Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Work Life Balance
Work Life Balance
hr issues
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balancing
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Top Management - IT Firm
Balanced 16%
Out of
balance 23%
On the
edge 21%
Balanced
On the edge
Out of balance
stress. Poor culture of the organization that is reflected
through internal politics, lack of support, lack of
competence of supervisors/senior management and too
much time spend on non core activities also lead to lack
of time and work stress.
HMO
Balanced 22%
Out of
balance 42%
On the
edge 36%
Balanced
On the edge
Out of balance
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balancing work and non-work activities. The study
revealed that the work life imbalance at the top
management level is in dangerous level. Most of the
employees at this level are working here after a long
stint in US companies and they bring in with them the
culture of overworking due to the demands of the
environment. Here also they mainly deal with the US
clients and this call for same kind of effort due to strict
timelines they have to follow. Once this becomes the
rule juniors are also not spared and slowly they will
become prey to the culture of overworking.
The same quiz was administered to a sample of 59
Homeopathy Medical Officers (HMO). As expected most
them had a better work/life balance compared to IT
business professionals. However interestingly we found
that lady HMOs were having more trouble in managing
work/life balance. Out of 42% who showed out of
balance (Figure 2), around 95% were women doctors
are suffering from acute level of work life imbalance.
Cultural factors also play an important role. In Indian
society, managing home and children and other home
chores are still the duty of women. This puts an extra
pressure on women professional like doctors, engineers,
architects and other professionals.
Managing self
Though lot of external factors can contribute to the
work-life imbalance, clearly defined work scheduling
and ability to compartmentalize work and non work
related activities can help an individual. The first thing
to do is to become aware of the problem. Then the
employee has to take a decision himself what is enough
for him in terms of money, success and satisfaction.
Then one has to fix boundaries and limits and adopt a
pattern that is justifiable based on each ones energy
level. The following are broad suggestions based on
work-life balance studies and experience of the authors.
Avoid bringing work to home - Try to finish job
activities at home itself. Although some aspects of work
life would be interesting to share with family or friends,
try to avoid discussing core work related issues and
brooding over them at home.
Try to spend time for physical exercise.
Create schedules for work related activities - Take
enough time for each activity and reduce postponing of
critical activities. Pending work gets the mind
preoccupied and tensed. Many feel that left over work
can be taken home.
Organize the work desk and coordinate with the work
related employees.
Try to organize emails and other communications It may be helpful if a fixed time of a day is spent on
replying to emails and other communication.
Take short breaks during work time - This will help
us to re charge our batteries.
Change completely when at home - Spend more
time with family members and discuss more issues
related to home and social life. It is important that time
is spent on leisurely activities and have a very different
family/social life apart from professional concerns.
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i. True
ii. False
9. I can't remember the last time I read and
finished a book that I was reading purely for
pleasure.
i. True
ii. False
10. I wish I had more time for some outside
interests and hobbies, but I simply don't.
i. True
ii. False
11. I often feel exhausted, even early in the week.
i. True
ii. False
12. I can't remember the last time I went to the
movies or visited a museum or attended some other
cultural event.
i. True
ii. False
13. I do what I do because so many people
(children, partners, parents) depend on me for
support.
i. True
ii. False
14. I've missed many of my family's important
events because of work-related time pressures and
responsibilities.
i. True
ii. False
15. I almost always bring work home with me.
i. True
ii. False
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Role of HR
HR department can play a crucial role in implementing
policies and practices that aids reduce work stress and
work-life imbalance. Few initiatives that HR can bring
forth are listed below.
Reduce unnecessary burden of fixed timings at work
- If some of the work can be done even at home during
office hours, enable the professionals to do so.
For example giving flexibility for employees to join
teleconferencing from home is a possibility.
Implement flexi timings - Focus on the work output
rather than the time spent in the office.
Reduce bureaucracy - Unnecessary time spent on
procedural issues like approvals should be reduced.
Allow women employees to work from home
especially during pregnancy and immediately after
childbirth.
Child care facilities - As child birth and child care is
seen as a major reason why women quit jobs, providing
the best facilities at work can help retain them.
Facilitating fun and relaxation - Parties and fun at
work place can provide some relief to the professionals.
Also leave option for traveling with family and
compulsory offs after fixed time of continuous work
should be implemented.
Providing health facilities at work place - Many large
organizations have health club facilities in the work place.
However it is important that individuals are encouraged
to use them.
Provision for taking breaks during work hours.
Building a culture of ownership - Getting the work
done through constant coercion and bossing should be
avoided and discouraged.
Providing facilities that aid travel related to work,
education of children, relocation related to work etc.
Clearly the stress at work and time spent on
bureaucratic procedures at work place can be reduced
to aid productivity of time crunched professionals.
In conclusion, we note that the issues related to work
life imbalance is prone to grow in the Indian scenario.
As our businesses try to be more competitive, the
pressure on the professionals will keep increasing. It is
imperative and high time that we spend enough efforts
on understanding how to balance work and non work
activities. The search for success without caring for
personal health and family happiness may sound doom
in the near future. The solution lies with sound planning
at individual level and initiatives from the organizations
to aid productivity of the new age employees.
HC
Anilkumar C. S is the Vice president- Corporate HR of Accel Transmatic Ltd,
Trivandrum. He was one of the promoters of Ushus Technologies Private Limited,
Technopark Trivandrum, which recently merged with Accel Transmatic Ltd. He
has rich experience in the manufacturing and software services industries. He
is involved in various training programmes including work-life balance. He is
also involved in teaching at the MBA level. He can be contacted at
anilkumarcs@yahoo.com
Sandeep K.Krishnan is a student of the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad pursuing Fellow Programme in Management. His area of study is
Personnel and Industrial Relations. He has published articles as book chapters
and in various journals of repute. He can be contacted at
sandeepk@iimahd.ernet.in
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