DEFINING AND REFINING WORK–LIFE BALANCE
Work–life balance is a term used to describe how individuals achieve and maintain an appropriate balance between professional or work responsibilities and their personal responsibilities. Workers, regardless of gender, contribute to the workforce and many have additional responsibilities at home; this can create tension as they try to prioritize or juggle competing demands. The pressure of balancing time, energy, and the very real need to earn a living wage often causes conflict for an employee, which is further exacerbated by increasing demands to be a good spouse, partner, parent, grandparent, daughter, son, friend, or care-giver. Demands from employers to be an exceptional worker are often coupled with societal expectations to be an exceptional “everything else to everybody.” These demands can create unhealthy expectations for those who subscribe to the maxim to “have it all” and then struggle to both achieve and maintain a work–life balance.
If you ask workers to define or describe how they achieve work–life balance you will get myriad responses, but these responses often boil down to a common theme of time, time management, or some variation on a desire to work less and play more. In contrast, research into this elusive phenomena of work–life balance often focuses on the extent to which organizations are supportive of work–life balance by creating and implementing benefits available to employees to utilize.
The meaning of the term “work–life balance” is debated, as some scholars argue that the concept implies a trade-off between personal and professional responsibilities and does not necessarily effectively describe the challenges of employees’ experiences when attempting to achieve that balance. Rather than balancing work and life responsibilities, scholars suggest that successful individuals are focusing on a more realistic approach to the tension between work and life through integration, harmonization, and articulation of the competing spheres (Gregory and Milner 2009; Burke 2004; Lewis, Gambles, and Rapoport 2007; Lewis and Cooper 2005). Due to social, economic, and technological changes, and coupled with a decline in birthrates and an increase in the aging population, the concept of work–life balance will continue to be an important policy area to be addressed by lawmakers and employers (Gregory and Milner 2009).
Over time, changes in the workforce and in technology, as well as evolving social norms, led to the term “work–life balance,” which replaced the traditionally used concepts of “work–family balance” or “employee–family balance” or “family-friendly benefits.” These terms more narrowly emphasized achieving and maintaining an equilibrium between professional and family duties, or more specifically, parental obligations. When this equilibrium is upset, the resulting work–family conflict “tends to hit women harder because of societal norms and expectations that women bear the larger burden of family responsibilities” (Alkadry and Tower 2014, 17). Historically, American society has expected men to work in a professional capacity and be primarily responsible for earning a living wage to support the family unit, while women were seen as responsible for upkeep of the domestic sphere. The traditional “work–family dichotomy was based upon rigid and demanding workplace requirements with no allowances for family demands,” and this dichotomy was established due to male-dominated work environments that were supported by female-led homes (Kim and Wiggins 2011, 728; Saltzstein, Ting, and Saltzstein 2001).
Prior to women entering the workforce in greater numbers, public policies and human resource practices addressing work–family balance were not a priority. Organizations were concerned with male employees bringing frustrations home from their workplace, which could result in “detrimental effects on the family” or might result in negative effects on the employee’s productivity, resulting in absenteeism, low efficiency, or worse (Giraldo 1980, xviii). Thus there was a concern and recognition from employers of the effect that burnout might have on employees personally and professionally; this was often referred to as work–family conflict or tension.
As the number of women who became wage-earners increased, stereotypes of the family unit, gender roles, and work roles were challenged and work–family conflict or tension became even more evident to employers. Now, for the first time in history, there is no gender difference among young adults seeking more professional responsibilities in their occupations, whereas heretofore young women reported less desire to have more professional responsibilities than young men (Galinsky, Aumann, and Bond 2011).
This is due in part because family composition has changed a great deal. Working mothers have become the norm; stay-at-home fathers, single-parent workers, and same-sex couples have become more common. There is an increase in workers caring for both children and aging parents, and sadly—in many cases due to substance abuse by parents—even grandparents raising grandchildren. Working fathers have reported a significant increase in work–life conflict over the last 35 years, as many have increased their workload within the area of household and child care responsibilities. Now, men also struggle to achieve and maintain a balance (Aumann, Galinsky, and Matos 2011).
Despite men reporting this increase in work–life conflict, there is still empirical evidence of women more often coming home from work only to start on their second set of duties—their second shift (Vanderkam 2015, 199). In Finding Time: The Economics of Work–Life Conflict, Boushey explains, “the world of work and the needs of families always seem to be in conflict—and it’s been this way for decades” (2016, 8). These challenges affect both the family unit and the workplace but especially the employee. Thus organizations began to incorporate human resource practices aimed at helping employees achieve a balance between work and family.
The creation and implementation of family-friendly policies is an essential element of achieving gender equity and supporting the advancement and progress of women in the workplace (Feeney and Stritch 2017). Research of family-friendly benefits are categorized into four areas: (1) dependent care; (2) flexible work arrangements; (3) leave programs; and (4) work–family stress management (Mulvaney 2014, 461). Examples of such practices include child care policies, including referrals and subsidies; telework or telecommuting; alternative work schedules, including compressed workday or workweek schedules; family leave; sick leave banks; employee assistance programs (EAPs); and health and wellness promotions. The federal government has long recognized the importance of work–life balance and provid...
