Importance of Work Life Balance


(Source : asaecenter, 2021)

What is Work Life Balance?

The term work life balance has become intertwined with today's corporate world especially with the increase of awareness among today's professionals regarding the importance of proper mental / physical health & the importance leading an overall well balanced life. The initial cause for the emergence of the concept was mainly a tired & stressed out workforce mainly in the mid 90s where most of the working class was complaining about their stress & poor social, family & work balance which led to many groups promoting the concept of an "overall balanced life". Simply put Work Life Balance is the state of equilibrium achieved between an individual's professional obligations & personal life. 

Given below are some of the most comprehensive definitions related to Work Life Balance.

“Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls—family, health, friends, and integrity—are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.” (Keller, 2014)

“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” (Parton)

"Invest in your work life balance. Time with friends and family is as important as times at work. Getting that out of balance is a path toward unhappiness." (Gillet)

Factors which could negatively affect a healthy work life balance.

  • Poor employee management.
  • Overworked staff.
  • Increased responsibilities at the workplace.
  • Lack of job satisfaction.
  • Long & Strenuous work hours.
  • Hostile work environment.
  • Lack of job security.
  • Increased responsibilities at home.
  • Lack of interactions between family.
  • Poor social interactions.
Importance of maintaining a healthy work life balance.
  • Can create an overall well balanced individual.
  • To achieve an improved mental & physical health.
  • Increases productivity & efficiency.
  • Overall happy & positive mindset of employee.
  • Always more alert & mindful.
  • Ability to lead a better family & social life.
Steps that could be taken to improve healthy work life balance.
  • Get frequent feedback from employees regarding job satisfaction.
  • Provide breaks during the working hours to minimize stress.  
  • Provide adequate leave for employees to ensure quality family time.
  • Have employee engagement activities to increase relationships.
  • Organize events for families of staff members.
  • Increase social gatherings.
  • Organize personal development & training programs.

(palmergroup, 2021)

Conclusion

Overall in conclusion upon the analysis of the aforementioned factors we could surmise that maintaining a healthy work life balance is extremely essential for any individual for a successful & happy life, also in turn it would also help to increase the organizational productivity though maintaining a mentally & physically healthy workforce. As such both the organization & individual must strive to achieve an equilibrium state between their work & personal life's.

References

asaecenter, 2021. asaecenter. 
Available at: https://www.asaecenter.org/association-careerhq/career/articles/talent-management/5-ways-to-promote-your-teams-work-life-balance

thepalmergroup, 2021. thepalmergroup. 
Available at: https://thepalmergroup.com/blog/6-easy-ways-to-improve-your-work-life-balance/

Gillet, S.,.

Keller, G., 2014. 2014.

Parton, D., 

 

Comments

  1. D.I.KanchanaAugust 27, 2021 at 10:33 PM

    Work-life balance is balancing personal and professional activities. It is the level of a person's life when job-related activities occur at home. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance benefits employees' health, relationships, and productivity. Employees work harder and make fewer mistakes when they don't see work as routine. You have explained it very well Jude.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jude Shannon LucianAugust 27, 2021 at 11:12 PM

    Agreed Kanchana!! Thank You Very Much for your valuable comment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oshadha BandaraAugust 27, 2021 at 11:49 PM

    work-life balance involves looking at how working people manage time spent at and outside of work. Time outside of work may include managing relationships, family responsibilities, and other outside interests and hobbies. Very informative and timely article.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jude Shannon LucianAugust 28, 2021 at 12:58 AM

      Agreed Oshadha!! Work life balance is extremely important to any individual. Thank You Very Much for your valuable comment.

      Delete
  4. Bhashitha Dissanayake August 28, 2021 at 12:13 AM

    Work-life balance is a concept that emphasizes the benefits of balancing your time and energy between work and free time.
    There isn't a perfect balance that applies to everyone—people's ideal work-life balance is an extremely personal preference.Good article .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jude Shannon LucianAugust 28, 2021 at 12:59 AM

      Well said Bhashitha! Exactly the perfect balance varies from person to person. Thank You Very Much for your valuable comment.

