Work Life Balance (WLB)

You may be just a person for the world, but for your family, you are the World.

Some good companies have realized the importance of ‘Work Life Balance’. They don’t want their workers to suffer from burnout. For example, some companies have gone to the extent of turn off employees’ email 30 minutes after their shifts are over. Others have issued new guidelines so that employees are not contacted about work matters after working hours. Many organizations have told their workers to stop working over the weekends. The question arises, why this sudden concern for ‘Work Life Balance’? Because the problems of the employees cut into productivity and hurt the bottom line of the company. And when experienced workers leave for companies with conducive work culture, it is very expensive to replace them. Many companies offer a lot many perks like free snacks, juices, meals, liberal sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave and compulsory vacation so that their employees spend sufficient quality time with their families and are able to take care of them in addition to just earning for them. Many software companies have opted for flexi-hours and are happy as long as the work gets done on time. Some of them even give the option of working from home also. This provides a big saving on the resources of the company and the employee saves travelling time. It is the responsibility of the leadership of the company to ensure that their employees are always highly energized and full of enthusiasm and this is possible if they have a happy family life.

Work Life Balance means more productivity and therefore more profits with reduced stress.

Majority of the bosses are enlightened today and have realized that their management style has to be such that the company survives in the market and makes good profits and that is possible only if the employees are happy. Fun is an important part of the work culture in a large number of companies now. This eliminates stress from the lives of employees. An offsite/outbound program for the employees and sometimes even with their families can work like a spice in the monotonous working in the office and can result in increased team bonding and rejuvenation of employees. There are inverted examples of WLB also where I know some people who have taken so many responsibilities at home and in the society they live that they are neglecting their office commitments. I have seen a neighbour of mine often bunking his office to do all sorts of personal jobs like picking his sister-in-law from the airport, attending his society meetings.

and even picking packed lunch for his wife and delivering at home at times. His full evenings are busy with TV serials or movies or for doing home work for his kids. He is probably having an excellent family life but then he is neglecting his job and hasn’t got a promotion in last 10 years. My guess is that if there is a market slump and the company has to present a pink slip to some of the employees, my neighbour will be the first on the list. You can imagine his plight in that case and that of his family too. Having read the paragraphs above, if you realize that you are having a very good WLB, let me congratulate you and request you to help people who are caught badly between their job demands and family demands. Good WLB means doing an excellent job at the office and contributing to the growth of the company where you work. After all, the tuition fee for your children, the petrol for your car, your kitchen and all the fancy gadgets you are enjoying, everything is there from the salary that you draw from the company and therefore, you have to be fully dedicated and devoted for the growth of your organization.

A typical day with a good ‘Work Life Balance’ may be :
1. Office/Factory Job: 8 hours
2. Travelling Time for Duty. 2 hours
3. Sleep: 7 hours
4. Personal exercise/yoga/hygiene: 2 hours
5. Specific responsibilities of dependents:1 hour
6. Breakfast , Lunch and Dinner: 1 hour
7. Time for family, friends and society: 2 hours
8. Self Study/hobby pursuits/personal jobs: 1 hour

PS: This is just a guideline that needs to be changed based on your own environment.

Dwarka Parichay feel honoured to have Mr. Veerendra K Jaitly on advisory panel.

Note: Dwarka Parichay invites excellence from fields like social, literature, education, science, IT, Business etc. who are willing to serve society despite their busy schedule. Please send brief profile with photograph for publishing at Dwarka Parichay.
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