presentation on work-life balance and causes..

1. Submitted by:-
Alan Shany -1537801
Devika A -1537820
Merisha John -1537826
Rakesh Gopal -1537808
Sharon Thomas-1537836
Work Life
balance

2. Introduction
 Work plays an important role in the lives of most
people. Work, whether paid or unpaid, also helps us to
shape our identity, gives a purpose to our existence,
allows us – or forces us – to structure our time,
gives us a useful way to spend our days, contributes
to our social status, and finally, brings us into
contact with others.
 Work-Life Balance does not mean an equal balance.
Work-life balance is the ability to experience a sense
of control and to stay productive and competitive at
work while maintaining a happy, healthy home life with
sufficient leisure.
 The right balance of one today may be different
tomorrow. It also differs when an individual is
single, married , if there are children and also when
one starts a new career as well as when one is nearing
retirement.

3. The Six Components of Work-Life Balance
 Self-Management
 Time Management
 Stress Management
 Change Management
 Technology Management
 Leisure Management

4. Review of Literature
 Work-Life Balance Defined, Bird, JimThe
Officer; Jun 2004; 80, 5; ProQuest Research
Library.
In this article the author is first trying
to define what work life balance is not.
Work life balance does not mean an equal
balance. There is no perfect one-size-fits-
all balance you should be striving for. the
best work life balance is different for
everyone as each of us have different
personalities and lives. The article gives
two key concepts at the core of an
effective work life balance definition.
They are Daily Achievement and Enjoyment,
ideas almost deceptive in their simplicity.

5.  Impact of work life balance on performance of
employees in the organizations, Prakash Vir Khari
and Jyothi Bhel
Often organisation culture and the workplace practices
control an individual’s work life, and put
organization's desires before the individual’s
needs. Issues such as work flexibility are
approached from the employers’ view, and offer the
employee minimal choice in managing their working
life (Strachan & Burgess 1998). Pocock (2003)
describes the lack of balance between the changing
nature of the families and the workplace cultures as
a collision between work and families. Institutions
have failed to recognise the spill over effect in
work places, and deserted to manage the balance with
the employees’ expectations that spread beyond
their working life (Bond et al 1997; Bardoel et al
2000; Pocock 2003).

6. HISTORY OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE
 The work-leisure dichotomy was invented in the mid-
1800s.
 Paul Krassner remarked that anthropologists use a
definition of happiness that is to have as little
separation as possible "between your work and your
play”.
 The expression "work–life balance" was first used in
the United Kingdom in the late 1970s to describe the
balance between an individual's work and personal
life.
 In the United States, this phrase was first used in
1986.

7.  Most recently, there has been a shift in the
workplace as a result of advances in technology.
 As Bowswell and Olson-Buchanan stated, "increasingly
sophisticated and affordable technologies have made
it more feasible for employees to keep contact with
work".
 Employees have many methods, such as emails,
computers, and cell phones, which enable them to
accomplish their work beyond the physical boundaries
of their office. Employees may respond to an email
or a voice mail after-hours or during the weekend,
typically while not officially "on the job".
 Researchers have found that employees who consider
their work roles to be an important component of
their identities will be more likely to apply these
communication technologies to work while in their
non-work domain.

8.  Some theorists suggest that this blurred boundary of
work and life is a result of technological control.
 Technological control "emerges from the physical
technology of an organization”. In other words,
companies use email and distribute smart phones to
enable and encourage their employees to stay connected
to the business even when they are not in the office.
 This type of control, as Barker argues, replaces the
more direct, authoritarian control, or simple control,
such as managers and bosses.
 As a result, communication technologies in the
temporal and structural aspects of work have changed,
defining a "new workplace" in which employees are more
connected to the jobs beyond the boundaries of the
traditional workday and workplace.
 The more this boundary is blurred, the higher work-
to-life conflict is self-reported by employees.

9.  Many authors believe that parents being affected
by work-life conflict will either reduce the
number of hours one works where other authors
suggest that a parent may run away from family
life or work more hours at a workplace. This
implies that each individual views work-life
conflict differently.
 Employee assistance professionals say there are
many causes for this situation ranging from
personal ambition and the pressure of family
obligations to the accelerating pace of
technology.
 According to a recent study for the Centre for
Work-Life Policy, 1.7 million people consider
their jobs and their work hours excessive because
of globalization.