      Delete
  5. Nadeeshan MadusankaAugust 28, 2021 at 12:53 AM

    Employees will be happier when they arrive at work if they have a great work-life balance. As a result, stress and the risk of burnout, two frequent occupational health concerns, are reduced. Burnout occurs when an employee is exposed to excessive stress for an extended period of time. It can cause everything from irritation and mood changes to exhaustion and decreased productivity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jude Shannon LucianAugust 28, 2021 at 1:00 AM

      Agreed Nadeeshan! Thank You Very Much for your valuable comment

      Delete
  6. Rukmali FernandoAugust 28, 2021 at 4:41 AM

    Maintaining a healthy balance lifestyle is not only important for health and relationships, but it can also improve the productivity of employees, and ultimately overall performance of the organization. If the organizations facilitate the employees work life balance, the employees tend to work harder. Thankyou for sharing Jude.

    ReplyDelete
  7. M.JanarthanAugust 28, 2021 at 7:02 PM

    Work-life balance is an important aspect of a healthy work environment. Maintaining work-life balance helps reduce stress and helps prevent burnout in the workplace. Chronic stress is one of the most common health issues in the workplace."Work-life balance" came into use in the 1970s and 80s, as stressed baby boomers strove to achieve a balance between career, family and other areas of their lives.

    ReplyDelete
  8. blogs of UMESHAugust 29, 2021 at 6:02 AM

    Maintaining a healthy work life balance is not only important for health and relationships, but it can also improve the work place productivity, and performance (Wedgwood ,2019).
    Through your post you have described all the things nicely and you have given some of the tips to how to work life balance in organizations. These tips could helpful for us, when we apply to our work-place.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wathsala SiriwardhanaAugust 29, 2021 at 8:48 AM

    Very important article Jude.modern workplace has experienced many changes and with these changes comes added pressure and stressors. It is important that work-life balance and wellness programs be partnered to full effect. The nature of work environments has changes in a significant manner with the recent time and employers need to set up their minds to manage their employees’ WLB in order to achieve the organizational goals

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Importance of Reward Management

Image
 (Marketing91, 2021) Reward Management is a HRM concept revolving around compensation & motivation for the contributions given by each & every employee within the organization, Reward Management gives an opportunity for the management to say "Thank You" for all the hard work put in by the employees. The concept of reward management has not been around for a long period as there was a time when many people saw the employee-employer relationship as a mere exchange of labor for a monthly or daily monetary compensation. However the global market has evolved since & many more perks, benefits & recognition are expected by the employees for their contributions. "Reward Management is adaptation of policies that reward employee on consistency, fair and equitable basis in line with organizational values. Rewards comprises of praise, challenging work, avenues for growth & development. Praise can be simple recognition for work in presence of other employees. Hand...
Read more

The expansion of Work From Home (WFH) Concept with the Covid-19 Pandemic

Image
(BBC, 2020) As we all are aware by now the Covid-19 pandemic has effected the economy of the entire world regardless of size, location, stature or any other factors, every single organization around the globe has had to evolve in some way or the other in order to cope with the pandemic as such the Human Resource Management practices  has also evolved together with the respective organization  in order to overcome the obstacles associated with it, in this blog we will be going through the expansion of the Work from Home Concept as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. " The extracts given below will emphasis the importance  of the Work From Home concept. "Do you want to access talent everywhere, or just in specific markets? If the answer is everywhere, you need to be at least open to the possibility of remote work." (Burke)  “People are more productive working at home than people would have expected. Some people thought that everything was just going to fall apart, ...
Read more

Job Enrichment & Job Enlargement as a tool of Motivation

Image
  (Zigsaw, 2021) Job enrichment & Job enlargement are two techniques that is often used by many HR professionals both as tools for motivation & as a method of intrinsic rewarding.  The basic idea behind the  Job enrichment  technique is to expand or add new dimensions to an existing job role giving it more responsibility which will act as a motivating factor for the said employee. Job enrichment is also identified as a vertical enhancement of a job role, where someone is given a higher level of authority & responsibilities than presently available.  In contrast to Job Enrichment, Job Enlargement is a technique  where the assigned range of responsibilities of an individual is expanded however the level of authority is not increased. The Job Enlargement tool could be described as a horizontal  expansion   tool of a job role as it only increases the level of responsibility associated with the job whilst there is no change to the leve...
Read more