Achievement and enjoyment go hand-in-hand. Sometimes, balancing becomes more of compromises and sacrifices.

The times when only the husband earned and the woman cooked have totally changed. Today, the wife earns too; but she also cooks, washes and manages the house. Though the society is seeing an enormous improvement in the status of women in India, the traditional concept of a woman as a housewife stays adhered to the minds of the people, including the semi-modern Indian women. For a majority of them, having a baby is very important. It is then that a womans career sidesteps. When she tries to be a mom and a professional at the same time, sacrifices, compromises and the so called balancing all come in. Balancing career and family is not easy, but not impossible either. To bring about a balance between the two without having to choose one over the other, you need to simply make an effort towards it.

Work, family or personal life: Why not all three?

T. S. Sathyanarayana Rao and Vishal Indla1
Author information Copyright and License information

Work is taking over the lives of many of us in todays fast-paced, global environment, and if we do not guard ourselves against worklife imbalance, there could be increasing work family conflicts and stress resulting from long hours and workload escalation. Vacations are getting shorter and are often clubbed with work, or even worse, many do not have the time for a vacation. Quality family time is getting invaded by the omnipresence of media and the internet. It has been well established that most adults suffer adverse health effects from stress, and 7590% of all physician office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints. Stress is linked to the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide.[1] People who experience stress typically go through different stages and degrees of suffering and along the way they pass on their stress to their direct environment, their families, co-workers and friends. Research in the field of work and family has well established the spillover and crossover effects of stress affecting co-workers, spouses, children, and the community at large.[2] Decrease in work life balance has been linked to higher unwanted turnover, lower physical and psychological well-being, lower productivity, greater stress-related ailments, and the like. The Waste is immeasurable.

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MYTH OF THE IDEAL EMPLOYEE

Myth of an ideal employee perpetuated by the society creates intense time pressure, or what some refer to as a time famine,[3,4] which can lead to stress and job dissatisfaction, possibly creating workfamily conflict. The male model of work prescribes an ideal employee who is male, full-time, and continuously at work from the end of the education, fully committed to the organization, and without any responsibilities outside of work.[5] This model is no longer valid and has become outdated.[6] In addition, we can also observe a change in attitudes toward what constitutes a successful career, especially among the newer generations. The current generation started to question old assumptions about how work is done, how to show commitment, where and when to work, and how to advance in the company. Along with having a highly paid job, they strive for a more complete life that includes both a successful professional and a personal life. Organizations that monopolize the time of employees challenge the ability of employees to perform well in other important roles within the family and the community. The cover of Fortunes November 2005 issue was dedicated to the stress and burnout of the most elite group of employees within organizations today the senior executive level. In this issue, senior executives were surveyed about their issues of worklife balance. While 49% of respondents were self-confessed workaholics, 64% of respondents stated that at this stage of life, they would choose more time over money. The most profound result was that 87%of the respondents agreed that the companies that restructure senior management jobs in ways that would both increase productivity and make more time for a life outside the office would have a competitive advantage in attracting talent.
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CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS AND THE IMPACT ON WORKLIFE BALANCE

The percentage of women in the active work population has increased rapidly in many countries around the world, including ours. As a consequence, we have seen the proliferation of dual-income families where role expectations toward men and women, both in their work activities and their domestic responsibilities, have radically changed.[7] Apart from the many positive effects of womens integration into the work force, like the increase in nations productivity, the wealth and consumption power of families, the financial independence of women, and an improvement of gender equity, there are some negatives in the form of pressure on family time. Due to this new mix of gender equity, shifting role expectations, and family time scarcity, many men and women are required to find new ways to balance their professional and personal lives. Judging from the high rate of separations and divorces, many couples seem to struggle with the new reality. Separations of couples have resulted in an increasing prevalence of new family forms, like mono-parental and mixed families, in which two single parents together raise their children of previous

