Gaea's

Wikipedia had one of the simplest definitions and called it “a broad concept including proper prioritizing between career and ambition on one hand, compared with pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development on the other” Related but broader terms include “lifestyle balance” and “life balance”.

As the separation between work and home life has diminished, this concept has become more relevant than ever before. As a young working adult, I thought the right thing to do was to work so that my employer was pleased and therefore I got my increase when it was due, got the occasional bonus for good work and above all, kept my job.

I think by now, that all my readers know I am a woman, and as women do, we get married, sooner or later have children, but continue to work full time. Our expectations of ourselves do not necessarily adjust and so we continue to work hard at work, while keeping a husband and growing family happy as well as being a home-maker. It’s a vicious cycle and one that I am not going to belabour here, suffice to say that one must spare a thought for husbands – they don’t actually have it as easy as we sometimes think.

Back to the concept of work-life balance. The expression was first used in the late 1970’s to describe the balance between an individual’s work and personal life. There has been a lot written on the subject since then around the world and many studies have been conducted.  I have spent a lot of time reading up on the subject, but one thing that struck me is that most of the time, people that were interviewed as part of research felt that the resultant stress from over-achieving in one area (usually work) and under-achieving in other areas (often home, family, self-growth etc) was self-inflicted and that they were powerless to break the cycle.

The feeling that simply working hard is not enough anymore is acknowledged by workers around the world. To get ahead, employees believe they need to work longer hours. A lot of statistics claim that people work double the amount of hours that they legally or safely should. This increase in work hours over the past two decades means that less time is left for family, friends, community or pleasure, leisure or self-growth.

Both male and female employees are currently taking more time out from their jobs to live a  more wholesome life. Sometimes taking more time means taking long periods off, statutory or unpaid maternal or paternal leave or leaving fulltime employment altogether. Leaving fulltime employment comes with its own particular risk of not being able to re-enter the job market at the same salary or seniority as before. But more and more people seem to be taking responsibility for their own lives and are not simply living their life for their employer or for their salary. I personally think that the “credit crunch” that has recently hit many countries around the world is partly responsible for people re-thinking their personal goals.

In the corporate world though, there certainly is a drive by employers to deliver solutions to their employees. Companies have begun to realize how important the work-life balance is to the productivity and creativity of their employees. Sometime, the benefits for employees may not be that apparent yet because it seems that employers are predominantly getting what they want, but by employers wishing to reduce their overheads by reducing the amount of property / offices they hold etc, employees will be given the opportunity to adopt a different working solution – be it job-sharing, flexible hours, working from home or being able to work from a local office or public sector facility. I’m not going to discuss the advantages or disadvantages of adopting any changes in working styles, but I will say that, properly managed, it’s a step in the direction of work-life balance.  

It is important for everyone, no matter who you are or whether you are an employer or an employee, it is important to recognize that balance must exist between work and life.

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