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Work - life balance

Good work-life balance - the balance between the amount of time and energy you expend at work, compared with the time and energy you have for the rest of your life - is very important to our well-being.

It is not always easy to get your work-life balance right, but it is important you do, because it can help you get the most out of both your work and your home life.  

Good work-life balance gives you some control over:  

  • the number and pattern of hours you work
  • where you work - with the internet, more people can work from home. 

The right balance varies for different people - it depends very much on your personality and your circumstances. It is generally recognised that people achieve more when they can balance their work with other aspects of their lives.

 

But a survey done by the Work Life Balance Centre in 2008-9 indicates that in Scotland three quarters of employees still have difficulty getting it right. Implementing more family-friendly policies at work should lead to a more motivated, productive and less stressed work force.

 

Employer benefits include:

  • reduced absenteeism, raised morale and better employee retention
  • increased productivity and more flexible customer services
  • encouragement for applicants such as mothers, older workers and carers - hence a more diverse workforce, with greater understanding of diverse customer needs.

As long ago as 2005, a survey of employers, by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), reported that flexible working practices had a positive effect on staff retention and staff motivation. Since then a lot of progress has been made.

 

Employee benefits include:

  • greater control of your working life - reduced stress, better health 
  • more time to enjoy life outside work - family, friends, hobbies
  • an increased sense of ownership and responsibility.

Parents with a child or children under 16 (or parents of a disabled child under the age of 18) have the right to request flexible working arrangements from their employer, as do carers of adults (a spouse, partner, civil partner, relative or someone else who lives at the same address). Now:

  • 18% of employees who work flexible hours choose to do so to suit child care needs
  • 14% do it to spend more time with their family.

 

In  2006 the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) (now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, BERR) carried out the third Work-Life Balance Employee Survey into the patterns of working hours amongst employees in various parts of Great Britain. This revealed the following trends:

  • an increase in flexible working, with over 50% of employees having worked flexibly in the past year
  • a decrease in the number of employees who wanted, but were not allowed this
  • little evidence of resentment from workers on fixed hours towards their colleagues with flexible arrangements.

In fact, it seems that flexible working hours are no longer the exception.

 

Another influence on work-life balance is the number of hours of overtime worked, or the amount of annual leave entitlement not taken. Overtime can be either unpaid or unpaid, and it can be either voluntary or in effect compulsory because of the culture of the organisation concerned.

 

The 2006 DTI Employee survey found that the most common reason for employees working overtime (44%), or foregoing some holiday leave entitlement (26%), was that there was too much work to finish in normal working hours. But the same survey did show that 69% of employees were satisfied with their current hours.

 

If you would like to follow up some specific aspects of work life balance, have a look at the separate articles on Family friendly employment law, Job sharing and Flexible and part time working.

Useful Websites

Flexibility: http://www.flexibility.co.uk/ 
The Work Foundation: http://www.theworkfoundation.com/difference/e4wlb.aspx 
Working Families: http://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/