marriages. In these families, working men and women are experiencing increasing levels of workfamily conflict. Couples have started to postpone and control their procreative activity, resulting in an increasing average first childbearing age and a considerable reduction in fertility. These demographic trends suggest that individuals have less of a traditional support at home, i.e., one spouse taking care of the home, less of a child centered family life (i.e., children being a diversion from work) and more work centrality, especially among well-educated career professionals (i.e., self-worth may be originating more from work roles than other life roles). In other words, changes in workplace demographics may have created the potential for a strain on worklife balance and burn out. Some of these changes in the Indian family structure are amply reflected by the national consensus data. According to the 1981 census, the population growth was higher than the growth of households, a phenomenon which saw a turnaround in 1991 census which showed that the number of households grew at a faster pace than the population and this trend gathered further strength in 2001 census data. This perhaps indicates that nuclearization of families is growing in the society which is more evident in urban areas than in the rural, although happening in both the settings.[8]
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VARIOUS CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON WORKLIFE BALANCE

Cultures differ on the extent to which they focus on career success over quality of life or vice versa. In some cultures like ours, we are more likely to observe people who opt to work on weekends, take fewer and shorter vacations, answer emails and make work-related calls from home, while some of the western societies believe that different spheres of ones life may co-exist but should not interfere with each other. Also, additional compensation is not as motivating a reward as compared to additional vacation, in many of the developed economies, whereas the contrary is true for most of the developing economies like ours. The country with the lowest average annual hours worked is the Netherlands where the average employee works 1368 hours per year or the equivalent of 35 hours per week for 39 weeks of the year.[9] In India, though the working hours of various professions vary hugely, it can safely be said that the working hours are much more than in the west. The most important barrier, and probably the most difficult to overcome, is an unsupportive culture created by the underlying assumptions of the primacy of work.[10,11] These underlying assumptions create a work culture that prioritizes work over family, that rewards the ideal worker who will work long hours and meet client demands at all costs, and that equates productivity with time expended.[12,13] If we look at the history of how countries and work cultures evolve, it is interesting to note how people and policies initially focus excessively on the primacy of work during the boom phase of economy and then when the economy gets saturated, policies and the cultures shift toward enriching worklife balance. Japan is a prime example of this. In the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was derided for being nothing but a nation of workaholics who needed to get a life. But now, Japanese are a changed lot. More and more salary men are deciding not to go drinking with the boss. Some,

heeding government pleas for a greater worklife balance, are focusing on their homes and their hobbies, while others are taking sabbaticals or even dropping out of corporate life. Japanese women have decided not to have babies in a society where children mean the end of a career, the end of independence and a cut-throat struggle to get into the best kindergarten, then the best school and the best university. The average life expectancy in Japan at 82 years is one of the highest anywhere, while crime levels are among the lowest. The nations artistic life from Kabuki to cinema is exquisite and world famous. Income disparities are low. Tokyos 160,000 restaurants, for instance, boast more Michelin stars between them than those of Paris and New York City combined. So, while legions of salary men across the world are working themselves to death, plenty of Japanese are indulging their appetite for life.[14]
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IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON WORKLIFE BALANCE

Parallel to these changes in the workforce, work itself has undergone major changes over the last decades. Technology has created a sense that life is moving faster and that more and more activities are squeezed into shorter amounts of time. New technologies have made it possible to perform job tasks from everywhere at any time and have increased the number of interruptions during work as well as expectations of speedy replies, fragmenting time and indirectly, affecting productivity and also diminishing personal space and time. Many of us feel increasingly pressured to not only work faster but also work longer hours. While there is a tendency to think that the new array of gadgets that we are surrounded by in our daily life is a boon, the contrary may be true. The world would be more efficient, more educated, if we control technology and the technology does not control us.
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IMPLICATIONS OF WORKLIFE BALANCE

Individuals experiencing greater worklife balance have better health and wellness, greater organizational commitment, greater job satisfaction, better goal achievement, and family happiness. At the family level, work-life balance promotes greater marital and family stability, family cohesion, and marital and family happiness. Worklife balance reduces turnover, improves performance, and lowers the incidences of lateness and absenteeism. All of us should strive for policies and practices that create an enriching working environment. In the end, optimizing the harmony between the different spheres of life serves multiple purposes: economic, social, and ethical. Recent initiatives in this direction are on-site day care centers/creches which are convenient for employees with kids. Help from the organization with the time consuming and the less desirable chores like picking up the dry cleaning, going grocery shopping, paying bills can go a long way in improving productivity and Worklife balance.

