Dr Bharti Gupta
Work Life Balance pertains to the balance that is to be maintained between the work i.e. the occupation one is doing and the personal life one is having in the form of family or one’s unique sphere of personal relationships.
Work Life Balance as an issue must have been in the society from the time occupations and professions were pursued in an organised form. However, it could not surface earlier conspicuously due to various sociological reasons. The foremost may be the voluntary acceptance or submission of the workers to even the irrational demands of the employers. The demand here refers especially to the “Time” of the workers or employees. The demand for the “time availability” of the employees and workers without any concern for giving importance to their family and personal life may be due to the hegemonic factors associated with the job creators.
The practice of giving importance and respect to those who create job had always been a natural thing in all societies. The reason for this may be the “Wealth factor” associated with those who invested in setting industries and thereby creating jobs. The scenario of dominating the working class by the employers has been there in every part of the world as it has been a human tendency to oppress or dominate those who are at receiving ends.
This has something to do with the power relations that exist between the givers and receivers. The givers have always been in a powerful state in the process of any kind of negotiations for benefits between employers (giver) and employees (receiver). However, the emergence of the labour unions and professional associations has changed the scenario of power dynamism. “Union is Strength” has practically been proved by the shift in some of the power to the side of the labour unions during the process of negotiations with the employers.
The origin of the concept of the “Work Life Balance” started with due considerations for the needs of the working women. It was during the 1960s and 1970s employers considered work-life mainly an issue for working mothers who struggled with the demands of their jobs and raising children. During the 1980s, recognising the value and the needs of their women contributors, pioneering organisations such as Merck, Dloitte & Touche and IBM began to change their internal workplace policies, procedures and benefits. The changes included maternity leave, Employee Assistance Programs(EAPs), Flex time, Home-Based Work and Child care referral. During 1980s men also began voicing work life concerns. By the end of the decade, work life balance was seen as more than just a women’s issue, affecting men, families, organisations and cultures (Jim Bird, 2006). Recognition to the work life balance related issues which started from American organisations had spill over effect to the other parts of the world gradually.
Work Life Balance calls for all the positive attributes from both the employees and the employers for contributing towards balancing these two important spheres of activities in one’s life. The balancing has been emphasised because it has now been widely recognised that the performance and the productivity of the average employee significantly depends on the state of mind which he attains after bringing balance between his personal life and the office life. This balance gives certain outcomes like satisfaction and peace which enhance or more importantly helps employees to perform well.
Work Life Balance has been attaining focus as it has given systematically investigated outcomes which speak in favour of the employees. Earlier it has always been the discretion of the employers to decide regarding the time availability of the employees. The occupation has always been put on the priority list keeping family on the back seat. This attitude has been responsible for the cause of stress among the employees as keeping families secondary than occupation creates guilt and stress especially in those who care for the family interests. Inability to balance personal life with work may at times create discord with family members and a kind of distress and psychological disharmony in adjustment with the society. Work Life Balance concept has actually been a new approach of management for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. Work Life Balance approach has enabled the employers to understand the importance of a happy employee. Happiness of employee had been considered to be dependent on the motivations the employee used to derive from the recognition of his work either in cash or in kind. But later it was realised that other than the element of recognition, there is another thing which needs to be maintained for the productive output of the employees. This important thing is about giving importance to the personal lives of the employees along with its right equation with the work life.
Academicians have lot of responsibilities to handle from preparing lecture to delivering lecture, designing syllabus, attending meetings, setting examination paper, evaluating answer sheets, administrative work, research work and so forth. These activities of the academia demand much time from the academicians. Among all these preparing lecture demands major part of the working time. As per the UGC ruling the academicians needs to spend minimum of six hours with in the campus. These hours are spent mainly delivering lectures and counselling students and meeting the various other agendas. Among these agendas, the most important agenda of preparing lectures for the class and research work may not get any time during the working hours. This leaves the academicians with the only option to prepare their lectures at home. This tendency and compulsion of the academicians creates a situation where the boundary between the work and personal life gets dissolved or unclear to great extent. The time which should have been spent at home with family members is spent in preparing lectures. So this tends to disturb the balance. There is a great need to understand the importance of work and family simultaneously. Family should be considered as the initial point wherefrom the social identity of an individual is derived before getting a profession identity. Academicians have been facing challenges in meeting the various professional demands as well as expectations of the relationships that makes one’s sphere of personal life.
There have been various studies which have investigated the Work Life Balance in their respective fields. The clear understanding of “Work Life Balance” concept infers that this is something which is relevant across all the fields of work and has been significantly important for all who are into any kind of working relationship with others. The issues and challenges of one field of study can be found similar to the other fields of study due to the reason that Work Life Balance deals with the factors which are generic across all occupations. The generic factors are the primary resource on which are dependant both the work life and the family life.
Work life balance issues may be having varying degrees of intensity for different professions and for different life stages of the employees but the core issues like time management, stress management, children demands, spouse demands, social demands, self management, health management etc. remain same across all disciplines. Therefore, there is an immense need for the employers of varied occupation to understand and recognize the significance of Work Life Balance not only from the perspective of the employees but also from the perspective of work performance and productivity that is core of all occupations.
(The author is Assistant Professor Department of Tourism & Travel Management Central University of Jammu)
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