Men are not always the primary breadwinner in heterosexual couples.
Gay couples also have to juggle both work and family-life responsibilities.

Furthermore, couples who do not have children and individuals who are not in relationships should not be excluded from issues around WLB.

Thus, societal pressures for equal labor opportunities and conditions, coupled with general shifts in industries and attitudes toward gender roles, resulted in more attention on WLB.

This is why the concept changed from work– family life balance to work– life balance, since our personal lives are not limited only to familial needs (Lockwood, 2003).

Other changes in the work environment have contributed to concerns about WLB.

Technological advancements have increased work pressure.
Deadlines have become increasingly tight.
The expected response times for communication have become shorter.
Expectations of superb customer service have become higher.

These changing work demands lead to inevitable changes in personal lives. For example, working overtime and on weekends leads to less time available to spend on personal life interests.

WLB has also been driven by changes in individual attitudes and values. One such example is how societal attitudes toward work and life have changed from one generation to the next (Thijssen, Van der Heijden, & Rocco, 2008; Wey Smola & Sutton, 2002). Specifically, the likelihood of remaining employed at one company has declined since the 1990s (Eby, Butts, & Lockwood, 2003). As a result, some workers may consider work as a separate, dynamic aspect of life that doesn’t require absolute commitment.

Definitions of WLB

There’s no cohesive, agreed-upon definition of work–life balance in the literature (Kalliath & Brough, 2008). However, the common understanding is that there are (at least) two domains in life: work and personal. Both domains require attention and investment, but not at the sacrifice of each other.

Kalliath and Brough (2008) provide the following set of statements that synthesize the various definitions of WLB provided in the literature:

People perform different roles in their life, including a work role and a personal life role, and the demands of one role can carry over to the demands of another.
People should be able to commit equal amounts of time and energy to all roles.
People should feel satisfied with their own performance in various life domains and should function optimally in these domains. Their performance and function across life domains should not clash.
The roles that people perform in their life and the importance they assign to these roles change. Therefore, satisfaction with WLB depends on which roles people have prioritized now and whether their expectations are met.
WLB is achieved when there is little conflict between individuals’ work and personal roles.
WLB is considered to be the degree of autonomy that people have over the demands of various roles and their ability to meet these demands.

Before becoming a professor at the University of Arkansas, Ryoichi Fujiwara was an academic in Japan. She shares the harmful physical symptoms that she experienced from overworking. She lost 22 pounds, was never hungry, couldn’t sleep, and was working every weekend.

At the advice of her doctor, she decided to start keeping regular work hours and avoiding overtime. She also started exercising regularly. After a few months, her appetite returned, and she has maintained a healthier work–life balance (Fujiwara, 2021).

Mohadeseh Ganji was the recipient of the Women Leading Tech Award for Data Science in 2020. She is aware that the nature of the job is to spend most of her working time in front of her computer.

To counter this, she makes an effort to be outdoors, even if only for a short period, and she tries to set boundaries around her working hours. Admittedly, sometimes she cannot maintain these boundaries, but she is aware of this and is always actively working to reinforce them (Fleetwood, 2021).

Monash University interviewed five women researchers at their university and asked them about the challenges that they experience in their jobs.

Most of the researchers touched on the idea of work–life balance, specifically juggling a heavy workload with family responsibilities. For example, Professor Andrea Reupert, Professor Jane Wilkinson, and Associate Professor Ruth Jeanes emphasized that:

Sharing caregiving roles and responsibilities helps to ease stress experienced by working moms.
Clear work–life boundaries with time dedicated to specific tasks helps achieve work–life balance (Allen, 2021).

Nigel Marsh worked in a corporate industry and experienced a common challenge: working too much with little time for his family. In his TEDx Talk , he gives his suggestions for what contributes to successful work–life balance.

In his often humorous talk, he argues that it’s difficult to achieve work–life balance, because core issues are not addressed.

These issues are:

There is a societal emphasis on materialism.
Individuals must be responsible for their own lives and must be allowed to set their own boundaries.
Work–life balance isn’t achieved in a single day but could be achieved across a longer period of time.
Balance means that multiple domains need to be attended to, and micro changes can have macro effects.

Download 3 Free Happiness Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients with tools to discover authentic happiness and cultivate subjective well-being.

Download 3 Free Happiness Tools Pack (PDF)

By filling out your name and email address below.

Email Address *
Your Expertise * Your expertise Therapy Coaching Education Counseling Business Healthcare Other
Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Before heralding WLB as an optimal way of living, let’s first explore some assumptions about WLB within the extant literature.

Assumptions about work–life balance

The first two assumptions about WLB are that there are multiple domains in our lives, including work and personal, and that these domains can be separated (Eikhof, Warhurst, & Haunschild, 2007). However, the degree of separation differs among people and industries. For example, someone who runs a home business may find it more difficult to separate their work life from their personal life.

Another assumption is that we typically dedicate too much time and energy to the work domain. These resources are finite and can include time, energy, and motivation. The result of this imbalance is that we have too few resources to dedicate to other domains, specifically the personal domain (Eikhof et al., 2007).

Studies on WLB do not investigate an imbalance where too few resources are available for work.

Another assumption is that work is a negative domain that results in unhappiness, stress, and other negative states (Eikhof et al., 2007). Presumably, if a balance is struck between these two domains, then the negative effects of work are negated by the positive benefits of personal life. However, the WLB argument ignores how fulfilling and satisfying work can be (Eikhof et al., 2007).

Benefits of work–life balance

Achieving WLB benefits both work and personal lives (Chimote & Srivastava, 2013; Lockwood, 2003).

These benefits include:

People have more time available to run personal errands, such as servicing cars, and address personal issues, such as going to the doctor. As a result, people are less likely to use work hours on non-work-related issues, use fewer sick days for personal errands, and can also look after themselves through regular medical checkups.
People who have more time for their personal life report high job satisfaction and, as a result, are less likely to resign. They are also more motivated at work and more productive.
Happier people who have high job satisfaction and more time for their personal life are less likely to develop illnesses and stress-related conditions.

One limitation of these theories is that the two domains are purposely considered to be separate constructs, and the people in the two domains are different. Therefore, these theories do not extend to situations where work is a family-run business (i.e., when your sibling is also your coworker).

The models are described below.

Segmentation : The two domains – work and life – exist separately from each other, and there is no relationship between these two domains. Experiences in one domain do not affect experiences in the other.
Spillover : Work and life domains are separate, but factors in one domain can affect the other. These effects can be negative or positive. Edwards and Rothbard (2000) provide the following definition: the behaviors, feelings, and values of the two domains become more similar.
Compensation : Experiences and feelings in one domain can be used to make up or compensate for the gaps in another. A typical example is where dissatisfaction in one domain is negated by satisfaction in another. The process of compensation is an active and conscious decision (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000).
Resource drain : Optimal functioning requires the availability of resources such as time, energy, and motivation. These resources, however, are finite. Sometimes, optimal functioning in one domain might require more resources from another. The transfer of resources is not considered an autonomous process, like in the compensation model (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000).
Instrumental : The choices in one domain allow for maximum success in another.
Congruence : Due to the presence of a third variable, the experiences across domains are similar. Examples of these third variables are individual qualities, such as personality or coping styles, or external factors, such as social influences.
Conflict : The choices and needs of all domains compete for our limited resources, causing stress and/or unhappiness. As a result, our roles across various domains conflict with each other. Conflict may include reduced functioning in personal life due to work pressures (known as work–family conflict); it can also be the other way around, where family pressures impair occupational functioning and performance (known as family–work conflict; Bakker & Demerouti, 2013).
An eighth theory, the spillover-crossover model , was posited by Bakker and Demerouti (2013). They argue that positive or negative experiences in one domain can spill over to another, but their effects can cross over and impact the wellbeing of other people.

Admittedly, the jury is still out on this question.

Some researchers and professionals have reservations about whether it is possible to achieve WLB (McCormack & Niehoff, 2019).

Although the definition of WLB has its shortcomings, there is enough research to suggest the following:

It is possible to increase employee job and life satisfaction by improving workplace conditions.
Stress can affect life satisfaction.
Healthy WLB can positively affect health (Jones, Burke, & Westman, 2013).

The aim is not to treat WLB as a single goal, which, once achieved, is ignored and never addressed again. Instead, consider WLB to be a kinetic balancing toy.

Sometimes the balance will shift toward work; sometimes it will shift toward personal life. The point is to be aware of feelings about work and personal life and to engage in behaviors that will buttress against the negative effects of stress and of the scale shifting too much toward one particular life domain.

Another consideration is that WLB is not a universal, absolute value. In other words, two people can achieve balance in different ways and at different points along the work–life spectrum.

Reiter (2007) makes a convincing argument that ‘balance’ is subjective; instead of striving toward an absolute value of WLB, it is better to strive toward optimal functioning within different life domains with as little conflict as possible between them.

Work–life integration challenges some assumptions of the typical argument of WLB, specifically that work and personal life are separate domains.

Work–life integration is considered the midpoint between zero and complete segmentation of work and personal life (Morris & Madsen, 2007).

One unique contribution that work–life integration brings to the debate surrounding WLB is the function that the community can play. Researchers who promote work–life integration argue that people in the work, personal life, and community domains can work together to help one another achieve their goals in each domain.

Unfortunately, these same people can also impair success in various life domains. As a result, work–life integration can be considered as an ecosystem containing different people with different roles, and their actions with one another in multiple domains can help or hinder successful work–life integration.

Morris and Madsen (2007) argue that for successful work–life integration, people should consider the following points that can contribute to success and happiness across domains:

Identifying, addressing, and supporting role demands in various life domains
Identifying, addressing, and supporting relationship demands in various life domains
Identifying, addressing, and supporting different responsibilities in various life domains
Outlining a set of rules about behavior in various life domains but also identifying different responses to these rules and clarifying whether these rules are malleable or concrete
Identifying the rituals (i.e., structured behaviors that are expected) in different domains and addressing whether these rituals hinder or help domain success
Identifying the resources that are needed to achieve domain success but also assessing the availability of resources in each domain

Consider this example: Bjorn is newly wed and a new parent. He often works long hours at the local pharmacy. By coming home late, he has less time to spend with his wife and their new baby, and consequently he cannot offer as much emotional support to his wife as he would like. Bjorn is unhappy, and there is some tension between him and his wife; as a result, Bjorn feels angry toward his boss.

Work–life integration theory argues that people are not limited to their roles within only one particular domain; their actions in one domain can affect others.

Therefore, Bjorn’s employers and colleagues must recognize their role in his performance in other domains and put into place certain systems that can lead to optimal functioning in other domains.

Examples would include:

Recognizing that the long hours are causing tension between Bjorn and his wife
Recognizing that having a newborn is a stressful experience in general
Allowing Bjorn to take parental leave
Allowing Bjorn to work flexible hours so that he can help at home and make up the lost time in other ways
Allowing Bjorn to take leave in order to take his baby to the doctor or run errands
Organizing social events so that Bjorn and his wife can meet his colleagues and get advice from other experienced parents
Communicating clear deadlines and tasks so that Bjorn knows that he is still on track at work and contributing meaningfully
Communicating clearly with Bjorn if superiors/colleagues feel Bjorn is struggling to meet his deadlines

17 Exercises To Increase Happiness and Wellbeing

Add these 17 Happiness & Subjective Well-Being Exercises [PDF] to your toolkit and help others experience greater purpose, meaning, and positive emotions.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

We have several tools that can help your client achieve WLB, and a great start is this coaching article – Coaching on Work–Life Balance: 11 Strategies & Questions with practical strategies.

A highly recommended worksheet is Meeting Needs With Reality Therapy . This worksheet helps clients understand their needs and what actions they could take to meet them.

This tool can be used repeatedly with the same client at various stages of their life because their needs and life circumstances will change with time. The tool takes 20 minutes and could be completed in-session or at home.

If your client approaches you after a negative experience, then you could consider using the Vicious Versus Virtuous Stress Thinking worksheet. In this worksheet, clients can use a table to consider unhelpful versus helpful thinking regarding an event.

This tool is very helpful for clients who may struggle with stress that is perpetuated by negative (vicious) cycles of thinking. Clients learn a useful technique to reframe unhelpful beliefs and thinking and adopt a virtuous cycle of thinking to make the best of what is outside and inside their control.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others develop strategies to boost their wellbeing, this collection contains 17 validated happiness and wellbeing exercises . Use them to help others pursue authentic happiness and work toward a life filled with purpose and meaning.

Maintaining work–life balance is a continuous lifelong process, and the balance will tilt toward different domains. This tilting is normal; sometimes we need to give more to work, other times to family.

The goal is not to ‘achieve’ work–life balance, because this implies that there is some type of finality to the journey. Balance achieved? Check. Move on.

Instead, the journey toward WLB is dynamic, requires regular reflection, and is different for each person. Therefore, the goal is to be aware of the different roles that we are balancing and to evaluate whether we are meeting those responsibilities in a way that we are satisfied with. Through self-evaluation and self-awareness, we learn more about what balance means to us.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Happiness Exercises for free .