To reduce the detrimental effects of a sedentary life style, many organizations are now equipping themselves with fitness centers that employees can use on work time to relieve stress, and a staff of doctors, nurses, and physical therapists available to the employees at any time, all at no expense to the employee. As a result of these Worklife balance implementations, the organizations enjoy an extremely low turnover rate of 3%, low absenteeism, and high employee and customer satisfaction.
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CONCLUSIONS
Work, family and personal life should be complimentary to each other and not conflicting with each other. Some are successful in their careers but fail in family and personal life, whereas some others who have a vibrant personal and family life are below par at work. Being successful in one sphere of life at the cost of the other is not a healthy sign. In the long run, family happiness and a decent personal life are key determinants of a successful career. A balancing act among these domains may not be as easy as we think, but a sincere attempt in this direction will definitely yield fruitful results. As professionals engaged in the mental health of people, it is important to consider Work life balance as a priority issue and make appropriate changes in the working conditions, thereby not only increasing the long-term productivity of communities but also protecting the social fabric of our society against irreversible damage. As stated by Xerox Corporation CEO Anne Mulacahy, Businesses need to be 24/7, individuals dont. So, when is your next vacation?
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Footnotes
Source of Support: Nil Conflict of Interest: None declared. Go to:

REFERENCES
1. American Psychological Association 1997. How does stress affect us? APA HelpCenter. How does stress affect us APA HelpCenter Available from: http://wwwhelpingapaorg/work/stress2html [Last retrived on 2003 Jab 07] 2. Allen TD, Herst DE, Bruck CS, Sutton M. Consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: A review and agenda for future research. J Occup Health Psychol. 2000;5:278 308. [PubMed] 3. Greenhaus JH, Beutell NJ. Sources of conflict between work and family roles. Acad Manage Rev.1985;10:7688.

4. Kossek EE, Lambert SJ. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 2005. Work and Life Integration: Organizational, Cultural, and Individual Perspectives. 5. Lewis J. Lone mothers: The British case. In: Lewis J, editor. Lone Mothers in European Welfare Regimes-Shifting Policy Logics. London: Jessica Kingsley; 1997. 6. Bailyn L, Harrington M. Redesigning work for work-family integration. Community Work Fam.2004;7:197208. 7. Bond JT, Galinsky E, Swangberg JE. New York: Families and Work Institute; 1998. The 1997 National Study of changing workspace. 8. Census 2001: Data Highlights. Available from: http://www.censusindia.gov.in/./datahighlights_hh1_2_3.pdf [last accessed on 2001] 9. Jacobs J, Gornick J. Working paper. Philadelphia, PA USA: University of Pennsylvania; 2001. Hours of paid Work in Dual-Earner Couples: The U.S. in Cross-National Perspective. 10. Lewis S, Cooper C. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons;; 2005. Work-Life Integration: Case Studies of Organizational Change. 11. Thompson CA, Beauvais LL, Lyness KS. When work-benefits are not enough: The influence of work-family culture on benefit utilization, organizational attachment, and work-family conflict. J Vocat Behav. 1999;54:392415. 12. Bailyn L. New York: Free Press; 1993. Breaking the Mold: Women, Men and Time in the New Corporate World. 13. Williams J. New York: Oxford University Press; 2000. Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It. 14. Clifford ML. Vol. 176. Asia: Time Magazine; 2010. Crisis? What Crisis? (Commentary) p. 5.
Firstpost Business

