According to Wikipedia, “work-life balance is the lack of opposition between work and other life roles”. it is the state of equilibrium in which demands of personal life professional life and family life are equal. Studies from the London hazard centre indicate that work today is more intense than it was a decade ago creating the need for a balance between work and life experiencing team overworked ,long working as an extreme work environment has proven to accept the overall physical and physiological health of employees and deteriorate family life.
THE EFFECT OF 24/7 WORLD
The technology has taught and believable changes in our style and that is now proving to be too dangerous to cope up with. Today nothing needs to be remembered as for each and every thing he Google and a vast source of information is at hand for a student or research scholar. Old parents can not only talk to their wards thousands of miles away but see them in video too live. The advancement in the way people access information,communicate with one another and complete task have allowed for flexibility in the workplace.
The days of fax have become thing of the past .Today with email texting and instant messaging people can communicate instantaneously and time is not a barrier. The employees are able to leave the office but still flew their work. What is the result? this has allowed employees to bring their work home with them.
While such access does follow them to spend more time at home .It has blurred the lines between work and life.
Consequences of bringing work to home
Employee of today's more obsessed with the laptop and smart gadgets doing the office Mundane beyond offive time forgetting the family. Suppose the boss text at 11 at night the employee gets back to his laptop to complete the work thick and fast. Infact what was once the 40 hour a week job has now easily become a 60 houraa week job in the absence of fixed work habits disappearing .
Effectively he is unable to draw a line between office and home leading to so much of stress and health problems and his professional competence is also affected. Employee stress can increase to the level of burnout resulting in lower productivity at workplace higher potential for stress related health issues and absenteeism. In addition to this more importantly employees may also experience poor personal and coworker relationships and reduced job satisfaction .
Importance of work life balance
Maintaining a work life balance is about separating one's personal and professional lives without allowing one to encroach upon the other both are equally important. Companies world over are increasingly recognising the importance of helping their employees to achieve this balance as more staff are often experiencing conflict between the work and personal roles .
In today's age, personal responsibilities of the employees are on the increase from child care to elderly care to other family commitments. This comes at a time when their work responsibilities are also increasing resulting in a conflict between personal and work commitments and increase in stress. also increasing resulting in a conflict between personal and work commitments and increase in stress. Juggling this often conflicting roles can really take its toll on our well being , resulting in stress, fatigue and burnout .