Background
Finding the balance between work and life is one of the major struggles people face nowadays. Many factors explain such a condition, but the most important among them are changes in the labor market’s demographic composition, increased quantity and pace of work, and surged competition (Bataineh, 2019). Moreover, it is argued that technological advancement, although associated with many benefits, has blurred the borders between the time for work and time for leisure (Adisa et al., 2017). As such, from the organizational perspective, problems in establishing work-life equilibrium may have a negative impact both on employee health and performance (Maryville University, n.d.). Therefore, many organizations seek to promote healthy attitudes among their workers. In this regard, the current paper intends to analyze how The Home Depot this issue and what is the impact of the existing company structure for work-life balance on the employees and their performance. Additionally, the recommendations on the steps that the organization can take to enhance its associates’ work-life balance and productivity will be discussed.
Work-Life Balance in the Home Depot
The Home Depot and its emphasis on prioritizing the interests of its customers and workers over those of the top managers logically imply that the company should be highly concerned with a work-life balance problem. Indeed, Arthur Blank – one of the organization’s co-founders – mentions that he always sought to raise awareness concerning the equilibrium between work and life among his subordinates (Schafer, 2018). Yet, some research indicates that The Home Depot addresses this issue not as successful as it would seem to be and is ranked 17th among 25 big companies in this respect (Akhtar, 2020). In particular, one of the major problems that I could identify is unbalanced schedules for part-time workers. Moreover, due to business seasonality, many employees have to overwork during the spring periods. Finally, there are no clear regulations concerning off-hours communication, which blurs professional and private life borders. On the contrary, however, The Home Depot invests significant financial resources into associate training and technology development, increasing productivity.
Impact on Employees
The previous research shows that the lack of equilibrium between work and personal life can have a negative impact on employee performance. For instance, Gautam and Jain (2018) mention that work-life imbalance leads to reduced job satisfaction which, in turn, is associated with a worker’s de-motivation, exhaustion, and feeling that his or her job is meaningless. In a similar vein, Deshpande et al. (2020) maintain that this issue is related to reduced effectiveness of employee training and development and higher retention rates. Therefore, it can be concluded that the employee engagement with the company goals and values drops due to work-life imbalance.
As for The Home Depot, it is difficult to make general conclusions without a comprehensive survey or interview with the workers, but my personal experience and observations prove the scientific findings. For example, I know several cases when part-time workers decided to resign due to an unbalanced work schedule. They claimed that the latter interferes with their personal lives because of fluctuating working hours and salary. Moreover, I noticed that during busy seasons my colleagues are less satisfied with the work and, as a consequence, do not feel quite motivated. Although it is difficult for me to assess the extent of the performance drop due to de-motivation, I think it is relatively significant. Finally, from my personal experience, I can argue that when I have off-hours communications with my manager or colleagues, I feel less relaxed and, as a result, less willing to work the next day. Thus, it can be concluded that the work-life balance problem reduces the overall productivity of my organization.
Similar to a negative impact on performance, the lack of equilibrium between professional and private lives diminishes employee well-being. The latter includes a weakened immune system, increased feeling of fatigue, and heightened risks of stroke and heart attack (Maryville University, n.d.). Moreover, it can lead to the appearance of mental issues such as depression and anxiety (Vyas & Shrivastava, 2017; Sprung & Rogers, 2021). However, I can neither prove nor reject these research findings from my personal observations as there are no obvious links between work-life imbalance and reduced well-being. On the one hand, it is explained by the fact that depressed people or those having health problems may experience these symptoms because of other problems – not necessarily due to a lack of work-life equilibrium. On the other hand, those workers who may have known problems with balancing personal and professional time may not reveal their true feelings. As for me, though, I know that when I have to overwork or my boss is texting me during non-working hours, I feel more anxious.
From a longer-term perspective, The Home Depot’s work-life balance management is not quite sustainable. Although the problems described above refer less to the full-time employees and the company generally has a good corporate culture that often overweight the issues caused by work-life imbalance, there are some problems. For example, because this issue is more pronounced among part-time workers, The Home Depot may lose valuable specialists who would be dissatisfied with the company’s treatment. This, in turn, would lead to a more negative perception of the organization in the labor market. Additionally, reduced employee well-being and performance can potentially undermine The Home Depot’s culture and, as a consequence, lead to the loss of the competitive advantage. Therefore, there are certain aspects that the business can improve to ensure greater sustainability.
Recommendations
Although The Home Depot invests significant financial and labor resources into increasing employee efficiency through technological innovations, there are also some other methods to achieve better performance. For instance, the company can organize the work-shops that would teach the subordinates how to address the work-life imbalance through the increased mindfulness. In this regard, Althammer et al. (2021) found that a three-week-long training intervention helped people detach from work more easily, reduced psychological work-life conflict, and increased overall satisfaction. Moreover, The Home Depot can “put a ban on the work-related use of communicative devices after working hours” – a policy already successfully adopted in some big companies (Von Bergen & Bressler, 2019, p. 55). Last but not least, the company can train managers to have more effective communications with their subordinates which is found to increase the latter’s performance (Newman et al., 2020). Therefore, in short, it is suggested that The Home Depot should emphasize more on work-life balance and better communications promotion.
Additionally, as mentioned earlier, The Home Depot uses innovations and technologies to enhance people’s productivity, but greater efforts may be made to promote work-life balance in particular. For example, the company can use technology to enhance awareness and mindfulness further. As the development of an application may be costly, the organization can use products available on the market, such as Headspace, Calm, and Insight Time apps, to name a few. Jaspar Weir (2019) – the co-founder and president of TaskUs – has already implemented this solution in his company and seen significant improvements. Furthermore, the organization can organize internal ideation contests regarding the promotion of work-life balance through innovation. This approach has been proven an effective method to introduce fresh ideas by numerous studies (Campos-Blázquez et al., 2020). As a result, the leaders of The Home Depot would ensure the generation of multiple alternative solutions and the inclusion of various views into the decision-making process.
Reference
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