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Our daily lives are jam-packed with activities, appointments, and other responsibilities, all of which can create stress and anxiety, which may lead to family stress and conflict. Modern day families are prone to stress because family members, specifically parents, are required to work hard to provide for the needs of the family.
Children, on the other hand, are exposed to various activities –
friends, homework, videogames, Facebook – that take them away from their
time with the family and may introduce additional stress in their lives
as well. Work life balance is both a method and a goal to help families maximize quality time together.
The Myth of Work Life Balance
The term work life balance suggests that people give equal
time and attention to all aspects of their lives. However, this is
unrealistic because the demands of work and family simply aren’t in
balance. If your boss tells you that something is due by a certain
deadline, or your child gets sick and needs to go to the doctor, those
activities become a priority and balance goes out the window. The
unexpected demands or unpredictable nature of modern life require a
certain amount of flexibility as well as realism. You can’t always plan
for the unexpected, and sometimes you just have to drop everything to
complete a project. These demands lead many parents, and even children,
to feel stressed out because they feel they just can’t do it all in balance.
The sad part about this is that the ideal of work life balance
is not possible, if by this you mean a perfectly predictable life that
is equally balanced between work and family responsibilities. This means
that parents will often spend more time at the office than in the house
with family while the children will often spend more time in school,
with friends, and other activities, away from the family. Further,
family members cannot expect to spend equal time between work and family
life. Trying to achieve that kind of balance is almost impossible
nowadays.
Understanding Life Satisfaction
Fortunately, family members can still strive to achieve work life satisfaction in lieu of work life balance.
Work life satisfaction requires a focus on meaningful activities that
yield a sense of satisfaction for work (or recreation) well done, rather
than a perfect balance of time among several activities. Work life
satisfaction does not dwell on the quantity of hours spent with each
aspect of a person‘s life; instead, work life satisfaction helps a
person focus on achieving quality time with the family or at work;
making your time count for something important. Finally, a focus on work
life satisfaction helps a person find ways to reduce stress and anxiety by focusing on outcomes rather than mere time.
Three Aspects of Work Life Satisfaction
Work life balance is the end result of a series of satisfying
work life experiences. The essential components of this balance include
attention to:
• Time management
• Clarity of values
• Communication
• Clarity of values
• Communication
Time management focuses on allocating the limited time in a day to
activities that are most important. Clarity of values helps each person
be clear about what is most important to them, while communication is
important to let each family member know what each person needs.
Attention to these aspects will help families achieve the elusive goal of work life balance by maximizing instances of work life satisfaction.
Source : Author Dr. Mark Sirkin
