work life balance describes balance as a fluid state of being that ideally changes over time with a person’s life stage and values system. It is the responsibility of the individual, however, to ensure that this change takes place. For instance, when a baby is born into a family, it requires the parents to shift some attention from other aspects of their lives to their new child in order bond and to provide a loving safe environment.
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In his article, “Work-Life Balance Defined – What it Really Means,” Jim Bird states, “Achievement and Enjoyment are the front and back of the coin of value in lifeThere is no perfect, one-size fits all, balance you should be striving for. The best work-life balance is different for each of us because we all have different priorities and different lives.
This is an employee’s ability to access employment opportunities and
earn adequate income while at the same time attending to the caring
responsibilities of family life
Key features of a work–life balance program:
• Promotes a work environment that encourages employees to achieve
work–life balance
• Leave arrangements enable employees to have flexibility to handle family,
personal and community matters
• Recognises the impact of the needs of other family members and
dependents on work‒life balance
• Gives employees flexibility in their career choices and options
• Acknowledges interaction between work, family and life interests and
enables tensions around this to be discussed and managed
• Recognises that different employees will have different needs associated
with maintaining work–life balance
The concepts of flexibility and work-life balance are not clear-cut. Different people will think of flexibility and
work-life balance in different ways. Flexibility of work arrangements are an important part offacilitating work-life
balance. The benefits of flexibility are interpreted in different ways by different stakeholders.
Employees across all levels of organisations desire flexibility so that they can accommodate the competing
responsibilities and interests in their lives. Almost 37 per cent of employees work part-time.
During the economic downturn there were a number of contradictory influences on the way organisations
achieved work-life balance and flexibility. A survey by Hewitt Associates found 79 per cent of organisations were
seeking to avoid redundancies and at the same time provide greater flexibility in their working arrangements. Some
employers sought to retain employees by reducing the length of the working week, introducing part-time work and
increasing the availability of flexible working arrangements.
KPMG .and Virgin Australia experienced a decline in demand for business. At KPMG a number of people elected to
reduce their work hours, accessing KPMG's existing employee flexibility and employee assistance scheme. Flexibility
is regarded as a critical part of the employee-engagement strategy and essential for .developing a diverse, adaptive
and high-performing workforce. Virgin Australia implemented a hiring freeze and natural attrition for .ZOO roles. In
addition, 100 staff were deployed and another 100 staff were offered flexible working arrangements. These working
arrangements include part-time work, job sharing or leave without pay for 12 months.
Flexibility helps to reduce costs for employers and at the same time provides employees with more time for
personal activities . .Professionals, managers, clerical and administrative staff are more easily able to choose their
starting and finishing times than other workers and to choose to work extra hours in order to take time off. The
need to reduce costs has encouraged some employers to reduce staff and at the same time examine roles in the
organisation and the way work is done. Ideally, structural efficiencies, rather than short-term cost reductions
should be dealt with.
Flexibility has been used by employers to further economic outcomes. However, this can result in employees
being required to work even longer hours in order to achieve the requirements of the role and company results.
Most Australians are increasingly dissatisfied with the balance between their work and non-work life. More than
20 per cent of people work 48 hours or more and 60 per cent do not take regular holidays. Three-quarters of these
people would much rather work fewer hours.
There are expectations in the workplace, particularly when companies are seeking to reduce costs, that people
will work longer hours and get the necessary results. Executives have been affected by this expectation. The
expectation in the regional offices of multinational companies is that managers will be available for conference
calls across time zones. This reduces the cost of travel, but Nick Greenhalgh of Career Innovations claims it also
means work-life balance is disintegrating for some people in senior management positions. He claims it is not
unusual for executives working for US multinationals to do all-night conference calls and also come to work during the day. Working long hours often 'creeps up on people' and before the executive knows it these hours are taken
as normal. However, when this occurs the executives often lose perspective because they are overwhelmed by the
sheer quantity of the work.
The previous discussion demonstrates the complexity around the term 'flexibility'. It demonstrates that initial
stimulus for the use of flexible working arrangements to provide for better work-life balance has been recast. Juliet
Bourke, a partner at Aequus Partners, is concerned that 'the whole paradigm has shifted to something a little
negative-that is, flexibility is now about how we get more out of fewer people'.
Ross Gittins argues workers pay the penalty for one way flexibility. Although the Fair Work Act makes it more
difficult for employers to buy out penalty rates, employers continue to seek to redefine ordinary hours of work. In
2012 the banks sought to redefine ordinary hours of work to include Saturday and Sunday. They argued this wasto 'promote flexible and efficient modern work practices in a way that had proper regard to the considerations of productivity and employment costs'. Ross Gittins claims the flexibility being sought is 'one sided', because employers gain employees when they need them in order to maximise profits.
Nick Greenhalgh believes the requirement that people work extraordinary hours will have a long-term detrimental impact on employees. Employees will become disillusioned, unproductive, resentful and unproductive. This will have a detrimental impact on discretionary effort and productivity as a consequence of a decline in engagement.
Barbara Holmes of Managing Work Life Balance International claims this approach to worklife is not sustainable. She says that employers should consider the health, safety and wellbeing of staff. Employees can only cope with excessive hours for a short time.
CRITICAl THINKING QUESTIONS
1 Do you agree with Juliet Bourke that the use of flexibility has moved away from its original paradigm?
2 Discuss the implications of excessive working hours on the performance of employees and managers.
3 Discuss ways in which employers could facilitate work-life balance during an economic downturn.