Allen, K. (2021, March 2). International Women’s Day 2021: The realities of being a woman at the top of academia. Lens . Retrieved March 3, 2021, from https://lens.monash.edu/@education/2021/03/02/1382904/iwd-2021-the-realities-of-being-a-woman-at-the-top-of-academia
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2013). The spillover-crossover model. In J. G. Grzywacz & E. Demerouti (Eds.), Current issues in work and organizational psychology. New frontiers in work and family research (pp. 54–70). Psychology Press.
Chimote, N. K., & Srivastava, V. N. (2013). Work-life balance benefits: From the perspective of organizations and employees. IUP Journal of Management Research , 12 (1), 62–73.
Eby, L. T., Butts, M., & Lockwood, A. (2003). Predictors of success in the era of the boundaryless career. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior , 24 (6), 689–708.
Edwards, J. R., & Rothbard, N. P. (2000). Mechanisms linking work and family: Clarifying the relationship between work and family constructs. Academy of Management Review , 25 (1), 178–199.
Eikhof, D. R. , Warhurst, C., & Haunschild, A. (2007). Introduction: What work? What life? What balance? Critical reflections on the work-life balance debate. Employee Relations , 29 (4), 325–333.
Fleetwood, C. (2021, March 3). Mohadeseh Ganji reveals how she balances screen time with everyday life. B&T Magazine. Retrieved March 3, 2021, from https://www.bandt.com.au/mohadeseh-ganji-phd-reveals-how-she-balances-screen-time-with-everyday-life-more/
Fleetwood, S. (2007). Why work–life balance now? The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 18 (3), 387–400.
Fujiwara, R. (2021, February 11). Overworking tanked my health—until I began to prioritize work-life balance. Science. Retrieved March 3, 2021, from https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2021/02/overworking-tanked-my-health-until-i-began-prioritize-work-life-balance
Jones, F., Burke, R. J., & Westman, M. (Eds.). (2013). Work-life balance: A psychological perspective . Psychology Press.
Guest, D. E. (2002). Perspectives on the study of work-life balance. Social Science Information , 41 (2), 255–279.
Kalliath, T., & Brough, P. (2008). Work-life balance: A review of the meaning of the balance construct. Journal of Management & Organization , 14 (3), 323–327.
Lockwood, N. R. (2003). Work/life balance: Challenges and solutions. Society for Human Resource Management.
McCormack, B. M., & Niehoff, L. (2019, October 17). There is no work-life balance. Litigation Journal. Retrieved from https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/publications/litigation_journal/2019-20/fall/there-no-worklife-balance/
Morris, M. L., & Madsen, S. R. (2007). Advancing work—life integration in individuals, organizations, and communities. Advances in Developing Human Resources , 9 (4), 439–454.
Reiter, N. (2007). Work life balance: What do you mean? The ethical ideology underpinning appropriate application. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science , 43 (2), 273–294.
Thijssen, J. G., Van der Heijden, B. I., & Rocco, T. S. (2008). Toward the employability—link model: Current employment transition to future employment perspectives. Human Resource Development Review , 7 (2), 165–183.
Wey Smola, K., & Sutton, C. D. (2002). Generational differences: Revisiting generational work values for the new millennium. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior , 23 (4), 363–382.

Share this article:

Article feedback

What our readers think.

This article is helpful as I am running 3 services – helpline, counselling and mentoring. These exercises is going to be helpful any of these clients in our services. Thank you

Let us know your thoughts Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Embracing JOMO: Finding Joy in Missing Out

We’ve probably all heard of FOMO, or ‘the fear of missing out’. FOMO is the currency of social media platforms, eager to encourage us to [...]

The True Meaning of Hedonism: A Philosophical Perspective

“If it feels good, do it, you only live once”. Hedonists are always up for a good time and believe the pursuit of pleasure and [...]

Happiness Economics: Can Money Buy Happiness?

Do you ever daydream about winning the lottery? After all, it only costs a small amount, a slight risk, with the possibility of a substantial [...]

3 Happiness Exercises Pack [PDF]

Presentations made painless

Get Premium

106 Work-Life Balance Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Achieving a healthy work-life balance is crucial for maintaining overall well-being and happiness. However, finding the right balance can be challenging, especially in today's fast-paced and demanding world. To help you explore this important topic further, we have compiled a list of 106 work-life balance essay topic ideas and examples. Whether you are a student looking for inspiration for your next essay or a professional seeking to improve your work-life balance, these topics are sure to spark your interest.

The importance of work-life balance for overall well-being
Strategies for achieving work-life balance
The impact of technology on work-life balance
Balancing work and family responsibilities
The role of employers in promoting work-life balance
The benefits of a flexible work schedule
The consequences of a poor work-life balance
Work-life balance challenges faced by remote workers
The stigma surrounding work-life balance in the workplace
The link between work-life balance and mental health
Balancing work and personal relationships
The impact of work-life balance on job satisfaction
The role of self-care in achieving work-life balance
The importance of setting boundaries to maintain work-life balance
The benefits of unplugging from work during non-working hours
The impact of burnout on work-life balance
The benefits of mindfulness in achieving work-life balance
The role of exercise in maintaining work-life balance
The impact of work-life balance on productivity
Balancing work and leisure activities
The benefits of taking regular breaks during the workday
The impact of work-life balance on physical health
The benefits of time management in achieving work-life balance
The consequences of workaholism on work-life balance
The importance of setting realistic goals to maintain work-life balance
Balancing work and hobbies
The impact of stress on work-life balance
The benefits of a supportive work environment for work-life balance
The role of communication in achieving work-life balance
The impact of work-life balance on creativity and innovation
The benefits of a healthy work-life balance for career advancement
The consequences of neglecting work-life balance
The impact of work-life balance on job performance
Balancing work and personal finances
The benefits of time off in maintaining work-life balance
The consequences of overworking on work-life balance
The impact of work-life balance on job turnover
The benefits of work-life balance for employee retention
The role of leadership in promoting work-life balance
The impact of workplace culture on work-life balance
The benefits of remote work for achieving work-life balance
The consequences of a lack of work-life balance for mental health
The impact of work-life balance on employee engagement
Balancing work and caregiving responsibilities
The benefits of work-life balance for overall happiness
The consequences of work-life imbalance for personal relationships
The impact of work-life balance on work-life conflict
The benefits of work-life balance for job satisfaction
The role of technology in promoting work-life balance
The impact of work-life balance on work-life integration
Balancing work and education
The benefits of work-life balance for career progression
The consequences of neglecting work-life balance for physical health
The impact of work-life balance on work-life harmony
The benefits of work-life balance for stress management
The role of flexibility in achieving work-life balance
The impact of work-life balance on work-life boundaries
The benefits of work-life balance for overall well-being
The consequences of a lack of work-life balance for job satisfaction
Balancing work and volunteer commitments
The impact of work-life balance on work-life satisfaction
The benefits of work-life balance for work-life fulfillment
The role of self-reflection in achieving work-life balance
The impact of work-life balance on work-life enrichment
The benefits of work-life balance for work-life engagement
The consequences of neglecting work-life balance for work-life fulfillment
The impact of work-life balance on work-life achievement
The benefits of work-life balance for work-life success
The role of self-awareness in achieving work-life balance
The impact of work-life balance on work-life effectiveness
The benefits of work-life balance for work-life efficiency
The consequences of neglecting work-life balance for work-life effectiveness
The impact of work-life balance on work-life productivity
The benefits of work-life balance for work-life performance
The impact of work-life balance on work-life well-being
The benefits of work-life balance for work-life happiness

In conclusion, achieving a healthy work-life balance is essential for maintaining overall well-being and happiness. By exploring these 106 work-life balance essay topic ideas and examples, you can gain a better understanding of the importance of work-life balance and discover strategies for achieving it in your own life. Whether you are a student or a professional, these topics are sure to inspire you to prioritize your well-being and find the right balance between work and personal life.

Want to create a presentation now?

Instantly Create A Deck

Let PitchGrade do this for me

Hassle Free

We will create your text and designs for you. Sit back and relax while we do the work.

Explore More Content

Essay Editor

Work-life Balance Essay

1. introduction.

Work-life balance can be defined as the equilibrium between an individual's work and personal life. It is the concept that an individual needs time for both work and other aspects of life, whether those are family related or personal interests. We are all busy in life, which can lead to a lack of personal care and time spent with family and friends. Having work-life balance is very important because it is a critical part of the overall well-being of an individual. In recent years, many employees have moved away from the traditional nine to five work mentality in favor of a more flexible work schedule. The concepts of flexible working hours, part-time work, job sharing, working from home and telecommuting have been introduced. This shift in the attitude of employers and employees demonstrates how important work-life balance is as a part of a successful business strategy. When employees feel that their work life and their personal life are out of balance, they may experience a range of problems in their health, productivity and overall well-being. For example, employees may feel stress, which is a known factor to contribute to an increase in symptoms related to headaches, back pain, fatigue and in some instances, heavy drinking. Moreover, employees who feel the burden of long hours and a difficult work environment may develop serious issues outside the workplace, such as divorce or problems with personal relationships, depression and anxiety, which could lead to substance abuse and other damaging behavior. That's why many employers are keen to address work-life balance, as part of their health and safety and equal opportunities policies. By assisting employees in the balance between work and their personal life, employers can help to reduce stress and enhance the overall well-being of their workforce, as well as improve employee retention and productivity. However, many individuals face challenges in ensuring that they can achieve a work-life balance in their lives. The next section will explore trends in and reasons for the challenges in work-life balance.

1.1 Definition of work-life balance

One of the main goals of work-life balance is to enable employees to manage their work time and personal time better, hence ensuring freedom at work as well as outside of work. It is more focused on making organizations effective and efficient, and employees are expected to carry out their tasks and duties in the stipulated time period and provide quality services to the service users. At the same time, employees have to be trusted to make the best use of their resources and providing better and flexible services. Work-life balance does not mean an equal balance. It does not mean that we spend the same number of hours in both work and personal life. Each individual has a different view of what a balanced life he/she wants to achieve. All employees have different personal needs and obligations. While those that are parents may very well wish to work suitable, flexible hours to enable them to spend more time with their families. Some employees may prefer a good balance and get maximum out of their personal life and focusing on their career. Balancing work and personal life can be difficult regardless of where the workplace is and the type of work that employees engage in. We all run the race of life today and we may not be able to find a good balance in every moment of our life. As a result, some employees make different kinds of choices in order to suit their personal life. For example, there are people who will accept more money for long working hours. On the other hand, some employees may neglect the money and focus more on their family life. Work-life balance proposes a number of different benefits to an organization, including: greater employee satisfaction, reduced staff turnover, improved morale, organizational commitment, and identification. On top of this, it provides a clear measurement on what an employee wants to achieve and that is why it focuses more on outcomes than prescriptive ways of working and providing help in subjective choices. In order for managers to implement work-life balance in organizations, a good manager should emphasize the three types of control strategies. Flexible working time - allow staff to alter their start and end times around certain core periods. For example, working 8am to 4pm. Compressed working hours - enable employees to work full-time hours but over fewer days. As a result, a day in each week the individual works slightly longer hours. Time off in lieu - give employees the opportunity to take time off work instead of being paid when working extra hours. This can provide employees with more time for family life while giving the employer a tool for managing pressure peaks in service, creating a win-win situation. Social and cultural attitudes are changing and companies are realizing that they face complex challenges in today's business environment. Many employees may still feel that putting in long hours in the office is the way to get ahead but it's no longer necessarily true. Flexibility within a work setting shows an understanding of modern dynamics, as well as an understanding and belief in an employee's ability to perform his/her work effectively. In personal experience, having a work-life balance will keep employee lives well-rounded and fulfilling. When people are able to maintain a good, healthy balance in their lives, they are more able to achieve success in other areas. Creativity, productivity, and effectiveness are often lost during the workday when employees are struck by some problem and get hung up on a decision. However, sometimes employees may feel hard to get back on focus and make a good judgment. This is because no one can ever be extremely efficient reaching for a long period without a break - work-life balance can provide an opportunity to rest and help refresh the mind.

1.2 Importance of work-life balance

Importance of work-life balance is often underestimated; yet, evidence points to profound effects - both for individuals and the broader society. It has been suggested that one in every four employees are affected by stress, which is consequently reducing their productivity. This is supported by Carole Spiers, a motivational speaker and author, who claimed that "urbanization, industrialization and the globalization of economies have effected a massive cultural shift in the workplace. The traditional workplace is in a state of disarray and today's pace of change is relentless." With constant interruptions and distractions, it is often difficult for individuals to structure their working day; thus leading many to put in long hours at the expense of their mental and/or physical wellbeing. On this part, Daniel Cenat, a personal analyst, suggested that "not having work-life balance is a form of chronic stress which is a problem recognised by World Health Organization. If it is not recognised early enough, it can lead to some pretty severe health issues." This is further supported by a cross-sectional study conducted by Stansfeld et al in 1999 which indicates that "employees with long working hours, even if they are not particularly anxious in nature, are more prone to stressful situations and are twice as likely to have a major depressive episode." Hence, the detrimental effect of not having work-life balance is well established in both expert opinions and empirical evidence. From a family perspective, lack of family time is one of the consequences when parents and carers are burdened with heavy workload; thus leading to relationship problems within the family. It has been shown that an unhealthy work-life balance has been linked to difficulties such as marital problems, divorce and even estrangement between parents and their children. This notion is supported by the claim that "family time is important - I regret the chances I have missed to see my son growing up and my wife and I barely speak to each other now until things have really soured" made by Ian Heathwood, a victim of unhealthy work-life balance. On a societal level, the impact of unhealthy work-life balance is evident in form of reduced productivity as highlighted by the Department of Health. As individuals with poor work-life balance are more likely to suffer from ill health, this would inevitably increase the government's financial burden in providing healthcare, as well as reducing the overall output as a consequence of sick leave. Ergo, the prevalence of unhealthy work-life balance poses a significant issue that has a collective impact on the economy.

