Reflection Paper On Work Life Balance

Thesis Statement: Today, many working families are having issues finding a good balance between work and family life. There are options available for those who seek help to find a better balance between the two. Many of these options range from organizational practices or policies, training, corporate involvement and even laws.

Work-life balance has been a popular topic for employees across all age and occupations for years, representing a rising concern of contemporary human resource management and labor policies. This topic has attracted the attention from the millennium generation, who is stepping into the market and beginning to grow a career. Therefore considering the increasing demand, well-designed workforce planning with diverse scheduling options offered to employees appears to be extra credits for most companies. This research paper aims to communicate the positive effects of four-day workweek, and providing support for why employers should adopt this schedule for employees and themselves through 1) introducing background and history of four-day workweek as a work schedule option and 2) demonstrating benefits of four-day workweek from both employer and employees’ perspectives.

Thirty-eight percent of Americans report some tension between their work and home lives. Today’s highly publicized work/life balance conflicts are multiple, and their nature differs significantly depending on the jobs individuals have and on their family situations. Tensions between work and family life clearly have implications for the well-being of individuals and their children and ramifications for society in general. Yet because the personal needs, desires, motivations, and economic circumstances of Americans are so varied, there appears to be no single way to resolve these tensions, no universal best practices with regard to work/life balance. For example,

In the case brought to us in the text, it gave us two examples of employees seeking work life balance. The first example is a man that has risen in the ranks at his company. Instead of having less working as he had thought, he faced much longer work hours with very little time with his family. In the second example a woman is looking at changing companies and in her negotiations she negotiates items such as a flexible work schedule. Although this option works well for the women it does not work for every employee.

Work-life balance is a concept that supports the efforts of employees to split their time and energy between work and the other important aspects of their lives. It is a daily effort to make time for family, friends, community participation, spirituality, personal growth, self-care, and other personal activities, in addition to the demands of the workplace. Work-life balance will vary for each person and will change throughout life.

It is imperative that the employee can balance his/her working life against his/her personal life. With sufficient time off and rest periods, employees will feel “looked after” and be motivated to put in more effort. There will be a reduction of mistakes because the employee has had adequate rest which results in a more positive working environment. Employers who introduce such practices in the work place in order to help employees achieve a better and satisfactory work/life balance can expect to see an increase in motivation, enhanced performance/productivity and greater staff loyalty. By implementing a positive work/life balance, companies are successful, secure a good reputation and promote positive employee relations. The Working Time Regulations 1998 stipulates that employers should provide employees with the following basic rights:

It can also become challenging to achieve work-life balance when not all employers offer employees benefits which our textbook outlines as ‘stress removers’. This includes - flexible and limited work time, job sharing, telecommuting, personal leave, and child care support (McShane & Glinow, 2017). The article also stressed that many employees face being penalized or terminated stating, “Most people do not believe that their workplaces truly support flexibility or that they could work an alternative schedule without career risks” (Chan,

Understanding this fact is critical in understanding how true work-life balance can benefit not just the employees but the company as well. When employees are in better control of their lives, are motivated and are able to manage stress better, the attendant productivity will ultimately, positively affect the organization within which these employees work. Achieving optimal work-life balance is critical to job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is the degree to which people enjoy their work. (Spector 1997). Singh 2013 identifies that job satisfaction reflects how well an individual is happy with various aspects of his job to which work-life balance is an aspect. The following factors make up a Work life Balance plan that should be implemented by the Jones Bank of Canada and caters to the varying needs of Baby boomers, Generation X and Millennials.

It is important for employers to ensure that their staff can maintain a work-life balance and this will provide its own benefits for them, such as:

The overall purpose of this project is to investigate if a work environment in which work life balance is anticipated and supported will provide positive impact on employees’ performance and attitude. In addition, this research will examine the current understanding of attitudes toward the concerns of work life balance across the gender roles. This review of qualitative data will provide answers to the following questions. First, would implementing a work life balance provide employees with a happier and

Hill, E. J., Hawkins, A. J., Ferris, M. and Weitzman, M. (2001), Finding an Extra Day a Week: The Positive Influence of Perceived Job Flexibility on Work and Family Life Balance*. Family Relations, 50: 49–58. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2001.00049.x

In today’s world many people are trying to balance their work and their personal life which can be a huge challenge. There have been studies showing that having a poor work life balance can cause an unhealthy level of stress; unhappiness and it can actually reduce productivity. Also many people suffering from poor work life balance can find it impacts their relationships and ability to actually enjoy and value their lives.

Companies whose organizational design supports its employees’ work-life balance may be more financially successful than those that does otherwise. Many employees consider work-life balance more important than the monetary reward. Employees with a balanced personal and professional life demonstrate a better job performance than those who feel “pressured” in either their personal or professional life. In ideal situations, employer demands and employee’s ideal work situation rarely meet the middle ground, those who do, perceive that they are in control.. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Healthcare Clinic’s organizational design based on the employees’ work-life balance.

The importance and impact of work-life balance is very significant as it affects and benefits a person in many ways. Professor of Psychology at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, Shawn Burn, summarized it well when she said, “Work-life balance is important because it affects the well-being of individuals, families, and communities. After all, people need time and energy to participate in family life, democracy, and community activities. They also need time outside of work for rejuvenation, and to develop and nurture friendships and their ‘non-work selves.’” This is to say that work-life balance affects the wellbeing of individuals both at work, and allows for major developments for the non-working self as well. It is important that the two roles, an individual’s working and non-working self, enrich each other and do not take away from one another. Applying this concept in life will allow an individual

Analyze about the quality relationship between paid work and unpaid responsibilities in an organization. The work life balance practices not only for employees themselves, but also for their families, organizations and society. The work-life conflict has significant relationship between business costs and with lack of engagement, absenteeism, turnover rates, low productivity and creativity or poor retention levels. It is also found that there are some factors of organizational work-life culture that may compromise availability and use of these practices.