Research Proposal on How to Balance Work and Personal Life

Studies suggest that when the number of children in the home rise, and as the age of the youngest child decreases, there are more conflicts within the family. In establishing relationships with children, parents struggle to manage work and family, including having insufficient time to completely focus on both the necessities of work and family (Cichy, Stawski, & Almeida, 2012). Due to new job obligations, MJ experiences work stress independently, enhancing personal and financial stressors. There can be an adverse effect between job security and father-child relationship due to fathers striving to secure careers so they are able to provide for their family. As personal stressors are experienced more regularly, so are perceptions that one’s work obligations increase negative effects on their family life (Minnotte, Pedersen, & Mannon, 2013).

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,

The title represents the content of the article to extent as it focuses on father’s involvement in children services. However, it was not concise enough and did not state what type of children services it was referring to. Additionally, the second part of the title mentioned that it will be exploring the local and national issues that fathers experience. It can only be assumed that due to the the authors profession and expertise, the article aims to discuses father’s accessibility on a local and national level. Nevertheless, this also adds to the credibility and reliability of the article as the authors are knowledgeable about children’s services and qualified to publish the article (Gillina et al, 2012).

Scholars have researched on how to integrate gender within the main organizing constructs of social life. One social realm where scholars have vastly research is family structure. The family institution has encountered much gender problem issue, starting with "who does the housework". During this period of time, where women are gaining more civil freedom in society, there has still been a struggler for equality within society and family spheres. I investigated how gender role is significant within the family institutional context, especially in the division of labor in household. The second shift, which is used by Hochschild, "borrowed from the industrial life" is an "idea that homemaking was a shift", it is a second shift because the first shift is labor force." Moreover, the idea of the "devotion to family scheme" is a culture model that defines marriage and motherhood as a women's primary vocation. Therefore with these two notions on the family roles, the main driving question of this research is how do urban employed married couples with children divide the housework.

The articles Double Daddy by Penny Parker, Diary of a Mad Blender by Sue Shellenbarger, and The Child’s View of Working Parents by Cora Daniels all delve into the struggle of harmonizing work with other aspects of life. The delicate balance of work and parenting is often difficult to keep in control; most agree that devoting quality time to one’s children and not overworking is the key to stabilizing the equation (Parker 22-23).

According to Statistics Canada, the amount of two parented full time working families has gone up 17% since the 1980’s. As a result of such an outcome, more employees in larger and smaller based companies are finding it harder to keep up with both risen work loads and home life necessities, which in turn have caused more absentees in the work place. The reason being for this is due to

Many children look up to their parents with hopes to someday be able to follow in their footsteps or decide which career they will take interest in later years. In establishing this new standard of company-provided childcare, more children will grow to understand the true meaning of hard work and they will be able to see what their parents go through on a daily basis to give them the best in life. Also, many women often dream about being close enough to their children to know that they are safe, yet far away enough to remain productive and efficient. Mothers can give their undivided attention to their work duties while having the reassuring thoughts of knowing that if anything goes wrong with their child, all parties are properly informed and in a timely

Work and family are two human institutions that are widely related and essential for our culture as a society in which the first social experience is earn at home. Plus work, more than a need for progress, is a trait of humanity and it constant pursuit to overcome its own achievements. When the factors that humanity has created change these institutions, humanity is changing society and in long term changing itself. Many writers like Tyagi and Walls had agreed against and pro of this change that affect beyond the general understanding. Examples of the issues addressed by these authors were the need to find a balance between work and family plus the end of the stay at home mom era. These issues as well as

In the Struggle to be Normal documentary, community supports seemed to be extremely beneficial to those mothers who had intellectual disabilities. But, there is a fine line between support and having to be there for every step of the way. Everyone needs support at some point and extra supports would be in the best interest of the child. But there comes a time when the person giving supports is almost acting as a second parent. Practically, supports are costly and if there happens to be a shortage of workers, then they would be spread too thin and not giving the parents the supports required to raise their

Some people may not get to see their family as often as they want to because of the struggle to balance both family and work. These articles, “Double Daddy” by Penny Parkers, “Diary of a Mad Blender: A Week of Managing Every Spare Minute” by Sue Shellenbarger, and “The Child’s view of Working Parents” by Cora Daniels and Ellen Galinksy, are all based on facts about balancing work and family. Balancing responsibilities, goals, and a personal life is a struggle for many people, but the most important priorities in life, such as family, should not be neglected. Work time can get in the way of family time. In Penny Parkers article, “Double Daddy”, she writes, “These men are saying, ‘I’m working my tail off to get ahead, for the most

Strategies that can be done to support the families are first, “employment training programs that are geared to traditionally higher paying jobs, second, offering employment training programs for jobs that gain higher wages, such as employment in office administration, health services, trades, etc. should be explored” (R.A. Malatest & Associates LTD, 2006. p. 56). In addition, employment and training programs should be increased to better meet the needs of families. Lastly, flexibility in working schedule “organizations should provide formal supports such as family-oriented policies and benefits (e.g. parental leave, ability to take time off and make it up later, flex-time, job sharing, sick child care, and flexible work arrangements), which give employees autonomy over their hours and their absence from work. Second, the organization can supply a number of informal supports such as a family-friendly organizational culture (e.g. flexibility around hours and location of work) and supportive managers, which may help employees, deal with work–life conflict” (Higgings, Dusbury, & Lyons, 2008. p. 31). If these strategies are being implemented, it will help single parent balance their work place and family domain and reduce the risk of unhealthy living among lone-parent families. In addition, it will increase the level of commitment they utilize for the organization and their families in a healthy

This paper draws on a literature about family centred service and the thoughts and feeling of parents in regards to having a support system in place that meet the needs of their families. It highlights parent’s perceptions of being able to make important decisions regarding the services they get for children with disability and be able to support their own child with help of support services. This paper has not explored the key worker role or system; nevertheless, it explains how parents would like their own roles when supporting their children as they know their child best similarly, how a key worker knows their child. The information is from an initiative on strategic and operational change for children with complex needs, by promoting the

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:

Mothers are very passionate about their choice to work or stay at home with their children. This is a heated debate about what is best for children and who is the better mother. Just in the last generation more mothers are choosing to work, which is also sparking some conflict in families where grandparents felt it was important to stay at home with their children. This paper compares and contrasts both sides of working and being a stay at home mother. While there is no right or wrong answer to the work and family dilemma, it’s important to understand both sides.