1.3 Challenges in achieving work-life balance

Work-life balance is a concept that deals with the proper prioritizing between work or career on one hand and lifestyle on the other. But work-life balance is more than just a concept. The proper organization of our personal and professional life is very important. From the individual's perspective, the goal of achieving work-life balance is meaningful. There is a serious challenge in this era in balancing the work and family. Work-life balance issues are pertinent to all employees. As most people spend the major chunk of their lives in the workplaces, it is no wonder that experts in human resource management are paying more and more attention to the principles of balancing work and life. The main challenges are like what are the reasons for an imbalance between work and regular life, what problems can this create for an individual and for the employer and why is it particularly important that senior management sets a good personal example of a commitment to a work-life balance. Some of the main challenges in work-life balance are technological, high job demands, longer working hours, expectations to work extended hours, availability are always expected, pressure from higher authorities, lack of support and understanding from the employers and the conflict between home and work. As the technology introduced, this makes the employees more accessible to the customers and clients so it is very difficult for someone to get away from the work pressure. The organizations are trimming their workforce to take advantage of the cost and it increases the work pressure on employees. Day by day what happening is that employers are putting demands on employees for high job demands. Some of the employers are expecting from employees to work extended hours as well. Mostly top level and middle-level management expects from staff to be available any time when they need. Women suffer as they are held back by the domestic role for which they are culturally and not too much men also suffer. Men and women face different pressures, different expectations, and lifestyles. As we can see that numerous challenges are there for work-life balance. But this is up to us that how we can manage these challenges. There are also financial reasons, lack of discipline, perfectionism and most important is personal attitude and the behavior. But priorities and expectations and also prominence has changed tremendously over the period of time. The role of family, the flexibility of work arrangements and the value of free time have all contributed to the adjustment. Flexibility and diversity in working arrangements are central to supporting employees to achieve their work and family responsibilities. Thus with the active partnership of employers, employees can be more creative, flexible and adaptable in the way they manage the work and family. It should also recognized that the work-life balance issues are dynamic and vary over time and from household to household and the responsibilities to manage this challenges are vested on the organizations, senior management, line managers and employees themselves.

2. Strategies for achieving work-life balance

Time management plays an important role in work-life balance. It is true that if a person who is able to manage their time well can accomplish a great deal. In the workplace, time management is a valuable skill. If you're not managing your time well, there's no way you're going to reach your goals at work and the last thing you want to do is work a lot of overtime. This is known as poor work-life balance. However, if it's your own business, this could seriously jeopardize your business success. Effective time management allows employees to accomplish more in less time, stay organized, maintain a healthy work-life balance, and reduce stress. Many of us know the results of not managing our time properly: missed deadlines, meetings, or forgetting something that leads to a poor performance review or even losing a job. But why can't we manage our time? One of the reasons is not being motivated to finish work. Also, technology, although a major part of our lives today, takes up time. There are a lot of distractions out there in the world today, especially with all the new gadgets. Smartphones, laptops, tablets, and all the other things that we have these days can all be very distracting. Another cause is being disorganized. If you're disorganized, your time management skills suffer as a result. Trying to do too much at once can cause one to be disorganized too. If so, it is necessary to reassess the active list and prioritize. We can effectively manage time by following all his advice. Also, there are demands on our time from technology and other people. So, it can be very hard to have ownership of time: to tell others it's your time. But it is necessary. Success with time management depends on available time and a person's ability to manage it. Every day provides a new opportunity to learn and apply time management skills and overcome procrastination. As work-life balance is achieved over time, time management reduces long-term stress by giving you control over your time. Hence, you can enjoy more leisure time. Leisure time can be spent however you want. It ensures discipline in life. Discipline is indispensable for every person and without it, nothing can be achieved. Also, it will give you opportunities to learn and develop new skills. Managing time is an important skill. If time is managed and used properly, everyone can live a life to be feeling its existence. Cooperation and help of time can make you a productive human being. In conclusion, work-life balance is the ability to experience a sense of control and to stay productive at work while maintaining a happy, fulfilling home life with sufficient relaxation. It is the goal of every person. Time management is important in this achievement. A better balance between work and life can be achieved.

2.1 Time management techniques

Another popular strategy for achieving work-life balance is to improve time management. Poor time management can lead to more stress, as well as less time to relax and enjoy recreational activities. Finding the most effective ways to manage time can be a major factor in reducing stress and achieving a greater quality of life. There are a number of ways to better manage time, both on the job and in daily life. One of the most important strategies is to set specific goals and priorities. This includes both long-term and short-term goals. Knowing what is most important and prioritizing those tasks and activities can help keep life in balance. It is also crucial to learn to say no. Many people take on too many tasks at once because they have a hard time turning others down. By learning to say no to projects or requests that can create a great deal of stress or take too much time, it becomes easier to better manage time and that will help improve work-life balance. Research has also shown that taking short breaks during the work day. Try taking a brisk walk or a short nap. Something as simple as a few minutes away from the desk can help reduce stress and provide a new perspective. It allows the mind to rest and recover and can help improve productivity and reduce the risk of mistakes being made. Another way to help manage time is to effectively organize the workload. This can involve breaking tasks down, delegating when needed, and even developing a filing system. When things are in an organized place and well formatted, it can help reduce the overall time spent. No precious minutes are wasted searching for something that is needed. Time management experts emphasize the importance of setting aside specific time slots for projects and activities. For instance, this can involve checking emails at certain times of the day, setting responses at the same time, and setting quiet periods for actually focusing on work, rather than being consistently interrupted. Having clearly designated times can help to add structure to the day and make it easier to stick to goals and other priorities. It is equally important to learn to effectively manage stress. Stress is a major reason why people may have trouble keeping work and personal life in balance and effective time management can help minimize stress. Learning stress reduction techniques, such as breathing exercises or progressive muscle relaxation, can help to reduce the demands of life both on the job and at home. By effectively managing time and reducing stress, it is possible to create a more balanced life that is both personally and professionally rewarding. Well-intentioned time management can.

2.2 Setting boundaries between work and personal life

Another important strategy for achieving work-life balance is setting boundaries between work and personal life. Time management techniques are very helpful, but when used alongside setting boundaries, it minimizes the lines that separate work and personal life. According to Jeff Davidson, the author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Time," setting boundaries is very essential. As he explains, "knowing when to let go and to focus on other areas of life can stave off burnout and keep one sharp." I have a friend who used to work for a local law firm, and he loved his job. But there was a problem. He was working many more hours than he was supposed to, and he was doing so because he didn't have a family yet. He was just single, but then about two years ago, he got married and had a son. This new situation demanded that he change how he did things. He had to learn to set boundaries between work and personal life. So he started to leave the office once it was time to leave, whether he had cases to prepare or not. He would pick up where he left off the following day. And as for the time after work, say from 6 pm to 10 pm, he would have dinner with his family, do things with his son, and also give his wife a hand. And then after 10 pm, he would do a little bit of work at home if he had to. By setting boundaries, work started to have a proper place and time in his life. And he was much less stressed out and tense. His family members too became happy because they received the love, attention, and help that they needed. Boundaries do not just include the physical at work and at home. It also includes the mental boundaries, such as refraining from thinking about work when at home and vice versa. It is important that these boundaries are discussed and negotiated not only with yourself but also with your employer, families, and friends. Boundaries need to be clear and consistent; this allows you to understand and focus on which task to focus - work or personal life. This concept is also shared by Dr. Willard Harley, a clinical psychologist. He believes that clearly defined emotional and physical boundaries are important for marital happiness. He also added that work-life balance is important. "When your work life interferes with your marriage, there is a good chance that you will lose your marriage. So it is vital that no work encroaches the 'love bank' time that is supposed to be invested in the spouse." And this has been proven true in his study and practices.

2.3 Prioritizing self-care and well-being

In addition to managing time and setting boundaries, prioritizing self-care is crucial in achieving work-life balance. Self-care includes any intentional actions you take to care for your physical, mental, and emotional health. When a person takes good care of themselves, it has a positive impact on their overall well-being. Despite knowing the benefits of self-care, it can be challenging to make time for it - especially when juggling multiple responsibilities. It is important to remember that self-care is not a selfish act. In fact, it is a necessity for a healthy, fulfilling life. Making self-care a priority has been shown to reduce anxiety and depression, improve focus, and provide greater ability to deal with life's daily stressors. It is vital to make self-care a priority and a habit. One way to do this is to make it a routine. By setting aside specific times each day or week for self-care, it becomes a regular part of your schedule and more likely to be continued. Also, it is important to make self-care activities satisfying and pleasurable. You may try different activities to engage different senses, and they can be adjusted to what feels satisfying and meaningful to you at any given time. It is important to be flexible and allow for change since each day may be different from the next. Lastly, learn how to balance self-care. The activities should address your physical, emotional, and mental well-being. Overemphasizing one aspect of self-care, such as the physical, should be balanced by incorporating activities that address mental and emotional well-being or vice versa. However, don't think of self-care as a task to check off - it's a state of mind that includes being in the moment and genuinely enjoying an experience. Cultivate the mindset that you are taking care of yourself as you engage in self-care. Try to practice self-compassion as it can greatly enhance your self-care practice. For example, if you are having difficulty getting motivated to practice self-care, remind yourself that you deserve to take good care of yourself and you can feel better in the moment and gain future rewards by practicing self-care. So, engaging in self-care in a compassionate manner allows for recipients of self-care to be giving themselves the nurturing and the care they truly deserve.

2.4 Seeking support from family and friends

The importance of good communication between work and family life cannot be overestimated. When both worlds have clear lines of open and honest communication, there is a greater chance for balance to be solid and maintained. For example, if a deadline is looming and must be met, then it is important to explain to family members the necessity of longer hours for a few days. A family might plan on a couple picnics or outings during these few days and having a father or mother missing would be a disappointment. However, the understanding that the time is necessary for a limited number of days helps those of all ages to bear the inconvenience and even get more satisfaction for the sacrifice. Another instance of the need for good communication is not so much a big picture as it is a general state of mind. If there is a high degree of stress that has been brought home from the job, communication about how the day went can help to clear the air. If not, then the silence and distance that can weigh on a family can be even worse. It means sometimes putting someone else's needs first. Someone who is getting things done at the office might feel guilty because he is not at home. However, taking his son to a ball game might be just the therapy that dad and lad need and it is setting an example of balance for a lifetime. This is a strategy that can be used at the highest levels of business as well as for the small local store owner. There are simply no downsides to trying to get good communication in balance in place. Those from workplace managing and stress management meetings can add in small group brainstorming sessions and they will come up with any number of good ideas to foster this balance. On the one hand, the benefits of work-life balance can be divided into objective and subjective ones. They can have greater or lesser influence preceding a particular case of imbalance. On the other hand, they can be career benefits, and positive influence on health or benefits for people around you. It is not a secret for anybody that absolutely balanced "employees' work and family life are stable and the person is the beneficiary from a human right." However, this ideal is hardly attainable if at all possible. But note that it is mentioned like a separate benefit. I believe that a company is not just a building or machines; it is people and developing "objective and subjective benefits" themselves companies help to create what can be described as a friendly environment for work where people simply enjoy what they are doing. (Viviane Reding) So it is a mutual benefit to the company and to the employees if work-life balance is used correctly.

3. Benefits of work-life balance

Increased productivity and job satisfaction are the main benefits of achieving work-life balance. When we are capable of balancing our work and personal lives, we will be more focused on work. This will enable us to be more effective, and therefore we will achieve more. When we are able to accomplish our work, we will experience a sense of success, and this will then develop our morale. As a result, we will experience greater satisfaction in our jobs. Work-life balance enables us to divide our time between work and the other important aspects of our lives. This means that we will not be spending hours in front of our computers and forgetting about other things. When we spend less time doing our work and yet achieve more, it means that we are being productive. With new staff now, employers would seek to improve the quality of work from their current employees. Unlike in the past, where they would expect their employees to multitask and work long hours and even take work home, employers now have started to recognize the importance of work-life balance and its benefits for their employees. This is because employers have been made to realize that work-life balance can help reduce workplace stress. Once an employee has better control of their stress levels, their exposure to more serious health conditions caused by pressure in the workplace will decrease. As a result, the attractive benefits for employers to encourage and support work-life balance include the reduction of direct and indirect stress-related costs, the improvement of workforce health and morale, and the reduction of staff turnover. Also, research has shown that implementing work-life strategies can aid in the recruitment and retention of skilled employees. For employees, they are more willing to stay with a company that is able to provide working conditions that enable them to have harmony between work and life.

