These 16 authors have all participated in the balance project, an interview series in which i ask inspiring and accomplished women to discusswith refreshing candortheir struggles with worklife balance. According to author and journalist paul krassner in an interview in 1963, one of the aspects of happiness is when you can make as little. Although there are different views and concepts about worklife balance but it is generally coupled with maintaining an overall balance in different aspects of life. The evolving definition of worklife balance forbes. With that bit of historical context, my definition for worklife balance is finding fulfillment in both work and at home without completely sacrificing either. Worklife balance is a topical issue due to the increased amount of technology that removes the importance of physical location in defining the worklife balance. Those in pursuit find a complicated landscape with thousands of articles and claims to getting there. Worklife balance is an important aspect of a healthy work environment. A major driver of the trend towards achieving worklife balance is the fact that younger people are not prepared to work in the same way as their parents, wanting greater control, and a bigger say in the structure of their jobs and what they could potentially offer in the future. The evolution from worklife balance to worklife integration. It doesnt mean that you spend half of your life working and half of it playing. Instead, an array of definitions and measures populate the literature. Maintaining worklife balance helps reduce stress and helps prevent burnout in the workplace.
Finding a balance between the demands of the role requirements of work, family, and social life is a challenging problem for modern society and is particularly relevant for the growth of womens participation in the workforce. For example, the lines between my personal and work life are very blurred, but my cto. The authors also make a strong pitch for offering flexible compensation and benefits packages to accommodate preferences and worklife balance needs of workers at various stages of their lives. Worklife balance can be defined as conceptualised as a two way process involving a consideration of the needs of employees as well as those of employers lewis, 2000. Predictably, a preponderance of speakers, trainers, authors, journalists, and others whose professions entail regular communication with the masses proclaim the virtues of achieving and maintaining worklife balance. Work life balance encourages employees to divide their time on the basis on priorities and maintain a balance by devoting time to family, health, vacations etc. Top 10 work life balance books that every professional. For a lot of people, the pursuit of a healthy worklife balance seems like an impossible goal. Worklife balance is taking a bigger bite out of corporate profits than any other bottom line issue today. Chronic stress is one of the most common health issues in the workplace.
Worklife balance means bringing work, whether done on the job or at home, and leisure time into balance to live life to its fullest. Worklife balance is a catchall term for measuring work hours, accessibility and leave policies. The methods an individual uses to juggle all their work and life demands constitute their worklife balance. Heres a proven definition that will positively impact your everyday value and balance starting today. Worklife balance more important now than ever, finds. Maintaining worklife balance helps reduce stress and helps prevent burnout in. Worklife balance definition in the cambridge english. The interviews offer a compelling counterpoint to the prevalent message in the media. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. In contrast, we found that employees who work at organizations that support, as opposed to penalize, workers who do not fit into the traditional framework tend to have better worklife balance and.
Despite the worldwide quest for work life balance, very few have found an acceptable definition of the concept. The increase in mobile technology, cloudbased software. The many definitions of worklife balance the hindu. He let the words soak into his mind and displace all else. Worklife balance is the optimal arrangement of an individuals onthejob and private time to facilitate health and personal satisfaction without negatively impacting productivity and professional success. The definition is simple, yet working professionals everywhere struggle to define it for themselves, let alone achieve it. But, in reality, its definition varies according to region and generation you have reached. As a result it provides the biggest and easiest upside opportunity to immediately impact your business. Work life balance definition, importance, steps, benefits. Perspectives on the study of worklife balance david e. Salary and benefits was still the biggest consideration for those surveyed by the latest randstad employer brand research, but its lead at the top has narrowed considerably over. This implies that each individual views work life conflict differently.
The interviews offer a compelling counterpoint to the prevalent message in the media that women should be striving to have it all. Worklife balance is the goal of being satisfied with both your work and your life. Authors argue that without a widely accepted definition of workfamilylife balance, research on this topic is difficult to validate empirically. But generally they agree worklife balance translates to satisfaction with ones entire life professional and personal and it can be reached even while working long hours.
When you can be fulfilled at home and at work you can say you have achieved worklife balance. The changing definition of worklife balance by david rook on aug 29, 2017 the term worklife balance has gotten quite a bit of buzz in recent years, thanks in part to the new priorities millennials are bringing to the workplace. It starts by exploring why worklife balance has become an important topic for research and policy in some countries and after outlining traditional perspectives examines the concept of balance and its implications for the study of the relation between work and the rest of life. Wickremers definition of the perfect worklife balance scenario is doing the job you love, working with people you get along with, and not working crazy hours. Work and life in the balance religious studies news.
With so many of us torn between juggling heavy workloads, managing relationships and family responsibilities, and squeezing in outside interests, its no surprise that more than one in four americans describe themselves as super stressed. Worklife basically refers to the proper prioritizing of an individual between his work or career and his personal life or lifestyle. And against this backdrop, the quest for worklife balance becomes more vital than ever. Although the term workfamilylife balance is widely employed, an agreed definition of this term has proved elusive. A comfortable state of equilibrium achieved between an employees primary priorities of their employment position and their private lifestyle. The term worklife balance has yet to lose its buzz in the last few years. Dont let the weight of your job squash your sense of self.
You may hear other people talking about how they have to balance their work and family. Supervisors can support healthy worklife balance by fostering conversations about wellbeing and by being a. Information and translations of worklife balance in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. With this point in mind, we can explore a new answer to the title question about worklife balance. Heres a closer look at the evolution from worklife balance to integration and how its influencing the way human resources teams support their employees and organizations. Work life balance is a method which helps employees of an organization to balance their personal and professional lives. It is an important concept in the world of business as it helps to. You will never feel truly satisfied by work until you are satisfied by life.
Worklife balance more important now than ever, finds survey worklife balance is more important than ever before for employees in singapore, hong kong and malaysia. Previously it was difficult or impossible to take work home and so there was a clear line between professional and personal. Worklife balance wlb programs to address these issues have emerged in western countries in the past three decades and have been evaluated in various ways in multidisciplinary studies which. Why setting worklife boundaries is more productive than. Top 10 work life balance books that every professional should read 1. The bibliography on this issue is large and growing, but few contributions offer much if any attention to broad sociocultural dynamics, and none. Productivity why setting worklife boundaries is more productive than striving for worklife balance chasing some illusory sense of balance only leads to. Managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance and personal renewal by jim loehr and. Last decade has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the research pertaining to worklife balance wlb. Most psychologists would agree that the demands of an employees career should not overwhelm the individuals ability to enjoy a satisfying personal life outside of the business. The term is associated with a desire to maintain a strong work ethic while still having time for things that improve your quality of life such as sleep, rest, health, exercise, family, friends, hobbies, interests, peak experiences and personal reflection.
Even though a number of studies are available at the global level, the exact theoretical framework is either overlapping or missing in many of them. We have a new reason to think worklife balance might be an ethical necessity. As this definition suggests, some of our worklife balance is within our. In the notsodistant past, businesses constantly spoke about the importance of.
Wickremers definition of the perfect worklife balance scenario is doing the job you love, working with people you get along. Expect more than a ten fold return on investment in the first 6 months. Worklife balance definition experts say there is no single definition and some dont even like to use the phrase. Despite the worldwide quest for worklife balance, very few have found an acceptable definition of the concept. Worklife balance is the lack of opposition between work and other life roles. Worklifebalance named two key everyday concepts that will help us come up with a positive and clearer definition of worklife balance. This is partially due to the dominating presence of millennials in the. Regardless of how hard we try to find it, i dont believe theres a catchall solution for worklife balance. These role conflicts may result in significant psychological stress for individuals.