Worklife Balance Essay

1951 Words8 Pages
Explanation of the issue Work-life balance has always been a concern for those interested in the quality of working life as well as its relations to the broader aspects of life. In the contemporary world, work-life balance has become a growing concern, especially in affluent societies whereby excessive demands of work is overwhelming. This is due to factors such as rapid advancements in information technology which facilitates information flow, calling for the need for quicker response to customer request. A survey conducted by JobStreet revealed that Singaporeans suffer a depressing work-life balance with 88% of the 650 respondents disclosing they work beyond official working hours. (Singapore Business Review, 2012) While I was attached to Australian and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) private banking division in Singapore as a short-term contract worker, I realized that most ANZ employees worked for long hours daily with some even exceeding the maximum number of twelve working hours permitted daily (Ministry of Manpower, 2013). The amount of stress is detrimental to their health and well-being. As a result, absenteeism increases due to employees falling sick more frequently and this undermines work productivity. Also, long working hours deprive the workers from quality interactions with their family which might potentially result in work-family problems. There are essentially four main theories used to explain the work family linkage: Segmentation, Compensation, Spillover and Border. Segmentation theory perceives work and family as being independent and do not affect each other (Blood & Wolfe, 1996). Compensation theory suggests that workers try to compensate for the lack of satisfaction in one domain (work or family) by trying to look for more satisfaction in the other (Lambert 1990). Spillover theory proposes workers carry the emotions, attitudes,
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