3.1 Increased productivity and job satisfaction

Another benefit of work-life balance is that it has been shown to increase both productivity and job satisfaction, as managing the two in a muddled lifestyle can be damaging in both areas. Employed adults report that the main driver of stress in their lives is work pressure, so finding ways to mitigate this, while also fulfilling personal life responsibilities, should lead to lower stress levels and less ill health, both of which will affect your work performance in a positive way. In order to promote a healthy work-life balance, focusing on both the work and personal life aspects of an individual's life is paramount. It is important to not only consider the professional life of the individual but also to focus on the happiness and well-being of the individual as a whole. By ensuring the individual is in the right state of mind and the correct mood to contribute daily focus and effort, the output of that person's work can only benefit. Furthermore, finding time to connect with the community outside of work has been linked to overall greater well-being. Letting employees take time off work to volunteer for a cause is not only beneficial in the sense that it encourages giving back to the community, but it also allows individuals to take time for work to participate in something that they enjoy with people that share similar interests. This kind of mechanism inherently begins to breakdown the firm boundaries between work and personal life, while linking the two in a meaningful and productive way. Blog: How to achieve work-life balance from those who made it work as creators. It also leads to progress in their work performance and productivity due to the fact that they have a changed environment and a motivation to ever increase their productivity. Increased efficiency and output in the workplace is one of the many benefits of a fulfilling work-life balance. When people have the help they require and the management is providing a friendly environment, this results in an increase in the employee's productivity. This is mostly due to the fact that when an employee has great prospects and they know they have their work and personal life managed and balanced, they have a sense of self-respect and self-value for many aspects that reflect their lives.

3.2 Improved physical and mental health

Improved physical health and mental health are the most important benefits of work-life balance. In today's fast-paced life, it is really difficult to maintain a work-life balance, but if you can, there are remarkable benefits. Research indicates that persons with a good work-life balance not only experience greater physical and mental well-being, but also improve their overall health as well. That's because when you're juggling work and family, you're likely to put healthcare aside. But, doing so can lead to conditions like obesity, high blood pressure, and depression. Taking the time to take care of yourself might feel like just another thing in your life that you have to do, but compromise now can hurt you in the long run. And it's not work that only throws off your balance. It's a common misconception that only job-related stress - to the exclusion of family stress - affects health. In fact, researchers have found that the cumulative stress from juggling both work and family life can be even more damaging to your health. Have a work-life balance doesn't just mean doing your work and having a life. It's about managing the compounding stressful effects of both - and finding ways to minimize those compounding effects. It's important to establish health behaviors for yourself at work in order to oversee stress for both you and your employees. For example, if you're overseeing employee stress and you realize that many employees skip lunch or eat at their desks, it's important to make clear and put in place some sort of practice management and good health practice, if feasible. And the same goes for your personal family life. Take the time to start good health behaviors, like sports or family walks. It can not only engage and improve the quality of your family life for all members, but it can start health habits that other family members may never have considered. Developing a work-life balance can contribute to enhanced health regardless of the individuals specific line of work. Flexibility at the workplace can often be a helpful agent to maintain a work-life balance; for example, adjustable work hours, telecommuting where possible and preventative health management. By engaging health promotion practices like looking for health screenings or exploring how to improve work and nutrition, an individual with a work-life balance can take an active lead in their health and sizeable reduce their chances of negative job-related stress.

3.3 Enhanced relationships and overall happiness

It has been found that employees who maintain a proper work-life balance have increased satisfaction in their job. They are more passionate about their work and show increased dedication. Organizational changes are mostly accepted and are not usually resisted. Employees become more flexible when balancing work and personal life. They are able to take breaks from their work in order to fulfill family obligations. However, in return, they become more focused and are able to think more critically when they are on the clock. Also, taking time off work to be with family and friends can improve relationships which is an important aspect of happiness. In relationships, time invested in each other is one key factor that can help maintain healthy relations. Time helps to create strong bonds, contributing to our overall sense of happiness. It allows for more positive interactions, better communication and using each other for emotional support. Having time for each other ensures that one appreciates the person around them. It creates a sense of trust and the knowledge that someone else is there for you, especially during low moments. Balancing work and family obligations help to reduce stress. When taking time off work to take a vacation or spending time with family and/or friends, it allows people to relax and recharge. In the process, it has been shown that stress-related illnesses, like heart disease, can be reduced and your well-being enhanced. In short, work-life balance is important and can be achieved by creating harmony among the many demands of juggling work and family. It can be attained with proper time management. Time should be managed to ensure effective work and family time. Also, work can be left at work and not brought home and vice versa. By not mixing the two, workers' stress is reduced, and the time taken to bond with family can be well spent in joy. Work-life benefits can be rewarding, both personally and professionally. Once work-life harmony is attained, increased overall happiness and improved relations can be expected.

Happiness in different stages of life.

1. Introduction The statement "I'm happy" is extensively used, but when asked what it means, the same person who uttered that phrase would not have definitive or exact answers. To be happy is to have a state of well-being. It is also the capacity to fully enjoy and take advantage of life. To be happy has therefore been interpreted as an ideal goal. In no other subject studied by social and human scientists is it so hard to find two identical definitions of the concept as when it refers to happi ...

The Impact of Social Security Systems on Economic Stability and Individual Well-being in Developed Countries

1. Introduction The economic situation of many countries in Western Europe is causing great concern. How to best proceed with health care, the retirement wage and other facets of the social security system is a politically charged question. In the U.S., fiscal imbalances in Social Security and Medicare are described as among the most severe macroeconomic imbalances faced by the country. In recent years, a call for reform has been heard, but no plan of action seems realistic and feasible for som ...

The Connection Between Gratitude and Happiness

1. Introduction Without doubt, most visitors to Positive Psychology at one time or another have been on the hunt for an article, workshop or article on gratitude. Yet faced with the challenge of defining what gratitude is and why it matters, many of us will struggle to express the nature and importance of this concept without resorting to complex language more fitting of an academic journal than its value in daily life. Describing a concept and understanding how it has come to nurture the human ...

The Importance of Creating a Comprehensive Care Plan for Patient Treatment and Recovery

1. Introduction Overall, successful patient treatment and recovery hinges on multiple factors and is unique to each individual. That's why it's essential to take into account the patient's full scope of needs both before they start treatment and continue to provide extensive support post-treatment. With a comprehensive care plan in place, mental health patients can experience higher levels of recovery, cost savings, and generally improved quality of life. By these metrics, there's no better pro ...

The Science Behind the Happiness Hormones

1. Introduction Research shows that there are four chemicals in the brain that can make us feel happy: dopamine, endorphins, serotonin, and oxytocin, or - as I refer to them here - hormones. In this post, I will be discussing the science behind each of these hormones as we explore what triggers production of each and how to use that knowledge in the service of a happier life. When I talk about happiness here, I am not referring to the short-lived emotion that is usually in response to some sort ...

La importancia de la educación en el desarrollo integral de los niños con necesidades especiales

1. Introducción La Comunidad Europea desarrolla su política educativa a través de un documento entregado por la Comisión Europea al Consejo en 1995 donde, con el título de "Señales de Calidad en la Educación Especial", definen unos principios sobre lo que debe ser el trabajo educativo con los niños con necesidades educativas especiales, destacando la importancia de la educación inclusiva como mejor respuesta educativa para los mismos. El concepto de necesidades educativas especiales (NEE) surge ...

Evaluación de la efectividad del tratamiento del cáncer de mama en diferentes etapas de la enfermedad

1. Introducción El cáncer es un grupo de enfermedades distinguibles por un crecimiento no controlado y una diseminación de células anormales. Se trata con diferentes métodos, generalmente incluyendo la cirugía, la radioterapia, la quimio o la inmunoterapia. Entre los modelos animales disponibles más recientemente, los ratones transgénicos están siendo frecuentemente utilizados para modelar el progreso y la efectividad molecular de alternativas experimentales. Además, existen varios modelos inmu ...

How Exercise Affects Happiness Levels

1. Introduction Maintaining good health has always been one of the most crucial concerns in life. At any given time, the majority of individuals engage in various courses of action to protect and further advance their own health. As a result, finding strategies that are both effective and enjoyable forms a significant aspect of our lives. One noteworthy source of such benefit is likely to be regular exercise. In fact, a social movement encouraging physical exercise is rapidly gaining momentum, ...

SUGGESTED TOPICS
The Magazine
Newsletters
Managing Yourself
Managing Teams
Work-life Balance
The Big Idea
Data & Visuals
Reading Lists
Case Selections
HBR Learning
Topic Feeds
Account Settings
Email Preferences

Work-Life Balance Is a Cycle, Not an Achievement

Mayra Ruiz-Castro

A five-step approach to identify and overcome unhealthy work habits.

Research has definitively shown that overwork isn’t good for employees or their companies — and yet, in practice, it can be hard to overcome unhealthy work habits and reach a more sustainable work-life balance. To explore what it takes for busy professionals to make a change for the better, the authors conducted a series of interviews with mid- and senior-level managers at two global firms. They found that while the majority of respondents assumed working long hours was inevitable, a significant minority of them were able to resist this pressure and achieve a healthier balance through a process of increasing awareness, conscious reprioritizing, and implementation of public and private changes. The authors go on to emphasize that to achieve lasting change, you must view this process not as a one-time activity, but as a cycle in which you constantly re-evaluate your evolving feelings and priorities, and adjust your work and life choices accordingly.

Despite the resounding evidence that working long hours can be harmful to both employees and employers, many professionals still struggle to overcome their assumptions — and their deeply-ingrained habits — around work hours. What does it take to free yourself from these unhealthy patterns and reach a more sustainable, rewarding work-life balance?

IL Ioana Lupu is an Associate Professor at ESSEC Business School France. She is interested in overwork, work-compulsion & performance measurement in knowledge-intensive settings, such as audit, consulting, and law firms. Follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter @lupu_io.
MR Mayra Ruiz-Castro is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehampton, UK. Her research focuses on equality at work and at home. Follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter at @MayraRuizCastr1.

Partner Center

Work-Life Balance Essays

Self-care techniques action plan, redefining work-life balance in the age of remote work, literature review: the impact of telework on employees, recruitment cost in remote technology, nurse retention: solutions for a sustainable healthcare ecosystem, the art of time allocation: unveiling the choices in how people spend their time, switching to a 4-day work week, embracing the benefits of working less than 40 hours, employee turnover and its impacts on business objectives, enhancing workplace productivity through flexible work arrangements, examining the effect of job design on employee gratification and work-life balance, adopting employees’ wellbeing program, how the move to remote working arrangements during the coronavirus pandemic has impacted employee perceptions of work-life balance, hybrid or remote full-time work and its implementation as the primary method of work in america, comparative case study: shopify inc. and lightspeed pos inc., popular essay topics.

American Dream
Artificial Intelligence
Black Lives Matter
Bullying Essay
Career Goals Essay
Causes of the Civil War
Child Abusing
Civil Rights Movement
Community Service
Cultural Identity
Cyber Bullying
Death Penalty
Depression Essay
Domestic Violence
Freedom of Speech
Global Warming
Gun Control
Human Trafficking
I Believe Essay
Immigration
Importance of Education
Israel and Palestine Conflict
Leadership Essay
Legalizing Marijuanas
Mental Health
National Honor Society
Police Brutality
Pollution Essay
Racism Essay
Romeo and Juliet
Same Sex Marriages
Social Media
The Great Gatsby
The Yellow Wallpaper
Time Management
To Kill a Mockingbird
Violent Video Games
What Makes You Unique
Why I Want to Be a Nurse
Send us an e-mail

Home — Essay Samples — Life — Work-Life Balance — How to Achieve an Almost Perfect Work-life Balance

How to Achieve an Almost Perfect Work-life Balance

Categories: Work-Life Balance Workplace

About this sample

Words: 973 |

Published: Dec 5, 2018

Words: 973 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Make to-do lists
Time management
Stop Procrastinating
Leave your work at work
Carve out time for yourself.
Learn to say “NO”
Take a time off
Limit time wasted on social media

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr Jacklynne

Verified writer

Expert in: Life

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

1 pages / 571 words

4 pages / 2008 words

3 pages / 1579 words

4 pages / 1642 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Work-Life Balance

The eternal debate between prioritizing personal life and professional endeavors gives rise to the age-old question of whether one should work to live or live to work. In a world where the boundaries between work and life are [...]

Robbins, S.P., Judge, T.A. & Campbell, T.T. (2017). Organizational Behavior (17th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc.Huffington, A. (2014). Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-being, Wisdom, [...]

Work-life balance has become an increasingly important issue in modern society due to the growing demands of work and personal responsibilities. Maintaining a good work-life balance is beneficial not only to individuals but also [...]

Work to live—a simple yet profound mantra that challenges the prevailing culture of relentless work and urges individuals to prioritize a well-rounded life. In a world that often glorifies the hustle and equates success with [...]

