Balancing work and personal life can be difficult, especially in today’s ever-changing world. Many prefer to choose only one thing, such as a career, because not everyone can simultaneously be a successful worker and parent. On the Internet, one can find quite many pictures that demonstrate the problem of finding a balance between work and home. Authors play with this theme in different ways, depicting both a married couple and just one individual. The image chosen shows that to maintain a balance, one must be able to perform the two roles — worker and parent.
On the left side is a woman whose body is divided into two parts. Her left side portrays her as a businesswoman, a responsible and serious worker. The right part of her body shows what she is like when she needs to perform her domestic duties (Figure 1). The man next to her is depicted similarly as he also maintains control over two areas of life. The similarity in the way the two characters are portrayed may indicate a connection between them. It is possible that the author wanted to demonstrate how a family with young children and both parents working looks like schematically. In addition, the picture reflects the equality of roles of a man and a woman — they can both combine career and personal life. This is an important detail because there are still strong stereotypes that, for example, careerists cannot be good parents, especially when it comes to women.
Another critical point is that in both drawings, the characters have six arms each. This feature shows viewers that these two employees need to do more than the average person. Humans only have two hands, but to fulfill so many obligations would require having more hands, that is, becoming superhuman. The author thinks that a complete work-home balance is impossible unless some commitments are delegated. In addition, it is interesting that the author does not support sexist stereotypes that only females should take care of household chores. In the picture, both the man and the woman are cooking (Figure 1). The male character on the right cleans the house, and the female character irons the clothes (Figure 1). That is, a healthy relationship implies that the responsibilities between the couple are shared equally.
The picture emphasizes the idea that to maintain a balance, people must be able to switch between the two roles constantly. At the same time, the number of household and work responsibilities should be approximately equal. One area of life should not take precedence over the other — this couple has three work responsibilities and three household responsibilities each. It seems symbolic that both characters are smiling, which may mean that they have managed to find a balance between work and home (Figure 1). However, as noted earlier, they had to become superhuman to do this, possessing six arms and being able to switch between the two roles. It might have been difficult for ordinary people to cope with such a workload, but if they still want to find balance, they must try hard and work on themselves.
Thus, the author skillfully demonstrated that the essence of maintaining a balance between home and work is the ability to switch from one role to the other. In addition, the image emphasizes that achieving this goal is a complicated process requiring a lot of work. The author also avoided the stereotype that cooking or cleaning are traditionally women’s responsibilities, keeping the feminist message in the picture. The smile on the characters’ faces symbolizes that finding balance allows people to become happier.
Work Cited
Lewis, Michelle. “Are You Working from Home, or Living at Work?” MobileCorp, Web.