Work-Life Imbalances and Meaning of Life - Essay Example

? Boundaries: Work – Life Balancing Work-life imbalances cause immense damage to the interests of people. Many of the current workingprofessionals complain that they failed to achieve work-life balancing because of the over burden of workloads at workplaces. Manpower shortage forces organizations to fix overtime works to complete their commitments. Regular overtime works often put immense stress on employees since they fail to find enough time to spend with their families and friends. Earlier, people were working to find enough resources needed for living; however, current people seem to be living for working. In other wise we compartmentalize too much so that our professional lives cause damages to our private lives. This paper analyses the necessities of achieving work-life balancing. Manpower shortage, especially skilled manpower shortage is one of the major problems, in European and American countries. Volume of work and manpower shortages is increasing day by day which force organizations in these countries to ask their existing employees to stay back for overtime on a regular basis. For example, nursing professionals in these countries forced to work even up to 16 hours per day because of the shortage of nursing professional in these countries. Many of the IT organizations in these countries are outsourcing their jobs to countries like India and China in order to tackle the manpower shortage problems. Globally, the regular working hours of an employee is fixed to eight hours per day because of the necessities of ample rest a person needs before starting another day in the office. An employee needs to maintain his physical and mental health for delivering his maximum productivity. However, organizations of the modern era are forgetting about it and asking their employees to work overtime on a regular basis which is creating problems in their personal life. The overload of work often forces the employee to forget his family commitments and family problems may start to develop in his life. “Workers in poorer quality jobs (with poor job security, work overload, low levels of time and task autonomy, low flexibility and low job satisfaction) have worse work-life interference than those in better quality jobs” (Pocock et al p.7). Former French president Jacques Chirac also expressed similar concerns. In his opinion, “poor work-life balance arises from long and intense working hours may enhance the productivity of the organizations; however, better productivity should not come at the expense of the quality of life and social cohesion” (Bloom et al,2006, p.5). (Bloom et al, p.5). Man is a social animals rather than a machine. Moreover, he has emotions, feelings and thoughts which segregate him from other objects in this world. He is working for living, not living for working. But many of the organizations perceive the employees just like machines. Machines do not need rest or break until it damages. It is impossible for a person to work in that manner because of the non-mechanistic components present in him. Johnson (2008) also expressed similar concerns. In his opinion, “Extended working hours and more than required time spent at work place paves way for health complaints and too much of stress that can lead to injuries like an accident when driving”(Johnson). It is difficult for a worker to concentrate on a particular topic more than certain time period. Body and mind should cooperate properly to fix the attention of a person on a particular topic for longer period. Both body and mind needs periodical relaxation or rest in order to function properly. Long working hours will destroy both body and mind which may reflect in the personal and professional life of a person if he forced to work longer periods continuously. “Heart diseases, fatigue, stress, depression, chronic infections, diabetes, back aches, general health complaints and death are some of the grievances one has to face while working late and for long” (Johnson) The morality of asking employees to work for longer hours continuously is highly questionable. Personal life is always valuable than professional life. There is no point in working hard and earn more at the expense of personal life. For example, many of the current working women leave their infants in day care centers while going to their workplaces. A nanny can never be a substitute for a mother. Such children may not develop properly because of the absence of proper love and care received from the parents. Such parents will realize the consequences of their action only when after the children become grown up. Such children may become antisocial elements in future and the parents face more troubles in their future life. In other words, working parents who have forgotten to look after their babies, may fail both in their personal and professional lives. In short, it is morally not right to sacrifice the values of personal life for the success of professional life. There are many ways to achieve work life balancing. Both the employee and the organization should combine well to achieve work-life balancing. Better managed organizations always keen in providing enough breaks to the employees for completing their personal works. Such organizations provide flexibility in working hours in order to make employees happier. For example, some organizations allow its employees to work continuously on two shifts and take a one day off as compensation. Such flexibility in working hours will always give the employee the necessary time needed to fulfill his family commitments. Work-life balancing is not all about family care, childcare or working less; it’s about working “smart” and managing smart. For example, Google, one of the biggest organizations in the world, has allowed its employees to spend 20% of their working hours on other creative works. This strategy helped Google to motivate their employees immensely and to bring fresh and innovative ideas to their business (Strategic HR Planning at Google Inc, p.8) To conclude, the current perceptions about the meaning of life should be changed drastically in order to avoid the compartmentalization of our life. We should realize that profession has big role in conducting a successful personal life; however, we should also remember that no profession should be recognizes as something bigger than the personal life. Works Cited 1. Bloom Nick, Kretschmer Tobias and Van Reenen John. “Work-Life Balance, Management Practices and Productivity”. 2006. The London School of Economics and Political Science. Web. 01 May 2011. 2. Johnson, Connor. “The Effects of Working Long Hours”. 2008. Web. 01 May 2011. 3. Pocock Barbara, Natalie Skinner and Reina Ichii. “Work, Life, Workplace Flexibility”.2009. The Australian Work and Life Index 2009. University of South Australia. Web. 01 May 2011. 4. “Strategic HR Planning at Google Inc”. Web. 01 May 2011. Read More