How many people work long hours in the day whether it’s doing homework and studying or working an actual job? A study done in Lancet Medical Journal studied about 600,000 individuals and found that those that worked long periods [...]

This paper investigates the ways by which family work adds to spouses' pressure and compels their recreation. Ideologically family work was seen as a mutual duty yet the spouses performed it with some assistance from their [...]

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Instructions Followed To The Letter
Deadlines Met At Every Stage
Unique And Plagiarism Free

ESSAY SAUCE

FOR STUDENTS : ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY

Essay: Work life balance

Essay details and download:.

Subject area(s): Management essays
Reading time: 13 minutes
Price: Free download
Published: 5 December 2019*
File format: Text
Words: 3,644 (approx)
Number of pages: 15 (approx)
Tags: Human resource management essays

Text preview of this essay:

This page of the essay has 3,644 words. Download the full version above.

Achieving the balance between work and personal life is becoming increasingly difficult due to the pressure current society has placed on individuals. This paper attempts to define what work/life balance is and identifies the benefits it can bring from both employer and employee perspectives.

It also examines the complications in achieving the balance between work and personal goals and discusses the current trends and solutions organisations have in place for their employees to assist in achieving the balance between work and their life.

In conclusion, the paper makes recommendations for Human resource professionals in implementing success work life balance policies on their organisations to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Introduction

In today’s competitive society work/life balance is considered important by many. Australian organisations are rapidly looking for ways of making their employee lives well balanced between work and family.

Traditionally employment was considered the means to which you support your private life. Work Life Balance improvement provisions means that employers can now achieve competitive advantage from creating a more symbiotic relationship with a person’s home and work. This results in lower stress in the work place and greater enjoyment in the home (Guest, 2002). This causes the improvement in employee performance in the work place and positive public image for the organisations

Everyone is looking for perfect balance in life as this can be the key to a healthy living. Reaching the top of the corporate ladder rapidly by sacrificing quality family time and working too much can have a heavy negative impact on family life. However in today’s competitive world, one has to concentrate on improving professional career to be able to financially support his family.

Due to the current skill shortages faced by both Australia and New Zealand and the prospect of an ageing workforce, it is now imperative for organisations to embrace work/life balance practices to attract and retain talent, not only from traditional sources but also from untapped and diverse social groups (Cohen et al, 2002). These social groups can often demand greater attention to work/life balance: working mothers, mature workers and some minority groups.

It is imperative that organisations ensure that they not just encourage but mandate a practical and workable work/life balance policy, meeting the needs of both the organisation and its employees to stay competitive in market. And importantly, organisations can expose themselves to increasing numbers of dissatisfied and unproductive employees by not providing real opportunity for employee work/life balance. So it is important to realise that creating a work/life policy structure is not enough; development of an organisational culture that supports the use of available policies is also of great importance (Bratton, 2003).

Many organisations are reluctant to implement flexible work conditions due to concerns about the cost implications. Many Work-life balance policies and practices do not have any actual cost implications but rely on a more imaginative approach to everyday working conditions (Hughes et al, 2007). Flexible working arrangements such as flexible working hours, part-time/job share arrangements, unpaid leave; work from home arrangements doesn’t cost organisations much. Areas such as childcare, cares leave and work-life balance counselling can however cost an organisation but its long term benefits and advantages to the organisation far out weights the costs.

This paper explores the many definitions of work/life balance, including the benefits for employers and employees. Further, it outlines the need for work life balance in an organisation and provides recommendations and strategies for developing work/life balance agendas.

What is Work/Life balance?

Life is a balancing act, and it is safe to say that in current fast paced society everyone is constantly looking for the right work/life balance. It is imperative to find the true meaning of work/life balance for both employees and employers. Following chapter is aimed at discussing many definitions of work/life balance attempts to find the most relevant definition.

Defining the Concept

In a broader sense Work/Life balance can be described as the ‘fit’ between multiple roles in a person’s life (McCartney, 2002). Some would say it is the need of all individuals to achieve and maintain the balance between their paid work and their life outside of work (Lockett, 2008)

Although the meaning and definitions vary, work/life balance is generally associated with maintaining an overall sense of harmony in life (Clarke .et al, 2004)

Studies of work/life balance generally consider one’s ability to manage simultaneously the multiple demands of life. Traditionally work/life balance is assumed to involve the devotion of equal amounts of time to paid work and non-work roles. However more recently the concept has been recognised as more complex and has been developed to incorporate additional components.

Following aspects have been studied and measured recently in regards to work/life balance (Greenhaus et al, 2003),

Amount of time allocated to work and non-work roles, which is known as time balance.
Level of psychological involvement in to work and non-work roles, which is known as involvement balance.
Satisfaction balance or the level of satisfaction with work and non-work roles.

This work/life balance Model which includes time, involvement and satisfaction components, facilitates the emerging of an extensive and more inclusive picture.

For example, a person who works only three days a week and spends the rest of the week with their family or friends may be unbalanced in terms of time, but may be highly satisfied with the level of involvement in both work and family (balanced satisfaction) and may also be equally committed to the work and non-work roles (balanced involvement).

Someone who works sixty hours a week might be considered as not having work-life balance in terms of time. However this person might be highly satisfied with their involvement with work (balanced satisfaction).

Someone who doesn’t enjoy their job much but works the normal 37.5 hours a week may have found the balance of time but unbalance in terms of involvement and satisfaction. Hence, work-life balance achievement needs to be considered from multiple perspectives.

Changing Face of Family

In recent times, what used to be known as work-family balance has been replaced by work-life balance due to the growing diversity of the family structure. The concept of family has evolved rapidly in the past few decades to encompass extended families, same-sex relationships, single parents, shared parenting, and a wide range of social communities. So the semantic shift from work-family to work-life to recognise the fact that care of dependent children is no longer the only important non-work related role. Other activities such as sport, study, health and fitness, volunteer work, hobbies or care for elderly also need to be balanced with work. So it is important for human resource professionals to better understand the ‘family’ relationships of their staff and the impact it is going to have on businesses.

Caring for elderly is becoming a growing issue for many employers and employees. Australian companies currently employee about one third of the 600,000 Australians who provide principle care for elderly such as their parents or relatives (Department of Workplace Relations and Small Business, 1998).

Typically, organisations only concentrate on men or women who are married or living with a partner and with children when preparing policies for work/life balance. This should no longer be the case due to aforementioned reasons.

The Employee’s perspective

Job seekers today expect Work-life balance. Life in the 21st Century is increasingly complex with people juggling multiple roles. Therefore employees will consider a job only if it offers flexibility.

Public Policies

In response to economic and cultural trends, many with focus on women and parents with children, a range of public policies supporting work-life balance has been developed. Many government organisations such as State Government of Queensland have developed detailed policies in achieving work-life balance (Department of Justice and Attorney General, 2010)

Legislative reforms such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 156, Workers with Family Responsibilities 1981, antidiscrimination and affirmative action legislation and industrial relations changes have also lifted the profile of issues related to work/life balance (Tully, 2005).

In Australia, as a result of these reforms following rules are now in place. (Ministerial Task Force on Work and Family, 2002)

Mandatory reporting of policies by organisations with more than 100 employees
Expansion of legal protections to include explicitly those with family responsibilities
By agreement with the employer, part-time work up to a child’s second birthday

The Australian and New Zealand governments also encourage employers to provide childcare support for staff with families. Provided the contract of employment is not broken, employees in public and private sectors in both Australia and New Zealand are entitled to 12 months’ unpaid maternity leave. After this time, they are entitled to return to the position held before the leave, or to a position of comparable status and salary. Unlike New Zealand, where employed women are entitled to 13 weeks’ government-funded paid maternity leave, Australia has no statutory paid maternity leave.20

The New Zealand Government also supports and partly funds the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust which, among other things, initiates annual Work and Life awards; tracks progress on work and family initiatives within organisations; and promotes the issue through conference speeches and press releases.

The Department of Labour in New Zealand established a Work/Life Balance Project in the last half of 2003, which ran until the middle of 2004. Results from the project showed that many people perceived their work and non-work lives were out of balance (Department of Labour, 2004). One recommendation was government assistance for employers to help them provide work/life balance initiatives.

Family Friendly Benefits

People place high importance on the quality of their personal lives. The common saying “Do not live to work but rather work to live” confirms this. If there is a choice between work and their private lives work will most certainly loose. Employees are now looking to work for organisations where career advancement is not hindered due to one’s family commitments. So they expect support and encouragement from their employers to improve and excel in their personal lives as well as their work commitments.

The Employer’s perspective

In addition to the development of public policies supporting responsibilities outside of paid employment, organisations have increasingly been developing formal policies that attempt to facilitate the work/life nexus. Work/life balance strategies enhance the autonomy of workers in coordinating and integrating the work and non-work aspects of their lives (Felstead et al, 2002).

Three broad types of work/life strategies have been created to help employees balance their work and non-work lives: flexible work options, specialised leave policies and dependent-care benefits (Morgan et al, 1992)

Following are some of the initiatives organisations have implemented in improving work/life balance amongst their staff.

Skill Shortages

Positive Return of investment is the main driver behind an employer’s commitment to invest in work/life balance. Does it really have positives returns? In recent years, organisations increasingly realise that there is a direct relationship between the quality of an employee’s personal and family life and their work quality. Hence there is a valid reason to promote work and family integration.

Australia is heading towards a skills shortage due to its aging population and declining population growth (ABS, 2010). It is anticipated that there will not be enough skilled workers to fill the positions left by retired workers. Also, people caring for elderly in the labour force will increase as a result of this. Following chart shows the population projections for Australia. As you can see elderly population has a trend to grow in coming years.

So it is imperative for business to adopt flexible work /life balance options in their workplaces to attract skilled staff.

Employee retention

Employee retention is a huge challenge faced by many organisations at present. “Employee experience” can be improved by balance work/life policies and can contribute positively in retaining employees. Ernst and Young estimated that the cost of turnover in a client services role averaged 150% of a departing employee’s annual salary (Hewlett et al, 2005).

The turnover cost of an employee is a combination of separation costs, replacement costs and training costs (Bohlander et al, 2004). Due to these huge costs employers are always on the hunt for ways to retain employees within their organisations. The direct correlation between the provision of flexible work options and reduced turnover means that work-life balance is now a strategic Human resource issue .

Company Image

Organisations who have genuine interest in promoting and supporting work-life balance policies often considered good corporate citizens. However an organisation’s keenness to be perceived as a good company may depend on its visibility to public, the nature of their business or the size of the business. Although large organisations might provision flexible work/life options to gain a good public image, small organisations might not do the same due to its low return of investment in a small organisation.

A government organisation might opt to consider flexible work conditions due to their responsibility towards public, but a private organisation which is driven by profit might not consider flexible work conditions to seek approval from public.

Many more advantages

There are many more advantages of implementing flexible work/life options in an organisation. These include and not limited to

Better physical and mental health of employees
Earlier return to work after maternity leave
Reduced absenteeism
Improved job satisfaction
Reduced turnover
Availability of a broader talent pool
Loyal employees
Retention of skilled aged workers

Many studies have found absenteeism is reduced as a result of flexible work options. Stratex Networks Ltd has confirmed it has reduced absenteeism by 8% and employees averaged only 2.9 sick days as year (Managing Work/Life Balance International, 2004)

Recommendations

Following are some recommendations for flexible work options aimed at providing a better balance between work and life for employees.

Management Support for work/life balance is crucial for an organisation to succeed. Having just the policies is not enough.
Regular employee surveys can help to understand workers needs and design appropriate policies
Assist employees to prioritise their work, otherwise they will think everything is equally important
Training of managers and supervisors to understand when their staff is overworked
Organise seminars and training for employees to understand the importance of balance between their personal life and work
Restrict work to be taken home regularly. This should be the responsibility of the corresponding supervisor, so work gets done in office but not at home.
Allow many leave options such a community service leave, pet care
Allow work from home, flexitime and sick leave without a doctors certificate
Allow children to visit office time to time. It may be a good idea to have a “bring your kid to work” days.
Implement the option to work from home while taking care of children or elderly parents.
Organise company funded family oriented activities such as family dinners, movie nights or trips to theme parks at least once a year on a weekday.
Organisations need to promote work-life balance policies at every opportunity they get. This should not be limited to orientation sessions or to a company handbook.

Work/life balance initiatives have the potential to significantly reduce absenteeism, improve employee morale and retain organisational knowledge and staff, particularly during testing economic times. In today’s global marketplace, as companies aim to reduce costs, it falls to the human resource professional to understand the critical issues of work/life balance and champion work/life programs. Be it employees whose family members and/or friends are called to serve their country, single mothers who are trying to raise their children and take a living, Generation X and Y employees who value their personal time, couples struggling to manage dual-career marriages, or companies losing critical knowledge when employees leave for other opportunities, work/life programs offer a win-win situation for employers and employees.

However developing a work life balance policies is not enough. These need to be practiced and supported especially by the top level managers.

Employee expectations are very high in regards to flexible work conditions at today’s society. So it is imperative for businesses to have highly functional work life balance options to stay competitive and attract the highest skilled staff. Hence many organisations view work/life balance as a human recourse directive with strategic importance.