10. Stress and Work Pressure
 Stress in the workplace can be defined as the harmful
physical and emotional responses that occur when the
requirements of the job do not match the capabilities,
resources, or needs of the worker. Workplace stress can
lead to poor health and even injury.
 There are limits to what people are capable of handling,
and those limits differ from one person to the other.
When employees exceed these limits, they may find
themselves facing problems so serious that they are
unable to solve them on their own. That is when they are
facing a work pressure problem.
 When an employee is unable to meet the demands of
work a work pressure problem arises that can lead to
work stress. Work stress can eventually cause the
employee to feel excessively tired, exhausted and
depressed, as well as to suffer physical ailments.

11.  According to one school of thought, differences in
individual characteristics such as personality and
coping style are most important in predicting
whether certain job conditions will result in
stress - in other words, what is stressful for one
person may not be a problem for someone else. This
viewpoint leads to prevention strategies that focus
on workers and ways to help them cope with
demanding job conditions.
Signs and symptoms of stress
 Mental
 Emotional
 Physical
 Behavioural
 Stress and work pressure are main contributors to
work life imbalance.

12. Causes of stress
External causes of stress
 Major life changes
 Work
 Relationship difficulties
 Financial problems
 Being too busy
 Children and family
Internal causes of stress (self-generated)
 Inability to accept uncertainty
 Doubt
 Negative self-talk
 Unrealistic expectations
 Perfectionism
 Lack of assertiveness

13. IMBALANCE OF WORK
An im-balance is fundamentally a lack of clearly
defined and consistently enforced boundaries between
work life and personal life. When we fail to have a
healthy work life balance, people end up experiencing
emotional stress, anxiety and depression. Employees
who have the tools to balance their professional and
personal lives are happier, healthier, and more
productive.
FACTORS OF WORK LIFE IM-BALANCE
 Social Support
 Organizational Factor
 Stress Factor
 Work Issue Factor
 Family Issues Factor
 Individual Factor

14. Consequences of work life imbalance
 The consequences of work life imbalance can be affected
in many ways:
 Health Risks:
Obesity: Not taking the time to exercise or eat well
can increase obesity, which is connected to heart
disease and numerous other health risks.
Exhaustion: Sleeping well can add years to a
person’s life. Sacrificing sleep for work will have
negative effects on health and increase the chances
of getting sick.
Emotional problems: Stress and exhaustion will wreak
havoc on emotional wellbeing. This will affect
relationships and personal identity.
 Absenteeism: Poor health results in employee absenteeism
and thus is a costly problem for employers. This can
increase the cost to the organization as they have to pay
the employees sick pay and it can affect in loss of
productivity to the organisation.

15.  Burnout: Overworked employees are mostly burn outs.
Burnout is the physical and psychological response to a
long term stress. Signs of burn outs are lack of interest,
lack of emotion, lack of motivation, and possible
depression.
 Stress: The effects of stress on heart health are deadly.
Stress can lead to Cardiovascular disease, Sexual health
problems, Weakened immune system, Migraines and headaches,
Stiff muscles, Backaches, depression, Weight gain,
Substance addiction, nervousness ,trouble concentrating,
Irritability, mental and physical fatigue.
 Signs of stress are: Over emotion, Lethargy, Restlessness,
Anxiety.
 Other causes of work life imbalance are:
 Less family participation
 Limited friendships
 Increased burdens and workload
 Distance in personal relations
 Decreased level of refreshment by oneself

16. Responsibilities of Employers
To find the right balance for your lifestyle, review
ways in which your prospective employers can
accommodate these issues:
1. Scheduling
Depending on the job, this may be the easiest way for
employers to accommodate employees, since the costs
are minimal while the payback – happier, more
productive staff – can be immense. The most popular
options are:
-Telecommuting: Working all or part of the week from
home. (Good for anyone whose job is mainly computer-
based)
-Job Sharing: Two or more people working part time to
share a full-time role. (Good for people in customer
service or administrative roles)
-Compressed Workweeks: Working four 10-hour days, for
example, to get an extra weekday off. Some companies
even offer amenities such as onsite concierge
services, meal preparation, or dry cleaning, to make
the employee's home life a bit easier to manage.

