Introduction
In the modern world, the question of how to combine intense professional activity and personal life has become very relevant. This problem has become a concern for an increasing number of enterprises and their employees. The researchers noted an increase in the need for flexible working hours, working from home, or telecommuting. The constant deadline, the frantic pace of life, and the desire to be on time everywhere and all at once led people to the fact that they accumulate fatigue. Thus, even experienced professionals are not able to work constantly with high efficiency. The rhythm of work and the lack of rest do not allow the spent energy to be restored. If a person abandons his personal life, including interaction with family and friends, he loses his taste for life. Many people lose job satisfaction if they have to sacrifice their values or family. Work-life balance is an important indicator determining the ratio of time spent at work and home.
Inequality of Work and Family
The psychological balance between various spheres of a person’s life is a dynamic process and implies a constant desire to achieve it. The subjective sense of balance between work and personal life is associated with the objective contribution of time or human effort to each area. Still, it is impossible to talk about objective quantitative indicators of any region (Liu et al. 7). For each person, the optimal ratio between these two areas is individual. Thus, the problem arises of establishing the factors that determine the achievement of such a balance, as well as its place among other psychological characteristics of labor activity and human life as a whole.
Beyond family policy in the narrower sense, the labor market, educational and tax policies, and welfare systems are essential for a better work-family balance. In recent years, a large number of reforms have been carried out in politics, which directly or indirectly affected the balance between family and work. Examples include the introduction of parental benefits, the expansion of childcare services, and the increase in the number of full-time schools (Slaughter, Dorment). The question arises whether these and some other reforms followed a strict leitmotif. On the one hand, people are debating about the common goals and modes of action of political measures – planned and unintentional. On the other hand, one should talk about the linkage of individual reforms over time and the ability of changes to be connected to the general structure of political institutions.
In addition, women and men are often assigned certain gender norms. This separation creates an imbalance between maternity leave and parental leave that divides women and men into ‘typical’ work and family roles as viewed by society. This fact prevents men from living the part of a father and women from returning to work (Liu et al. 1-2). Both sexes want to work and have family time, but not everyone has an idea of what specific measures are needed for this.
Suggested Changes
Typically, when people talk about achieving work-life balance, they are talking about a work schedule that does not require them to sacrifice their time for longer work hours. Enabling workers to combine their non-work life with work — whether they spend that time caring for their mother or running marathons — will open the door to a broader range of influences and ideas (Slaughter). Creating this balance is often considered critical to employee well-being and superior organizational culture.
Now there is still an opinion that an effective employee spends all the time at his desk, and the more, the better this employee. Efficiency naturally peaks and falls for the day — people will not consistently demonstrate high productivity levels. By reducing the culture of “time macho,” employees will feel less stressed and more energized so that they will get the most out of their time off (Slaughter). The author of the article wonders if it is necessary to spend the inevitable additional hours directly in the office. She notes that some circumstances are certainly more effective if carried out personally (Slaughter). However, armed with email, instant messaging, telephones, and video conferencing technology, it is possible to move towards a culture in which the office is the base of operations rather than a necessary place of work.
Unpaid overtime is also linked to the established definition of professionalism and success when discussing early career building. Slaughter notes that the opinion about a successful career until the age of 45–55 is relevant for the 20th century but not for the modern world. Young people now grow up and start families much later than they used to; life expectancy has also risen from 71 years to 80 years (Slaughter). All this significantly changes priorities throughout life, so the definition of success, which is tied to age and over time, should be reconsidered.
Most people find it difficult to organize themselves in detail in their professional or family life. In addition, going back to work can be like starting over. The result is the same, but life with a child or a large family makes different demands, significantly impacting professional life and the person himself. Since most of the family work is done by women, hidden discrimination occurs, so the lack of reference to gender and family aspects has been widely criticized.
In today’s society, more and more fathers apply for parental leave, receiving a parental allowance and sharing the care of the child with the mother (Dorment). As a result, parents spend more time with their children, and fathers are also allowed to engage in their fathering role more intensively if they are on parental leave. In addition, it will help to relieve the woman in the household or offer her the opportunity to return to work in a more relaxed manner.
With these parental benefits, the family policy will aim to improve employees’ skills, reconcile work and family, and support fathers in childcare. In addition, incentives have been created for women to return to work soon after the birth of a child (Dorment). However, these services are not equally available to all parents (Slaughter). Considering parents in higher-income groups can afford to babysit at home longer than parents in lower-income groups, as long as a well-earning partner also contributes to the income.
Despite the rapidly developing and therefore changing society, it still cannot get rid of the ideas and sensations that have taken root in it. Both authors in their articles emphasize that women are more inclined to choose a family, and men are more likely to choose a career when they face such a choice. Young fathers usually feel left out if they decide to stay with the child while their wife goes to work (Dorment). However, men have become much more involved parents over the last couple of decades, and this also suggests broad support for significant changes in how women balance work and family (Slaughter). Thus, a paradigm shift towards an equal distribution of family responsibilities and childcare will help to abandon the difficult choice between family and work.
Conclusion
Ensuring a balance between different areas of life is seen as an important socio-political problem and a topical issue in terms of economic efficiency and organizational culture. It is also essential to talk about social, cultural, and educational topics to create a family culture. Women, men, business, politics, and society must work together for equality. It is the only way to create a framework that does not force employees to choose between work, career, and family and that is offered to all talented people, regardless of gender and age.
The main criterion for changing the concept of a successful career and a happy family life lies primarily in the process of changing society. The problem of allocating time and energy to both family and work is becoming more and more common among employees. However, this can be avoided by changing established workflow structures such as overwork and being in the office all the time to achieve early success. In addition, changing the vision of gender roles will greatly help women in their careers and improve the overall economic situation of the country. Outcomes in the family and career spheres depend on conformity or inconsistency at various levels of individual preferences and working conditions.
Works Cited
Dorment, Richard. “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All.” Esquire, 2020.
Liu, Pei, et al. “Predicting Work–Family Balance: A New Perspective on Person–Environment Fit.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 10, 2019.
Slaughter, Anne-Marie. “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 2022.