Organisational culture plays a key role when it comes to work life balance provisions. So an organisation with co-worker and managerial support will excel with carefully created flexible work options. It is apparent that the HR policies in terms of work-life balance mostly concentrate on individuals who have families with small children. Due to the diversity of the concept of family now, work/life balance improvement policies should address every aspect of family such as single parents, shared parents, elderly care and singles.

Finally, we need to adapt a “give and take” philosophy. This means that both employer and employee need to be willing to bend a little. Small compromise will go a long way in achieving perfect harmony between personal and work lives.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2004), Australian Social Trends 2004, retrieved April 10, 2010 from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/0/95560b5d7449b135ca256e9e001fd879?OpenDocument

Bardoel, E. (2003), Organizational predictors of work-family practices, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 36, 31-49.

Bird, Jim, (2006), Work-Life Balance: Doing It Right and Avoiding the Pitfalls, Employment Relations Today, Vol. 33:3, p. 1 – 9.

Bittman, M., Hoffmann, S., & Thompson, D. (2004), Men’s uptake of familyfriendly employment provisions, Policy Research Paper Number 22,

Blair-Loy, M., & Wharton, A. S. (2002), Employees’ use of work-family policies and the workplace social context, Social Forces, 80(3), 813-45.

Bohlander, G. and Snell, S. (2004), Managing Human Resources, Cengage Learning.

Bottos, L. M., (2006), Mind the Gap: Knowing What Employees Want Is Key, Employees benefit review.

Boxall, P. & Purcell, J. (2003) Strategy and human resource management, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bratton, John & Gold, Jeffrey, (2003), Human Resource Management Theory and Practice (3rd ed.), New York, Palgrave Macmillan.

Clark, S. C., (2000), Work/Family Border Theory: A New Theory of Work/Family Balance, Human Relations, Vol. 53: 6, p. 747 – 770

Clarke, M., Koch, L., & Hill, E. (2004), The work-family interface: Differentiating balance and fit. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 33(2), 121-40.

Cohen, M. and Zaidi, M. (2002) Global Skill Shortages, Cohen, M. and Zaidi, M. (2002) Global Skill Shortages, Edwards Elgar Publishing

Commonwealth of Australia (2002), Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry 10th Anniversary National Work and Family Awards 2002, Canberra: Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

De Cieri, H., & Kramar, R (2003) Human Resource management in Australia: strategy, people, performance, Sydney: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty. Ltd.

Department of Justice and Attorney General (2010) Work life Balance Strategy. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/fair-and-safe-work/industrial-relations/work-family-and-lifestyle/work-life-balance-strategy

Department of Labour (2004), Balance life and employment, retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://www.dol.govt.nz/PDFs/wlb-consultation-summary.pdf

Department of Workplace Relations and Small Business (1998), Life cycle issues at work, Work and Family, 17, 12.

Donaldson, C. (2003). The law of attraction and retention: Henry Davis York. HR Magazine. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://www.humanresourcemagazine.com.au/articles/89/0C01BA89.asp?Type=60&Categozv=874

Felstead, A., Jewson, N., Phizacklea, A., & Walters, S. (2002), Opportunities to work at home in the context of work-life balance, Human Resource Management Journal, 12(1), 54-77.

West Sussex, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The Myth of Work-Life Balance, West Sussex, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Gardner, M., & Palmer, G. (1997) Employment Relations, Industrial Relations and Human Resource management in Australia, (2nd Ed), Macmillan Education Australia, Melbourne.

Greenhaus, J. H., Collins, K. M., and Shaw, J. D. (2003), The relation between work-family balance and quality of life, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63, 510-31.

Guest, D. (2002), Perspectives on the Study of Work-life Balance, Social Science Information, Vol. 41, p. 255 – 279.

Hewlett, S., Luce, C., Shiller, P., & Southwell, S. (2005), The hidden brain drain: Off-ramps and on-ramps in women’s careers , Harvard Business Review research report, Centre for Work-life Policy, New York.

Hughes, J & Bozionelos, N. (2007), Work-Life Balance as Source of Job Dissatisfaction and Withdrawal Attitudes, Personnel Review, Vol. 36:1, p. 145 – 154.

Leonard, B. (2003, July) Taking HR to the next level. HR Magazine . Retrieved April 10, 2010, from: http://www .shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0703/0703leonard.asp

Lockett, K. (2008) Work/Life balance for Dummies , Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd, Milton

Managing Work/Life Balance International (2004), Work Life Initiatives. The Way Ahead, Report on the Year 2004 Survey , retrieved April 10, 2010 from http://www.worklifebalance.com.au/pdfs/ mwlb2004execsum.pdf

McCartney, C. (2002). Work/life balance: The role of the manager. Training , Vol 35.

Ministerial Task Force on Work and Family (2002), Review of work and family in Queensland . (Issues Paper),

Queensland Government Department of Industrial Relations.

Ministerial Task Force on Work and Family (2002), Review of work and family in Queensland . (Issues Paper), Queensland Government Department of Industrial Relations.

Morgan, H., and Milliken, F. J. (1992), Keys to action: Understanding differences in organisations’ responsiveness to work and family issues , Human Resource Management , 31, 227-48.

Noe, R A, Hollenbeck, J. R, Gerhart, B. & Wright, P.M (2003) Human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage , McGraw-Hill Companies, New York.

Nord, W., Fox, S., Phoenix, A., & Viano, K. (2002), Real-world reactions to work-life balance programs: Lessons for effective implementation, Organisational Dynamics , 30(3), 223-38.

O’Neill. G.L. & Kramar, R. (eds.) (1998) Australian human resource management: current trends in management practice , Woodslane Pty. Ltd., Sydney.

Shoptaugh, C., Phelps, J., & Visio, M. (2004), Employee eldercare responsibilities: Should organizations care?, Journal of Business and Psychology , 19(2), 179-96.

Sirgy, J. M., Efraty, D. Siegel, P. & Lee, D.(2001), A New Measure of Quality Of Work Life (QWL) Based on Need Satisfaction and Spillover Theories, Social Indicators Research , Vol. 55, p. 241 – 302.

Society for Human Resource Management. (2002). Work-life balance. Workplace Vision s, 4, 1-8.

Society for Human Resource Management. (2003). SHRM 2003 benefits survey . Alexandria, VA.

Townsend, N. W. (2002), The package deal: Marriage, work and fatherhood in men’s lives , Temple University Press, Philadelphia.

Tully, S. (2005), International documents on corporate responsibility , Edward Elgar Publications, Cheltenham, UK

Walker, J. (2004), Better with age, Business Review Weekl y, 26(33), 52-4.

Zedeck, S. & Mosier, K. L. (2003), Work in the Family and Employing Organization, American Psychologist , Vol. 5:2, p. 240 – 251.

Zimmerman, E. (2004) ‘The joy of flex’, Workforce Management, March .

...(download the rest of the essay above)

Discover more:

Human resource management essays

Recommended for you

Strategic Human Resource Management – GCS
The human resource management
Relationship between Human Resource Management strategy and business strategy

About this essay:

If you use part of this page in your own work, you need to provide a citation, as follows:

Essay Sauce, Work life balance . Available from:<https://www.essaysauce.com/management-essays/work-life-balance/> [Accessed 02-07-24].

These Management essays have been submitted to us by students in order to help you with your studies.

* This essay may have been previously published on Essay.uk.com at an earlier date.

Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance Essay

To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Work-life balance is a top agenda item for human resource managers of most multinational and large organizations. It is even the top priority issue for employees everywhere. Whether to adopt work-life balance or flexible schedules remains a contentious issue especially with times of great business economic threats on one hand and increased family pressure on the other.

Even though organizations globally manage a workforce that is very culturally diverse, they are faced with one similar challenge of managing a more informed workforce which demands for more and more rights even in difficult economic times.

Even the environment itself promotes such demands to arise and thus managers must remain competitively capable of handling this. For instance, a recent survey and report in the UK showed that longer drinking hours have significantly increased work absence (Churchard 2011).

There is a continuous search for ways that will not force people to choose between work and family or friends. In multinationals, the task is not as easy as it may be on local companies. The international human resource managers are faced by an extra task of understanding the various demographic and cultural differences in the countries in which their organizations are to be found.

This means that the HR policies may not be directly transferable among the countries. A policy that may be applicable in one culture without any resistance from staff may face rejection if applied in a different culture if customization is not done.

In this paper, focus is given to personnel policies that relate to flexibility and work-life balance. The human resource practices in some local and multinational companies are addressed and it is sought if a set of policies related to work-life balance in a multinational corporation can be applicable to a subsidiary in a different country.

“Trends of Working Time in Europe”

In Europe, clear efforts to improve on working hours began in the 1980s, even though there had been efforts here and there to achieve the same. In Germany, working time flexibility increased since the compromise in the metal working industry in 1984. Today, over 52% of all the dependent employees work within a flexible organization. (Carl & Maier 2009)

In an experts meeting held in Dublin on 3 rd June 2011, Boulin (2011) suggested that institutions in the European Union adopt policies that favor work/life balance through parental leaves and childcare facilities and also gender mainstreaming. A suggestion was therefore made that revision of working time be done in regards to long working hours, working time options and rules concerning unsocial hours.

On the same meeting, Italian human resource expert Addabbo Tindara suggested that the quality of work dimensions be looked at from six sides namely the “social, economic, work-life balance, complexity, organizational and ergonomic dimensions.”

According to the Norwegian National Institute of Occupational Health (STAMI), flexible working hours can be a major hindrance to work-life balance. Data shows that for people working less than 40 hours a week, there is no much work-family conflict.

However, for employees doing over 40 hours there is greater work-family conflict. According to the study by the institute, predictability is better than flexibility as far as work-family balance is concerned. The idea of working hours being flexible is not enough, they should be predictable too.

Flexible contracts can come in form of temporary working, fixed term contracts, sub contracting, and zero hour’s contracts. Other ways of creating flexible work hours are part-time work, flexitime and overtime. People can also do job sharing and compressed hours. Different countries have adopted different forms of flexible work in line with cultural beliefs, religion and moral principles.

Literature Review

Work-life balance.

There is an increasing rate for the demand for work-life balance solutions by employees and managers (Bird 2006). According to Bird, work-life is a serious concern even to the senior executives for the following reasons. Work-life balance affects growth and profit of the company i.e. on and off-the-job stresses adversely affect bottom line growth and drive down productivity.

There is full engagement in customer service- this creates an unnecessarily stressed and out of balance workforce. There is increased expectation by the current pool of younger workers that there is a life to live other than and out of the job. Health cost solution- there is a rising cost of health care by organizations owing to the increased work related illnesses.

The health perspective

According to Mayo-Clinic, inability to have a good work-life balance has far reaching health effects especially to the worker. Fatigue, suppressed immunity and general unproductivity are just among the many problems the worker experiences. Mayo-Clinic proposes a strategy to strike a better balance. They propose an approach that starts with tracking one’s weekly schedule and cutting or delegating those tasks you cannot handle.

They also advise people to learn to say no when extra work out of schedule is assigned to make room for joy and additional meaningful activities. Work should be left at the workplace. Advice is therefore given, especially with the current technology that could connect home to work, that people should learn to separate work from personal activities. Good time management is especially crucial.

This goes a long way in giving the worker enough time to relax and attend to other personal matters. In addition, it goes a long way in preventing conflicts at home more so for the married workforce.

Above all, a good and healthy nutrition coupled with daily physical activity routines to nurture the physical and emotional wellbeing are recommended. It goes without saying that taking time to engage in regular physical activity in a preventive measure to cardiovascular diseases among other illnesses that are accentuated by living physically inactive life.

This is a trend that is very common among the working class. As such, taking time to do activities that one enjoys could be a good thing to do (Stiles 2009). It is one’s responsibility to evaluate oneself and seek professional help when it is the right time.

Working long hours and working in unsocial hours of the night necessitate frequent medical check ups and other forms of medical attention. Multinationals which have subsidiaries in areas where there is no elaborate legislation on flexible and work-life balance must take this into account. Their human resources management must also create provisions that will ensure they are well trained for health work related life.

This will increase employee retention, reduce days that employees miss job due to work-related sicknesses and in the end company maintains profitability. Taking the health of the workforce with high regard also motivates the employees, which is a gain to the organization.

Mayo-Clinic suggests that one can take advantage of available options like flex hours, job sharing, compressed week and telecommuting among others. Control over one’s hours will give less stress. Flexible working arrangements have widely been advocated for by governments and private institutions. The Australian Government (2011) attaches the following benefits to flexible working arrangements.

To begin with, the Australian government has realized that flex-time improves the firm’s ability to attract skilled and motivated employees, not to mention the effect of enhancing employee retention.

Staffs who are allowed to take flex-time working schedules eventually become loyal to the organization since they feel the organization appreciates them by giving them space to make their choices. The staffs therefore execute their duties as if they are shareholders of the organization.

The government of Australia has also recognized that allowing for flexi-time schedules is a great step towards increasing trust and respect between employees and the management. When employees get flex-time opportunities, they end up contributing positively to the organization by improving productivity.