17. 2. Health and Wellness
Employer-subsidized health insurance is a widely
offered benefit. But since an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure, as well as potentially lower
premiums, some employers have onsite gyms or discounted
gym memberships. Other employers take this issue a step
further with onsite wellness programs, some of which
include diet workshops. Another benefit that can help
keep personal issues under control is an Employee-
Assistance Program (EAP). Common areas an EAP covers
include: confidential help finding child or elder care;
alcohol or substance abuse treatment; or mental health
care.
3. Child Care
Full-time working parents want to feel comfortable with
those who watch their kids during the workday. Having
access to onsite or near-site child care can raise that
comfort level significantly.

18. 4. Personal Development and Growth
This is a key indicator of how important career growth
and employee retention are to a company. Internally,
formal mentoring programs and company-paid training by
outside experts or at industry conferences can help
employees gain needed skills to improve performance in
their current roles, or move up to higher-level
positions that carry more responsibility and higher
salaries. For employees who want to obtain degrees,
certifications, or specialized training, some
employers offer tuition reimbursement. This is
particularly useful for those who never attended
college, didn’t complete their degree requirements,
or want to attend graduate school while someone else
picks up all or part of the tab.

19. Strategies to Implement Work-Life Balance
 PUT THE BEST WORK, FIRST
To have more time for a personal life, we have to
clear out blocks of time in our day to focus on the
best (most important) work first. We tend to get
wrapped up in time-wasting activities—about 69% of
employees confess to wasting time each time,
according to Salary.com. Obsessing over unimportant
emails or procrastinating on menial tasks is just
some examples. Putting the most important tasks
first doesn’t mean less work. Furthermore,
managers need to get away from the concept that
working more means being better than the next
person. A better strategy to consider is how
to work smarter.

20. PREVENT BURNOUT
Job burnout is caused by a very real type of physical,
mental and emotional stress. We’re humans, not
machines—and even those will break eventually. Burnout
can come from extremes of a single activity such as
staring at spreadsheets and getting tunnel vision. You
have to identify when you or your team needs to slow
down or when to just stop. Encouraging downtime at work
is helpful and teaches employees to budget time to
finish the most important work first. This strategy
also keeps you plugged in to the wellbeing of your
employees. Once you practice what you preach, the team
will follow your lead.

21.  GET FURTHER ENGAGEMENT
Being a manager that encourages the best work first
and to make your employees pause for rest periods
will make you revered among your team. They’ll
write songs about you one day. When you walk the
walk of work-life balance, you provide your team a
great measure of transparency, which will directly
engage your employees. They will commit to
performing better and are less likely to leave your
organization, according to The Corporate Leadership
Council. Integrating work-life balance into your
culture is not going to kill your company; in fact,
it may be the best thing you do for your business.
Literally, lives are at stake here! Your team will
be more engaged with you as a manager, be better
managers of their own time as a whole, and be
energized to put out the best possible work.

22. Conclusion
 Work/life balance is at best an elusive ideal and
at worst a complete myth. But by making deliberate
choices about which opportunities to pursue and
which to decline, rather than simply reacting to
emergencies, leaders can and do engage meaningfully
with work, family, and community.
 Through work life balance the individual will feel
relaxed and organized. Productivity of the person
increases which will lead accomplishing task
efficiently as well as to attain grater successes.
It will improve relationship with families and
friends. Better mental and physical health is
another benefit. We will be able to make priorities
than sacrificing. Leisure time is another added
plus of work life balance.

23. References
 Work Life Balance Defined: Learn The Meaning of
Work Life Balance. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.worklifebalance.com/work-life-balance-
defined.html
 What Is Work-life Balance? (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://work-lifebalance.com/what-is-work-life-
balance/
 Aswathappa, K. (2014). a safe and healthy
environment. In human resource management(7th ed.).
New Delhi: McGraw Hill Education Pvt Ltd.
 Employment relations today, Autumn 2006, vol 33,
no.3
 Stress in the workplace, meeting the challenge,
Health Advocate’s recent webinar “Stress in the
Workplace: Meeting the Challenge” co-sponsored by
the National Women’s Health Resource Center,
 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORK-LIFE BALANCE AND
ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL,
Volume 3, Issue 9 (September, 2014)