What Is The Relationship Between Paid Work And Unpaid Responsibilities

Work-life balance has been a popular topic for employees across all age and occupations for years, representing a rising concern of contemporary human resource management and labor policies. This topic has attracted the attention from the millennium generation, who is stepping into the market and beginning to grow a career. Therefore considering the increasing demand, well-designed workforce planning with diverse scheduling options offered to employees appears to be extra credits for most companies. This research paper aims to communicate the positive effects of four-day workweek, and providing support for why employers should adopt this schedule for employees and themselves through 1) introducing background and history of four-day workweek as a work schedule option and 2) demonstrating benefits of four-day workweek from both employer and employees’ perspectives.

Thirty-eight percent of Americans report some tension between their work and home lives. Today’s highly publicized work/life balance conflicts are multiple, and their nature differs significantly depending on the jobs individuals have and on their family situations. Tensions between work and family life clearly have implications for the well-being of individuals and their children and ramifications for society in general. Yet because the personal needs, desires, motivations, and economic circumstances of Americans are so varied, there appears to be no single way to resolve these tensions, no universal best practices with regard to work/life balance. For example,

In the case brought to us in the text, it gave us two examples of employees seeking work life balance. The first example is a man that has risen in the ranks at his company. Instead of having less working as he had thought, he faced much longer work hours with very little time with his family. In the second example a woman is looking at changing companies and in her negotiations she negotiates items such as a flexible work schedule. Although this option works well for the women it does not work for every employee.

Work-life balance is a concept that supports the efforts of employees to split their time and energy between work and the other important aspects of their lives. It is a daily effort to make time for family, friends, community participation, spirituality, personal growth, self-care, and other personal activities, in addition to the demands of the workplace. Work-life balance will vary for each person and will change throughout life.

During my sixth week doing the internship at the DOL (VETS), the team and I was looking at students resumes to see who are the best candidates to be potential interns and work studies for the summer semester. All the spring interns are graduating this year in May. The outreach team wants to get students that are responsible and willing to help the veterans.

It is imperative that the employee can balance his/her working life against his/her personal life. With sufficient time off and rest periods, employees will feel “looked after” and be motivated to put in more effort. There will be a reduction of mistakes because the employee has had adequate rest which results in a more positive working environment. Employers who introduce such practices in the work place in order to help employees achieve a better and satisfactory work/life balance can expect to see an increase in motivation, enhanced performance/productivity and greater staff loyalty. By implementing a positive work/life balance, companies are successful, secure a good reputation and promote positive employee relations. The Working Time Regulations 1998 stipulates that employers should provide employees with the following basic rights:

Everyone has been told from one time or another – don’t bring your personal life to work, and vice-versa. Easier said than done. In our current economy, families are having to work harder, and longer thus leaving less time for family and creating stress and anxiety. One thing that has statistically shown why people are stressed at work and home – the instability of work-life balance. This paper exemplifies the barriers and measures one can take to secure the balance.

It is important for employers to ensure that their staff can maintain a work-life balance and this will provide its own benefits for them, such as:

It is noted that employees spend a large amount of their time at work. Work is becoming more than just a 9-5, but a place work longevity friendships are created. Also created is what the article termed as workaholism, reporting that workaholism not only cause a great deal of stress but can also cause mental fatigue and physical somatic systems. All of these aliments can hinder spiritualty – which can lead to absence, low performance, and a financial hit for the company. The financial components include medical expenses, loss of productivity, health insurance.

Unpaid work is a key theme emphasized in Stanford’s text Economics for Everyone. The importance of unpaid work is explained in a variety of ways throughout the chapters. The unequal distribution of unpaid work, towards women, is highlighted for being an outdated social norm. Stanford enlightens readers on the reality of how unpaid work significantly affects economics. The content shows that if unpaid work in the economy was properly understood, it could influence a change in the way the economy is evaluated. The current economic evaluation tool, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), strongly influences social policies, particularly for women, ultimately affecting their ability to participate fully in the paid workforce. Stanford expresses adjustments that need to be made concerning how economists perceive unpaid work. The author accentuates this issue in the final chapter by listing unpaid work in his A Dozen Big Things to Remember About Economics chapter. The following paper will provide details about why unpaid work is a vital issue in the economy.

Companies whose organizational design supports its employees’ work-life balance may be more financially successful than those that does otherwise. Many employees consider work-life balance more important than the monetary reward. Employees with a balanced personal and professional life demonstrate a better job performance than those who feel “pressured” in either their personal or professional life. In ideal situations, employer demands and employee’s ideal work situation rarely meet the middle ground, those who do, perceive that they are in control.. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Healthcare Clinic’s organizational design based on the employees’ work-life balance.

Moreover, the author used RELATE to measure work-family conflict (WFC), marital satisfaction and constructive and destructive

When working in an organisation it is important to maintain a work-life balance. This means that you are able to separate work life from your home life. It is important when working in an organisation to put in as much effort as possible into your role and to achieve goals that you have set yourself to impress employers and earn personal satisfaction. When you are in a work place for long periods of time it can be hard to shut off emotions that you are feeling at work ready for when you go home this means that when you go home sometimes you may still feel as though you are still at work, even if you enjoy your job this can be hard to deal with and can become too much for some people to handle. Not being able to maintain a work-life balance can leave people feeling upset and in some cases could cause depression.

In today's expensive world, needs of the people are growing day by day. To fulfil all their desires, money is an important factor. Therefore, to some people, salary is the first thing to look at when choosing a job. To an extent, this can be considered right, but, I cannot totally rely on the amount of money I am being paid for my work. There are various other factors to be seen when looking for a job. Some of them are discussed in the below paragraphs.

The article I read, How Society Pays When Women’s Work is Unpaid, was written by Claire Cain Miller published in the New York Times, 2016. The article discusses how women spend more time at home doing chores and do not receive any pay for it since the work around the house is not really considered real work. Whereas men spend less time or no time doing house work and more time in a job and receiving pay for their work. The article also mentions how important the unpaid work women perform at home is for societies to function. it also talks about how Ms. Gates, Bill Gate’s wife, started a foundation to help reduce gaps in unpaid work, since in many countries, it is mainly women doing all the housework and if men do help around the house it’s