What Does It Affect Our Lives?

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,

We’ve looked at work from many different views in this class. From the bottom in Mike Roses book, Mind at Work which looks at the, on the jobsite skills and intelligence needed in the work force. Along with the way our society and education play a role in that. And then there was the middle working class view by journalist and author Barbara Ehreinch and her book Nickel and Dimed, which saw a middle class person look at the low wage lifestyle of Americans, and her failed attempt to live off wages. It ended up very one sided and controversial since it was a wealthier person trying to look in on a subject they could never understand. But one thing that I never really felt or saw either one really look at is the connection between work and life balance they only looked at the different aspects of work and those factors. But I feel there was a factor left out and it is life, family, personal aspects.

The theme of overemployment is a current problem in the United States. Americans are overworked. Workload has increased and society has experienced a loss of leisure. Overemployment and overworked can be defined as negative effects that occur when individuals are required to work more hours than they want to work. “Personal perceptions of workload are critical, as individuals have diverse reactions to the number of hours worked depending on their needs, lifestyle, expectations, and experiences. Individuals have different tolerances for demands and stress. While many, including professionals

A healthy work/life balance to me means that I am meeting my goals and fulfilling my commitments to the people in those realms of my life. For example, if I am able to, in the time and resources I am given, be able to spend time with friends while being able to pay my bills while meeting my objectives at work; that to me is a successful balance.

Ha! Who would?ve thought that I of all people would be blogging about work life balance. I constantly feel as though I have a million things on my plate and that I?m struggling to keep up. Through my participation in clubs, work, and school, my mind is constantly worrying about something. My go-go-go mentality has been like this for about a year now, and I need a change ASAP. It?s to the point where I?m sacrificing my own mental sanity for my jobs and schoolwork.

Each persons work/life balance is different because we each have our own priorities and lives. To have a good balance between work and life doesn’t mean you need to schedule an equal amount of hours in each day between the two. It means to have a

Americans work more than anyone in the industrialized world. More than the English, more than the French, way more than the Germans or Norwegians. Even, recently, more than the Japanese. And Americans take less vacation, work longer days, and retire later, too. But for many of us, more work leads to more stress and a lower quality of life. Without time to unwind, take care of your home, spend time with loved ones, enjoy our hobbies, connect with friends, and generally live a more balanced life. Stress is the #1 cause of health problems – mentally and physically. And there are few things that stress us out on a consistent basis like work does, especially when it takes away from all of the other things that life has to offer.

The Work-Life Balance: The career life and the personal life sometimes lead anxiety to women as they have to handle both their workplace and home at the same time smoothly.

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:

However, on the other hand; other worldviews organizational leadership balance work and life as sometimes getting out of control. Stack (2000) argues:

Many employees work longer hours for many reasons, one of them being consumerism. They want to be able to have enough money to buy materialistic items and services as a way of filling the void of happiness, so they attempt to buy themselves happiness considering they don’t have the time or energy to actually see their families or friends and enjoy their free time so they try to buy happiness. Workaholics are also people who are known to work long hours because they feel as if they are compelled to work due to internal stress which results to damage towards an individual’s personal relationships and health as well as the quality and productivity of the work being done. Workaholics work long hours causing them to lose the sense of joy within their work as well as the joy in their personal life leading them to work more as a way to fill the void within their

Ms. Isabel Rimanoczy made great points in this article. Though some may view her as a work body, she and I share a mutual understanding when it comes to work-life balance. Ms. Rimanoczy is not buying the idea that there is some sort of balance between the two aspects of our lives. “Work-life balance is dead” and it may be a good thing” (Rimanoczy, 2015). I agree with her statement because if anyone takes the time to think about it, they will soon come to terms with the idea that it really becomes impossible to separate work and personal life. Some of us grow up with moral values, standards, and family traditions carried on through religious beliefs. When we go to work we will bring along our character because our personal life defines us as

Besides increasing productivity, this led to a greater experience on both ends. While reflecting on this experience, your experience and the required lectures, I agree with you that companies must find a way to help their employees achieve a fulfilling work-life balance. However, I believe efforts should be to a full extent and equally. Personally, I would say that is the deciding factor between a genuinely happy employee and companies losing incredible human capital over personal

A healthy work-life balance has many benefits including better general health for the employees, higher job satisfaction, reduced stress in both the professional and personal life and greater focus on meeting the work objectives.