This is because flexible work schedules can enable staff to execute their office duties even in odd hours which otherwise they would not have been working. It is well identified that flexi-time schedules lead to a reduction in staff absenteeism and labour turnover, eventually raising the company’s productivity and profitability.

The Australian Government (2011) also highlights that flexible work schedules go a long way in reducing stress levels and boosting morale and commitment in employees. Finally, flexible work schedules reduce discrimination at work place.

After recognizing the above benefits of flexible work schedules, the Australian Government (2011) went ahead to propose a three step approach to ease the introduction of flexible work practices. In the first step, new arrangements appropriate to the individual are decided in consideration of available options. The second step is to plan the strategy, especially on how to make the negotiations.

The final one is to engage the actual negotiations with the employer, giving good reasons and explanations on benefits to you and the organization too. To the employer, the government says that this move will increase recruitment of the number of persons with disabilities. These people have an advantage of lower absenteeism, lower cost of hiring them, building staff morale and fewer accidents at work.

In a case study of KPMG UK, a study was done to help in improvement of the performance of its large workforce in the country. The main challenges to be overcome were to cater for the greater expectations of freedom from staff. The real challenge was therefore to create a flexible working strategy that could both meet the staff needs and still improve its competitiveness.

Line managers were therefore set to work along HR to evaluate the requests. The results were glide time, part-time working hours, job sharing, additional holiday purchase, unpaid leave, career break and home working. Time off to deal with child care is also allowed (Giglio n.d).

These are indications that KPMG adopted an approach that favored flex time as opposed to balanced work-life. In the long run, it achieved business benefits through creating a more loyal, motivated and productive staff, reduced recruitment cost due to better staff retention, a diverse workforce was maintained, and reinforced the company’s core values.

Despite the fact that KPMG is a multinational that has subsidiaries in almost every part of the world, the human resource practices that relate to work-life and flexible working do not apply in all subsidiaries. Those in areas where employees are not much into flexible work hours do full time with core working hours being ten to four o’clock but reporting to work at eight in the morning and leaving at six o’clock in the evening (Giglio n.d).

The Ad Council, a private non profit organization with head offices in New York and Washington D.C has an average of 100 employees. All the employees are given liberty to utilize flexible hours provided they show that their productivity will not decline nor will the company incur further financial obligations. This program began with one employee who requested to be allowed to work from home.

The employees hence gain in working in a happy environment spending more time with their children. Employees end up staying while the company remains attractive to job seekers. The company does not have to give several leaves like long maternity or paternity leaves since the parents can work soonest at the comfort of their homes (Vaele 2011).

A furniture company, Ward’s Furniture based in Long Beach, California began to look for flexibility options as a means of taming employee turnover and thereby retain its valuable employees.

The employees are treated like a family while the company still manages to keep its stores staffed. It was able to realize between 5 and 10 percent increase in annual sales in a business unfriendly time while most of its competitors shut their doors with lack of business.

Management of global workforce in relation to flexi-time and work-life balance

It is difficult for organizations that have a global presence to manage a flexible and very satisfied workforce. On the international arena, the managers are faced with a challenge of making flexible schedules for the employees.

Most have therefore adopted a flexible schedule of work at home, which requires commitment both from employers and employees. In a study to search the applicability of this technique globally, it was found that there were more challenges in countries with collectivist cultures. Business Process Organizations and IT firms have gone a mile ahead in establishing such schedules.

In most countries that have effected flexible work hours, the call to have them comes as a result of different employee or employer needs. For instance, employees may call for flexible hours to allow them attend to other personal issues and then compensate with later hours.

The call may also come from the employer in a bid to tame employee turnover, to share work due to inadequate supply of labour or to give chances to more employees or people with disabilities. The policies thus adopted will have a different basis in the effort to meet these demands. Cross border transfer of the policies may therefore not be possible as it will be difficult to meet these demands with just one set of homogeneous provisions.

Perceptions on position, culture and career

This would be one of the greatest variables in determining if transfer of personnel policies across borders will be effective. Surprisingly, this also has to do with the management’s taste as it may determine if these kinds of flexible schedules will be introduced.

A study done on women around the globe showed that 81% of the North American women would make career sacrifices to improve personal life. This compares to 70% Asian women and 55% European (Rudrappa 2005).

Even when academic credentials and other experiences are very important aspects in the selection of the right candidates for a job, an arising criterion is getting the right people in the right place with focus on cultural fit. International companies like Ikea have their selection of candidates more leaning towards cultural fit. Oracle is one other company that will use this criterion even for managerial positions.

Other multinational companies like the Japanese Sony and All Nippon Airways do not let academic documents get in the way of getting the right staff. Internationalization calls for special attention such that the strategies applied are consistent while at the same time being flexible. In the end, the organization is able to meet international standards while at the same time being sensitive to local needs.

In conclusion flexibility of people both in mindset, working hours and other key aspects is deeply etched into cultures. It is one of the reasons international human resource managers will look at cultural affiliation when considering who to consider for a position.

Career women and flexibility

In proportion to the relative number of employed women against employed men, women seem to be the largest group that is affected by lack of flexibility of work. In fact, a study was done to determine this and it was found that 67% of women interviewed would voluntarily leave work to stay at home as a wife or mother.

An overwhelming 79% would quit for family obligations while 38% would do if they were forced to stay at home to be mothers or family custodians. However, challenges are still imposed by technology by bringing a work environment at home. It adversely affects women since they are now expected to balance the life of childcare, professional work and family.

ILO asserts that flexible working could lead to gender balance if well managed. They warn that it could lead to the woman being more oppressed if much work is brought to the home environment while there are lots of other domestic issues to handle (International Labour Organization 2007). As such, career women would end up not being favored by the flexibility of working as expected.

In an effort to achieve maximum productivity of an international human workforce, the focus should not dwell on the culture of the group from which the international organizations draw their workforce from. With the world becoming a global village, most of these hard-line cultures are being abandoned to embrace modern living. There is also a stronger need-based force, stronger than cultural tendencies that defy culture.

For instance, most multinational companies looking for labour force would go where it is cheaper, that is in countries like China, India and generally Africa.

The three are deeply rooted in the connectivism culture and are likely to oppose ideas like night shifts, working on holy days and other special times. However, this is only ideal. Members of these cultural groups have swam against the tide and made an impressively flexible workforce.

With several advances having been made globally in management, it is only evident that either flexible time or good work-life balance is not entirely what is needed to increase sales or acquire a competitive edge; there are a myriad of many other ways.

It would be wrong, therefore, to conclude that because a company used one of these at a certain time and performed well, it is the cause of increased productivity. It is often a complex interaction of these factors. Of major importance is the psychological consideration of individuals as separate entities and identifying each person’s needs.

Transfer of personnel policies across borders

The transfer of personnel policies on flexible and work-life balance is limited by the reasons each country established its statutes as compared to the other than it is by cultural differences.

There is also lots of revision of the statutes as the workers and work demands keep changing and therefore necessitating their constant change. The absence of a very elaborate policy direction from the International Labour Organization is a limitation in itself to a smooth transfer of personnel policies regarding this area among nations.

During its presidency of the European Union, Sweden promoted its working life. It is a clear indication that there is no homogeneous body of social science knowledge about work-life balance which can allow policy formulation and legislation.

The incongruence in the laws formulated and lack of information in certain cases in different countries therefore pose a hindrance to easy transfers of personnel across borders. What may be considered as a bundle of family friendly practices in one country may be the opposite in the other (Tulgan 1996).

Comparative issues have not been adequately dealt with to identify the key issues of work-life balance. There are therefore many cross-national differences in assumptions about the norms of family life and employer’s responsibilities. Divorce rates are a good indicator of this (Guest 2001).

A good example is in what was back in the years, the Soviet Union. It used to have a strong stress on welfare and family support in its factory system but with the collapse of the communist system, a breakdown of these institutions was experienced.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has certain provisions that regard healthy working time and family friendly working time. It thus works towards seeking a solution of the traditional “male bread winner- female home maker” situation. Much of what it proposes falls within the flexible schedule brackets as part of it is part-time jobs and hourly wages for full time jobs (International Labour Organization 2007).

Europe however is a step ahead in promoting some homogeny even though there still arises some disparities in legislation among the member countries. It is for that reason easier to have transfer of these policies within Europe.

The ICT industry has been successful in maneuvering around most legislative and cultural barriers that may come in the way of flexible and work-life balance. The main reason is that much of ICT-related work can be done form whichever point in location. Technology has eased the barriers even though it has not cleared them. Most jobs that can be done online and perhaps have no tight deadlines encourage flexibility.

Other than working as a ‘Flexibility Coach’, the human resource manager of a multinational must orientate himself to understanding of diverse cultures and their attitudes towards all aspects of work. As employees of today focus on improving on their work-life balance, the option of across border transfers is at stake.

Employees want to be either near home or at home, whether working or attending to personal matters. In this perspective, IHRM must focus on the real impact of flexible work-life balance.

In most developing, nations especially of Africa and Asia, the concept of flexibility may be relatively new and if it has been adopted, it is only by a few companies related to ICT, though still to a lesser magnitude.

For instance, choice may be on when to work but not necessarily on where to do it. For multinationals that have expanded to these areas, the use of a common HR policy on all aspects may not be possible, unless the members of the subsidiary group are flexible in their mindset to accommodate it.

The culture of the host nation and donor nation may differ and this will have its share of the reasons transfer of personnel policies will not be efficient. In a case study to compare such cultures, Taiwan and UK were taken into consideration. First, UK is a developed economy while Taiwan is an upcoming economy. Taiwanese principles are based on Confucianism while UK principles are based on individualism.

Duty to family, harmonious attitude and a consensus towards a conflict-free working are some of the guiding principles for Taiwan. For UK, the individualism approach has no such thing as society to regard. The Taiwanese system provides permanent work because of values of Confucianism like “long term orientation”.

On the other hand, at least 64% of UK’s workforce is either home-based workers or part-time workers. On such basis, transferability of the policies is therefore difficult for the two countries (Chang, Wilkinson & Mellahi 2007).

Challenges facing international work time management

One of the greatest challenges a general manager of an international organization would face is managing people of different cultures in relation to productivity for his organization. The manager is left with an option of considering labour cost factors and economic factors as the major determinants.

Even the expansion would need to consider these cultural factors. The prevailing religion could be considered as cultural. Religion affects people’s stands and these would best be factored in consideration of setting up an international business. Selecting managers for various assignments would mean screening them for such cultural factors for the sake of adaptability, self orientation and relational skills.

Agreements on work life and flexible work

Most researchers seem to agree that flex time and work balance must go hand in hand if it is possible for a specific job. Mayo-Clinic seems especially to propose a harmonized balance of the two. There is especially one general agreement in all schools of thought that the number of hours each person works per week could be rescheduled to become more productive and beneficial to the employee.

Scholars of different schools of thought seem to agree that flexible work schedules can be either beneficial or detrimental to the organization. Detriment seems to come from less commitment of work-at-home employees.

Conflicts on work life and flexible work

The greatest conflict arises when the two aspects of work improvement are not differentiated and are addressed as one and the same thing. The Work Foundation (2008) addresses work-life balance as “having a measure of control over when, where and how you work leading to ability to enjoy an optimal quality of life” (para 5). In this definition, more of the issues addressed would rather fall on flexible work than work-life balance.

It does not address the internal adjustment of the individual in terms of preparedness, personal schedule and attitudes towards work in an effort to make sure that work does not stall personal affairs or the other way.

Some scholars depict work-life balance and the right to ask for a flexible working as impossible to overcome owing to the differences in cultures. They suggest that it could only be handled like subsidiaries requiring totally independent practices and policies.

Other scholars imply that with the globalization of management, everything else concerning the working environment could be ‘globalized’ and enable transfer of personnel policies internationally.

There is diversity amongst European countries concerning the basis on which statutes on flexible working were introduced. UK, for instance, introduced them in response to labour market shortages and to eliminate work-family conflict that became a barrier to employment.

Other countries introduced theirs in response to unemployment and therefore it was a means of work sharing. The compatibility of personnel policies of such countries is therefore capped by these facts and is difficult to effect.

The internationalization of HRM is limited by social cultural factors. Some of these factors are issues like common age, size, and norms of behavior, presence of customs, influence of labour unions, labour market and perceptions of different stakeholders. When looked at from a flexibility dimension, many other factors like pay and benefits, communication, transfers and business environment come into play.

It is becoming increasingly important for multinational enterprises to globalize their human resource practices. How best to do it on a culturally diverse workforce depends on the continued innovativeness and creativity of the managers. Gaps between strategic management and international human resource management function must be bridged.

Despite its difficulty, it has proved possible with several multinational companies effectively effecting flexible schedules to all their subsidiaries. German companies are known, for instance, to expand to Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia and still successfully implement their personnel policies in all of them.

International human resource management is faced with such emerging issues and must be competitive enough to cater for it to overcome such challenges and retain a competitive edge. The disparities in how such policies evolve must be catered for because the rate of changes may not be the same. It will even mean constant revision of the policies in a fast changing world.

Countries that are technologically advanced are easier to manage because infrastructure supports such changes. The human resource management team will however experience a higher demand from employees of such countries.

