Work, Life Balance! The Importance of Balancing The Two!

Facing time demands in every area of  life  has become like a requirement and not an option. The inability to balance day to day necessities,  could have unhealthy results and a dreadful end result of unemployment. The topic of Work-life balance has become one of importance, because of the impact  that is has on public health and business results.

Individuals face demands in all areas of their life, including work and their day to day lives separate from work. If no balance between work and life exists, it could mean an unhealthy life or unemployment. Work-life balance has become an important topic of study and discussion because of its impact on public health and business results.

Public health is affected as high-pressure work demands can lead to stress-related illnesses. The situation is aggravated because work can affect the way one lives, and unhealthy life choices are all too common.

Business results are affected because stressed employees often make unhealthy life choices. As s result employees are poor performers and there are higher number of absences dealing with sicknesses.

With both governments and businesses interested in the issue, work-life balance has indeed become a center of considerable attention.

A healthy life requires attention to important life areas such as family, children, friends and hobbies. A high-pressure work situation and time spent on commuting can eat into the time available for workers to attend to these areas. As a result, these important areas tend to be neglected.

Job security has also begun to suffer as different  trends have begun to change.  Information technology and competitive pressures have led to the practical disappearance of the earlier phenomenon of lifetime employment with one employer.

Employees are generally looking for better opportunities while employers might be seeking ways to reduce costs by replacing employees. Both of these lead to frequent job changes and even to re-locations,which only adds to the stress and pressures faced by employees. Add to these the stress of constant technological changes and the need to learn new things, and you get a future-shocked generation.

In the personal lives of employees, inadequate time for family life and parenting lead to marriage problems and a generation of children increasingly addicted to harmful substances and ways of life.

Studies have indicated that by allowing some degree of control for employees to choose when, where and how they work, employers can realize significant business benefits.

When demands of work leaves little time for important areas of life like family, children, friends and hobbies, work-life balance gets upset. The result can be felt in employee health, levels of stress, marriage, problem children, low work performance, absenteeism and so on.

Achieving better work life balance requires both employee training and employer orientation changes.