Work-Life Balance - Essay Example

03 October Work-life balance: This paper is primarily based on contemplating in detail the critically important ways I act upon in an order to overcome the monstrous pressures brought on by an inappropriately maintained work-life balance. Given the fact that we live in a world today that has fierce competitiveness as one of its main features, there remains no ambiguity in the ultimate work responsibilities one is rendered to fulfill along with fulfilling the family demands. Maintaining work-life balance is an issue which is hotly debated since the level of competitiveness has spiraled up with a blinding speed and many strategies have been presented by expert sociologists over the past many years for educating the novice people as to how they can stop all kinds of new and tiring problems from cropping up nearly everyday. Work and family relationships are more than often found at odds and highly conflicting which is why the reason I have chosen sharing the horrendous pressures I face everyday, personal sacrifices I make everyday to fulfill my family requirements, and the steps I take to frantically try to maintain a decent balance between my work and family. Considering the phenomenally engaging studies I have to continue in an order to establish a successful professional career, meeting up with the expectations of my wife and son presents a challenge fraught with difficulties and sacrifices. Struggling with competing family demands, especially when one has to spend countless hours in studying intricate subjects, raises a phenomenally tedious and grueling life situation which I have tried to picture in this paper. I happen to live in Canada with my wife and son and while I am doing my diploma from The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), my wife studies at University of Alberta. This is understandable that things take on a real different turn when not one but both partners have their own issues to deal with in life and not one of them has full time to spare for home and children. While both me and my wife are struggling really hard to complete our studies so that a better life standard could be established, I do not feel compelled to lie about the harsh realities of life and how many critically important things related to family are left at stake as hard battle for a secure future continues with seemingly no end to it. The battle for securing the basic necessities of life in Canada where earning significantly commendable feats at workplace is not an easy job is not fought by me alone, but my wife also has to deal with an extremely hectic study module due to which both of us are left with quite little time that we can share with each other and with our son. Had it been a situation where I already would have been working as a successful employee in some notable firm and earning respectable amount of money, I could have induced my wife to give up her busy schedule and devote her time to our son so that the incidence of gruel problems and fear of a broken family could be propelled down. But, considering the reality that not one of us are at the current time even at the beginning stage of our professional careers since we are in the process of making our way to that beginning that grows over time to encompass a professional achievement, the looming prospect of a broken family seems quite hard to evade at times. This is also because of the factor that I find myriad examples of broken families around me nearly every single day of my life and the reason which lays the foundation for such tragic breakups could be more than often narrowed down to unavailability of time which happens to be a killing poison for even the type of couples who share phenomenal understanding. Considering my situation, I cannot rate my work and family according to the level of importance I allot each, rather both work and family are central to my life and finding a reasonable balance between the two is an issue I have gone through over and over again in my mind for past many months before deciding on a practicable solution. The first thing worth mentioning is that I happen to be a very responsible husband and a dedicated father who loves spending time with his wife and son and being there for them so that they would come running for sharing their problems to no third person but me when in need. This remains unequivocally one of the biggest tragedies of life that with today’s arduous pressures of work and other priorities, dealing with work-life balance can be an extremely ghastly job for people who have demanding families back at homes. I wish so much that my family would remain united and come out of the present tight and harassing life situations safe and secure, which is obviously entirely impossible without following some useful guiding lines like being courageous enough to say no to many things in life that may be quite unimportant and not worthy enough to make the family hurt and resentful. Such things may include refusing increasing requests from friends for spending a night out after work finishes or going to an entertainment spot right after lectures finish at the college. I have made a principle in life that each moment of the day right after I get officially free from my college should be dedicated to my family and fulfilling their requirements. Unnecessary requests from friends for hanging out after getting free should be avoided by fathers who have families at homes because nothing is more important in life than those precious family moments that is rendered to cherish throughout life. Refusing things that matter least for the sake of one’s family and setting priorities on the things that cannot be avoided is a golden time-saving principle that I applied to my life and achieved many benefits since then like giving less and less chance to my wife for complaining about my behavior and lifestyle, which seemed to go on for forever before I seriously considered saying no the unimportant. I remember times when I found myself in an addictive pattern with my studies which left my wife and son increasingly despaired and anguished. I, having not been reasonable enough at those times to realize the needs of my family, went on giving more and more hours to the studies determinedly overlooking the family demands which pains me even now sometimes, considering some situations which I made more difficult to cope with for my wife having not been there for her myself. I used to thing that being workaholic is something I am doing for my family and for their own benefit so that we could all enjoy a better future. But, like many unfortunate fathers, I also forgot the hard fact of life that no big feat seems appropriate to be celebrated if one has nobody by one’s side to share that celebration. It was when I strongly felt my family drifting away that I practically stopped bringing work back at home and started getting done with my studies at the college so that more time could be spared for ensuring a better maintained work-life balance. Research study on work-life balance done by (Graham) suggests that stress originates from role strains and spillovers. Role strain occurs when fulfilling the responsibilities of one role, like being a dedicated student in my case, interferes with fulfilling the responsibilities of another role, like being a dedicated husband and father. Spillover occurs when long study or work hours and tough environment succeeds in negatively impacting one’s life. In an order to avoid both role strain and spill over, I made it my priority to define the values in life and set realistic goals which could be achieved by some hard work rather than setting targets that are impossibly hard to reach and families have to be sacrificed for them. Considering the fact that marital responsibilities take a real hit after having babies, giving more attention to maintain a successful work-life balance became increasingly imperative after my son came in my life. According to research studies done on the pressures faced by married couples, it is revealed that “the drop in marital satisfaction after the first baby’s birth is a staggering 42% larger among the current generation of parents than their predecessors” (Gary and Rosberg). The tragedy is that this drop in marital satisfaction continues with each successive child due to which spending more time together turns out to be the major effective therapy for working out a marital relationship in times of dire emergency. Another point often ignored by married couples is that in frantically trying to give more time to their children so that they would not grow up into neglected aggressive teenagers, they spend less and less time exclusively with each other thus forgetting that they are partners also in addition to being parents. Neglecting the spouse for allotting oneself more time to check on the progress of one’s work or study project is one of the most devastating mistakes made by many couples and I avoid committing this mistake again by setting priorities, communicating more often, and understanding family expectations. Being a heartless block and absolutely refusing to listen what one’s wife or children have to say while thinking that allotting more hours for studies or work is a step that is actually being taken for family’s own benefit is empty mockery and practicing this strategy should be abandoned. Summing up, the importance of maintaining the work-life balance becomes absolutely hard to deny considering the above discussion and facts presented. Understanding the core meaning of work-life balance is foremost important so that strategies could be laid out later by busy couples who lead a hectic life. Maintaining the same level of psychological involvement in work/study and family roles, the same level of satisfaction with work/study and family roles, and allotting almost an equal amount of time between work/study and family is what work-life balance is all about and considering all of these three aspects is profoundly important for securing both family happiness and safe future. It is a solid reality that not being able to strike the right balance between work and life can lead one’s partner to think that one is not being compassionate and caring enough to realize the ultimately important family requirements, and such painful doubts can rapidly lead to anguish and chaos. Getting equally involved in work and family is also important because it helps much in reducing and controlling the chronic and painful work-family conflicts which lead to family breakups and major depressions. Works cited: Gary and Rosberg, B. “Striking the Right Balance between Work and Family Life.” 02 May. 2008. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. Graham, Judith. “Balancing Work and Family.” 2002. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. Read More