Competent international human resource managers will, according to this research, be open-minded so as to accommodate different cultures in the work-life balance requests. In the long run, the human resource manager seeks to help the employees achieve personal satisfaction as they achieve organizational goals.

He may not be able to put into effect these flexible schedules for managers since their roles are more demanding and options like sharing will be out of question even with much delegation. Differences in cultural factors are partially a hindrance to the transferability of personnel policies, but not a block never to be overcome.

List of References

Australian Government, 2011. How to negotiate a flexible work environment . JobAccess. Web.

Bird, J., 2006. Work-life balance: Doing it right and avoiding the pitfalls. Employment Relations Today, 33 (3), 1-9.

Boulin, J., 2011. Flexible working hours and their impact on work-life balance and working conditions. Expert Meeting- Organization of Working time: Implications for Working Conditions, Dublin, June 3rd 2011 . Web.

Carl, A. & Maier, F., 2009. “Flexible working time arrangements in Germany.” External Report Commissioned by and presented to the EU Directorate-General Employment and Social Affairs, Unit G1 ‘Equality between women and men’ . Web.

Chang, Y. Y., Wilkinson, A. J. & Mellahi, K., 2007. HRM strategies and MNCs from emerging economies in the UK. European Business Review, 19 (5), 404 – 419

Churchard, C., 2010. Longer drinking hours ‘drive up workplace absence’ . Web.

Giglio, K. Workplace flexibility case studies . Sloan Work and Family Research Network. Web.

Guest, D. E., 2001. Perspectives on the study of work-life balance . Web.

International Labour Organization, 2007. Decent working time: Balancing workers’ needs with business requirements . ILO. Web.

Rudrappa, S., 2005. Women in global workforce. Web.

Stiles, P. et al., 2009. Best practice and key themes in global human resource Management: Project Report. Web.

The Work Foundation, 2008. Jargon buster . The work foundation. Web.

Tulgan, B., 1996. Managing Generation X . Oxford: Capstone.

Vaele, P., 2011. Workplace flexibility case study: The Ad Council’s flexible work schedule policy . Web.

Work-Life Conflict and Performance
Work-Life Conflict
Employee Work-Life Balance
Organizational Conflict
The Role of Security Management in an Organization
Essential Management Skills
Intimacy, Love and Friendship and how they translate to employability
Web-Based Recruiting Practices and Benefits
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, May 14). Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance. https://ivypanda.com/essays/flexible-work-schedule-and-work-life-balance-essay/

"Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance." IvyPanda , 14 May 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/flexible-work-schedule-and-work-life-balance-essay/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance'. 14 May.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance." May 14, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/flexible-work-schedule-and-work-life-balance-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance." May 14, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/flexible-work-schedule-and-work-life-balance-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance." May 14, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/flexible-work-schedule-and-work-life-balance-essay/.

IMAGES

What Is Work-Life Balance and How to Improve It?
The Case Against Work-Life Balance: Owning Your Future
Work-Life Balance
33 Work-life balance examples to try to improve productivity
Work Life Balance Free Essay Example
Essay on Work Life Balance [ Meaning & Importance in Life ]

VIDEO

PART 1
work life balance
Is Work-Life Balance Possible or is it a Myth?
Work-Life Balance: How I Manage It
Work-life-balance 😌#worklifebalance #genzmemes #morgenritual #remixinator #dayinmylife

COMMENTS

Work-life Balance Essay
Importance of work-life balance. Work-life balance can be defined as arrangements employers make to enable their employees to live full lives. This implies that as much as they give their best to the job, the employees will have a chance to do other things in their lives. Work-life balance is a very important aspect of any working environment.
Work-Life Balance Essay: Meaning, Importance And Causes
Importance of Work-life Balance in Human Resource Management. 1. Employee Engagement at Work and Quality of Customer Service. 2. Impact on the Profitability and Growth. 3. Rising Cost of Health Care and Medications. Steps that I Want to Take in Future to Enhance my Knowledge on this Topic. Conclusion.
Why Work-Life Balance Is So Important—and How to Nail It
At a Glance. Work-life balance generally refers to a balance between your personal and work life. The goal is to strive to keep that balance so that we are managing stress and burnout by fulfilling other areas of our lives that aren't swallowed up by work. Remember: That "balance" may shift at times and is never really a 50/50 split.
84 Work-Life Balance Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
Work-Life Balance: A Comparison of Policies in the UK and Australia. It tries to understand the basic issues in those countries that contribute to work-life conflict and compares the policies pursued by the two countries in tackling the problems in balancing work and life. Work-Life Balance Development in the UK Retail Stores.
Essay on Work Life Balance
500 Words Essay on Work Life Balance Introduction to Work-Life Balance. Work-life balance, a term that has gained significant traction in recent years, refers to the equilibrium that an individual needs to maintain between work-related activities and personal life. In a fast-paced world where the boundaries between work and personal life are ...
Work-Life Balance in Psychology: 12 Examples and Theories
Work-life balance (WLB) is a somewhat recent phenomenon, arising from employees' concerns about the demands expected by their work (Guest, 2002). The perceived increase in these demands can be traced to three factors (Guest, 2002): Changes in the work environment. Changes in life. Changes in individual attitudes.
106 Work-Life Balance Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
The impact of work-life balance on work-life effectiveness In conclusion, achieving a healthy work-life balance is essential for maintaining overall well-being and happiness. By exploring these 106 work-life balance essay topic ideas and examples, you can gain a better understanding of the importance of work-life balance and discover strategies ...
Work-life Balance Essay
Benefits of work-life balance. 3.1 Increased productivity and job satisfaction. 3.2 Improved physical and mental health. 3.3 Enhanced relationships and overall happiness. 1. Introduction. Work-life balance can be defined as the equilibrium between an individual's work and personal life.
Benefits of Work-Life Balance
Managers can help their workforce to attain a work and life balance by: implementing flexible working schedules and work arrangements that meet the needs of employees, being respectful and thoughtful of employee personal responsibilities, creating time for employees to pursue career development and opportunities to serve the community, and by promoting a constructive work setting by providing ...
Work-life Balance Essays
Importance of Life Balance. 2 pages / 695 words. Achieving a balance between personal and professional life is increasingly challenging yet profoundly essential. Life balance is the equilibrium between various aspects of one's life such as family, work, health, and personal development. This essay explores the importance of life balance, its ...
Work-life Balance: Importance and Strategies
Work-life balance is a term used to describe the equilibrium between work and personal life. In today's fast-paced society, people tend to dedicate most of their time to work while ignoring their personal lives. However, maintaining a healthy work-life balance is crucial for overall well-being and happiness. This essay argues that while work is ...
work life balance essay
Individual Essay: Work-life Balance In today's work environment a better balance between work and life is increasingly desired by workers. Desire for a better work-life balance has become one of the growing concerns in contemporary society (Wood and de Menezes (2010, p.1575). Therefore it is essential for organisations to incorporate work ...
The Significance of Work-life Balance for Individuals and Organizations
Conclusion. In conclusion, work-life balance is a significant issue that affects both individuals and organizations. Achieving a good work-life balance can lead to improved physical and mental well-being, enhanced personal relationships, increased job satisfaction and productivity, and a positive work culture and reputation.
Work-Life Balance Is a Cycle, Not an Achievement
Work-Life Balance Is a Cycle, Not an Achievement. by. Ioana Lupu. and. Mayra Ruiz-Castro. January 29, 2021. rubberball/Getty Images. Summary. Research has definitively shown that overwork isn't ...
Work-Life Balance: Articles, Research, & Case Studies on Work-Life
by Kara Baskin. Three-quarters of US employees are balancing caregiving with their careers. If companies could prevent five of them from quitting, they could save $200,000. Joseph Fuller offers a seven-point plan for supporting the sandwich generation and beyond. 02 Jan 2024. Research & Ideas.
Work-Life Balance: What It Is and 5 Ways to Improve Yours
Start by setting small boundaries and expand from there. Learn more about how to set better boundaries at work. 5. Reflect, refine, repeat. Whatever actions you decide are needed to create a good work-life balance, though, you should be conscious of the fact that you will likely need to continue to refine it over time.
Work-Life Balance Essay Examples
Work-Life Balance Essays. Self-Care Techniques Action Plan. Self-care is a set of practices and exercises that ensure physical, mental, and emotional health, resilience to stresses, and working well between personal life obligations and work commitments. Social workers can better their service provision to clients and communities by being ...
Work Life Balance Essays (Examples)
Work Life Balance - the ole of HM Human resources management come with massive demands chiefly in light of the fact that it involves dealing with people, a task that is complex in itself. To enhance organizational growth, pleasure on the part of workforce is very crucial. This is a necessity that human resources sectors in organizations have to grapple with on a day-to-day basis through the ...
How to Achieve an Almost Perfect Work-life Balance
Learn to make yourself a priority and structure each day to include a few moments in which you do the things you love to do. Practise meditation, it often puts you in the right frame of mind and re-energizes you. Consider reading for 10 minutes a day, going to a fitness class or taking a walk at lunchtime.
Employee Work-Life Balance
Get a custom Essay on Employee Work-Life Balance. This has the effect of reducing the overall costs encountered by organisations. Since costs are inversely related to the profit levels for an organisation in a fiscal year, strategies to retain employees are directly correlated to organisational profitability (Cegarra-Leiva, 2012: 93). According ...
17 Work-Life Balance Quotes and Tips From CEOs
In a 1991 commencement speech at Georgia Institute of Technology, Brian Dyson, former Coca-Cola CEO, described striving for work-life balance in terms of juggling glass and rubber balls: "Imagine ...
Work life balance
Essay: Work life balance. 22 February 2022 5 December 2019 by Essay Sauce. Essay details and download: Subject area(s): Management essays; Reading time: 13 minutes; Price: Free download; Published: 5 December 2019* File format: Text; Words: 3,644 (approx) Number of pages: 15 (approx)
Flexible Work Schedule and Work-Life Balance Essay
Introduction. Work-life balance is a top agenda item for human resource managers of most multinational and large organizations. It is even the top priority issue for employees everywhere. Whether to adopt work-life balance or flexible schedules remains a contentious issue especially with times of great business economic threats on one hand and ...

Work-Life Balance Essay: Meaning, Importance And Causes

Table of contents

Cite this paper

Related articles

Most popular essays

Join our 150k of happy users

Why Work-Life Balance Is So Important—and How to Nail It

How Can I Tell If I Have a Healthy Work-Life Balance?

At a Glance

What Do We Mean When We Say "Work-Life Balance"?

What Work-Life Balance Is Not

How to Ask Your Boss for Better Work-Life Balance

Make a Plan

Create Divisions Between Your Work and Non-Work Life

Take Breaks

Don't Work When You're Not at Work

Know What Burnout Looks Like

Consider Changing Jobs

What This Means For You

Essay on Work Life Balance

100 Words Essay on Work Life Balance

Importance of Work-Life Balance

Strategies for Achieving Balance

250 Words Essay on Work Life Balance

The Importance of Balance

The Role of Employers

Personal Responsibility

500 Words Essay on Work Life Balance

The Importance of Work-Life Balance

Strategies for Achieving Work-Life Balance

One Comment

Work-Life Balance in Psychology: 12 Examples and Theories

This Article Contains:

History surrounding the concept of ‘work–life balance’

Definitions of WLB

Download 3 Free Happiness Exercises (PDF)

Download 3 Free Happiness Tools Pack (PDF)

Assumptions about work–life balance

Benefits of work–life balance

17 Exercises To Increase Happiness and Wellbeing

Article feedback

Let us know your thoughts Cancel reply

Related articles

Embracing JOMO: Finding Joy in Missing Out

The True Meaning of Hedonism: A Philosophical Perspective

Happiness Economics: Can Money Buy Happiness?

Read other articles by their category

106 Work-Life Balance Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Work-life Balance Essay

1.1 Definition of work-life balance

1.2 Importance of work-life balance

1.3 Challenges in achieving work-life balance

2. Strategies for achieving work-life balance

2.1 Time management techniques

2.2 Setting boundaries between work and personal life

2.3 Prioritizing self-care and well-being

2.4 Seeking support from family and friends

3. Benefits of work-life balance

3.1 Increased productivity and job satisfaction

3.2 Improved physical and mental health

3.3 Enhanced relationships and overall happiness

Related articles

The Impact of Social Security Systems on Economic Stability and Individual Well-being in Developed Countries

The Connection Between Gratitude and Happiness

The Importance of Creating a Comprehensive Care Plan for Patient Treatment and Recovery

The Science Behind the Happiness Hormones

La importancia de la educación en el desarrollo integral de los niños con necesidades especiales

Evaluación de la efectividad del tratamiento del cáncer de mama en diferentes etapas de la enfermedad

How Exercise Affects Happiness Levels

Work-Life Balance Is a Cycle, Not an Achievement

Partner Center

Work-Life Balance Essays

How to Achieve an Almost Perfect Work-life Balance

Cite this Essay

Related Essays

Still can’t find what you need?

Related Essays on Work-Life Balance

Related Topics

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

Essay: Work life balance