Balancing Act
In 2007, a poll was taken by the European Professional Women’s Network,
asking people what they thought were absolutely necessary in order for the correct
balance between work and life. More than twenty-five percent of those polled chose
interacting with friends as the most important. In this modern world, it is often a struggle
to be able to work and engage in meaningful social interaction. It seems as if people
are working more than ever. With the advent of e-mailing and texting, it is possible to
work practically non stop (dependant on what one does for work).
Finding a balance
between work (career, home, school) and social interaction (career, recreation, family)
can very often be quite difficult.
According to Professor Juliet B. Schors’s book, The Overworked American – The
Unexpected Decline of Leisure, many people are in a constant state of overwork. After
all the work is accomplished, does one have the time or energy to socialize? There
simply are not enough hours to possibly squeeze in every daily activity. This leads one
to wonder; in what capacity could a person balance the responsibilities of work and the
The Review on A Study on Work Life Balance
... 2008). Focus among the different definition of work-life balance As work-life balance has such broad term of definition, its ... interpretation. Researchers gave different definition of work-life balance, Wise (2003) states that “work-life balance is about helping employees better ... mind” (Guest, 2001). Thus, different people may have their “right” combination of paid work and other aspects of their ...
duty of social interaction?
The responsibilities of work itself, is of utmost importance to most people. The
types of work that we will examine – paying (career), non-paying (home), and
educational – are time consuming and yet, can be rather rewarding in the grand scheme
of things. Most persons that have a long term paying job would consider that to be
called a career. To get the most out any type of career, one must constantly find ways
to stay satisfied and if possible, advance. Work around the home is something that
consumes most people. It seems as if there is a constant endless list of duties that
eventually must be fulfilled. After a day (or night) of work, one might come home to
these laborious tasks such as washing and folding laundry, sweeping and mopping
floors, dusting, and preparing meals. There are those certain duties that must be done,
in hopes that it will bring some sort of order to our busy, money making lives. Chores
such as cleaning, washing dishes, washing, drying, and folding laundry, and preparing
meals to consume, are things that one can avoid doing for only so long. Some days,
these tasks may take a little bit longer. Last up is school work. If there are children
involved, there are even more duties to perform. In this day and age, many adults are
making the decision to go back to school in the hope to either finish or begin their
degrees, in order to advance in their desired field or to perhaps begin embark on a new
career. The amount of school work of course depends on what a person chooses to
study. Regardless of that, assignments must be completed.
Socializing is a natural skill that mostly all people possess. In an article posted
on The Register of Trauma Specialists, an anonymous writer discusses the benefits that
social interaction has to offer to a person. Without the necessary stimuli, people will
generally fall into disrepair. Social interaction is so very important in maintaining
relationships and overall mental health. Without a means to talk to others, people
The Essay on Purpose Of Several Different Types Of Work With People
A youth workers duty is to support a young person aged between 11 to 25 to enhance their personal, educational and social development skills. A youth worker aims to help the individual to take action on issues effecting their daily lives such as health, education, unemployment and their environment , using many methods and activities in providing guidance and counselling. ...
potentially fall into bouts of anxiety, loneliness, and depression. It is shown that if a
person does not release everyday stress and emotional baggage, their health begins to
deteriorate as well. Also, without constant social interaction, people begin to lose what
ever social skills that they may possess. Conversation can either become detached and
short or ranting and long-winded. In order for one to achieve the balance between work
and social obligation, a person in essence must sacrifice time and money. Social
interaction is necessary element in the scheme of work and play. To many, they can not
exist without the other. According to Dr. David D. Friedman’s article in Forbes
magazine, there must be some sort of result from work itself. This may be of monetary
value or mental gratification; it just needs to be something.
With the ever expanding means of communication, people seem to be finding
that it getting harder to just sit down and talk. The constant e-mailing and instant
messaging appears to be having a negative affect on actual social interaction. The
nature of social networking sites is supposed to bring people closer, in this world of
technological wonders but, very often it makes people a little more disconnected to what
is going on. While it may be of great convenience to sit at home (or in some cases work)
and “chat” with people across the planet, there are always those nuances that get lost. It
is difficult to convey actual emotions and hard to tell when a person on the other end of
a dialogue is even “listening” to what another is “saying”.
A suitable balance between work and social interaction should be one that gives
a person enough time to have a chance to catch up on the various things in life that we
never seem to have time for. Joan Amble, a corporate controller at American Express,
inspired after reading of a business woman in India that made her employees to stop
working at 6pm every working day, decided to institute some rules of her own. Not only
did the working day end at 6:30pm but e-mail was to end at 8pm and on the weekends
The Essay on Work-life balance
Changes in relationships do not necessarily mean turbulence- even the most stable relationships go through constant changes. These changes are manifest in the smallest of gestures and interactions amongst people. The reactions, pro-actions or interactions may be between couples, parents, siblings, extended family, generations of grandparents, in-laws, cousins, on the family side, and boss, ...
and vacations. With these rules, employees had more personal time to tend to private
affairs.
On a personal level, I know that it is very difficult to achieve an equal balance of
work and social interaction. My wife and I lead very hectic lives. I am a supervisor, in a
cancer research facility. After many years, I have decided to go back to school, to
complete a degree in Behavioral Sciences. My wife has her own business where she
does PR marketing for artists. She also sits on several boards that promote the arts in
the Boston area. We are both artists as well – my work is with furniture and lamps; her
medium is mixed media photography. Recently, we celebrated the arrival of our baby
boy. While we are deeply grateful for this little bundle of joy, he has definitely made our
busy lives even more so. We are now in a constant state of rushing to accomplish
things. Our social lives have definitely taken on a different meaning now. No
longer are we going out with friends to have a little fun. It is work and more work.
Whatever down time either one of us have usually involves sleep or catching up with
friends and family on the telephone. The one thing that we have been doing in an
attempt to balance work and social interaction, is to invite friends and family over to our
home for a meal or to just say hello. We have a hired a person to come in and clean for
us, once a month as well. This is definitely a big help to us. My wife and I try to bring our
son out to functions but, at this point in the relationship, he seems to dictate when we
leave.
Maintaining a healthy life, in both a work and societal setting requires a fair
amount of effort. Unfortunately, being overworked may cause a person to neglect this
aspect of life. There are many occasions when one comes home to a pile of dishes in
The Research paper on Impact of Work Life Balance on Motivation of Employees in It Industry
Project Report on Impact of Work Life Balance on Motivation of Employees in IT Industry Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of MBA 2011-13 Submitted by Varun Krishna 11/PMB/056 CERTIFICATE FROM THE SUPERVISOR This is to certify that the project titled Impact of Work Life Balance on Motivation of Employees in IT Industry has been done under my supervision by Sukriti Singh, Shaily Saini, Varun Krishna ...
the sink, a screaming baby, and a paper due. Sometimes the last thing that a person
wants to do is to talk to another person or go out to meet others. There are those
moments however, that talking to another person could be very beneficial, both mentally
and emotionally. If one could find a way to indeed find a suitable balance between the
two, then perhaps it would make all the difference.
References
http://www.europeanpwn.net/index.php?article_id=119
The Overworked American – The Unexpected Decline of Leisure
http://www.traumaregister.co.uk/Articles/Human_Health_Contact.htm
http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/20/david-friedman-play_cx_df_06work_0523play.html
http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/28/work-life-balance-stress-management-forbes-woman-leadership-strategies.html