Corporate India steps up security for

women after Delhi rape case

by FP Staff Dec 21, 2012
#Delhi rape #ICICI Bank #India Inc #Safety #ToWhatEffect #wipro #Women
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Also see Politics can wait: Don't look away from Delhi rape victim 'Rape is an extension of how we treat women in our homes' Why women will continue to be raped in India (Part 2)
The Delhi gang rape has left the entire nation in shock, including corporate India which is now beefing up safety for women employees with more mass pepper spray supply , gizmos, 247 helplines etc. Companies are also giving karate classes to female staff, as part of the empowerment drive. According to a report in the Economic Times, to ensure women employees feel secure India Inc is doing all it can like organising escorts to take them home safe, holding self-defence workshops and even allowing them to leave early. As part of annual training schedules, both HCL Tech and Aegis are conducting workshops in self-defence, while administrative teams have opened shops in office premises to facilitate the sale of pepper spray.

HCL Tech and Aegis are conducting workshops in self-defence. AFP While ICICI Bank has conducted several meetings to figure out ways of assuring the safety of their women, female employees at Marutis Gurgaon office have come together to share their safety concerns with SY Siddiqui, chief operating officer of HR, among other functions, another ET report said. Companies like Accenture, HSBC and Aegis either ensure that a male security guard drops women employees if they are travelling alone or drivers are not allowed to deviate from the travel plan and a security guard has a walky-talky which is always switched on and has to maintain regular contacts with the transport department. After Wipro BPO employee Jyotikumari Choudharys gang-rape and murder in November 2007, the company came up with multi-level safety measures to ensure that such incidences are avoided in the future. Wipro runs late night cabs at scheduled times. Routes and every cab is registered with the transport department and each vehicle has a security guard in it who accompanies the lady employee to the doorstep. The company has also introduced a vehicle-tracking system that enables companys security officials to monitor and track the location of the cabs ferrying employees and has a 24X7 toll-free support number on which employees can report about an emergency. Yebhi.com also ensures women are not the last to be dropped or the first to be picked up in office taxis, the ET report said. NDTV, on the other hand, has hourly shuttles to pick up employees from various points during the day. All employees are entitled to pick-up and drop-off during dark hours. Though the safety of women travelling during night by company-arranged cabs is quite ensured by many firms, centralised scrutiny of all office vehicles by a GPS system, assisted by police patrol at night is needed. Last year, the Delhi police made it mandatory for employers to deploy security guards in cabs ferrying women during night. But some BPOs and corporates in the national capital were seen trying to bend the official directive in order to cut costs. But with increasing number of crimes against women in Gurgaon and Haryana, the city police has decided to visit each and every multi-national and BPO company to inspect the current situation and note down the safety issues of women working in these companies.

Indias women face daily harassment

January 21 2013 at 01:51pm By Ammu Kannampilly Comment on this story

AP Indian men watch as a woman protests outside the court where the accused in a gang rape of a 23-year-old woman are to be tried, in New Delhi. New Delhi On a wintry evening in Delhi, beautician Geeta Misarvan leaves work, steeling herself for a long wait until a bus arrives, and with it the dreaded prospect of being groped by strangers during the ride home. Once a guy sees you travelling alone, he will come and stand right behind you. Then, he will lean in and press his body against yours and try to touch you, Misarvan said, describing an ordeal endured daily by many women in urban India. In Delhi's crowded coaches, where men easily outnumber women, the sense of hostility and fear is particularly palpable in the wake of the widely-discussed gangrape and murder of a young student on a moving bus in the city last month. It's terrifying, Misarvan told AFP. Sometimes I just lose it and ask the guy to stand properly but then he just yells at you, telling you to shut up. It's upsetting, but what more can I do? If the guy gets even more aggressive or violent, no one on that bus is going to help me... so I just put up with it and wait for my bus stop, she said. Once 34-year-old Misarvan steps off the bus, she hunts for an auto-rickshaw, threewheeled vehicles which are cheaper than taxis, since it's too dark and unsafe to make the 35-minute walk alone to her house. On most evenings it takes her 90 minutes to arrive home from work.

India's expanding economy has seen unprecedented numbers of women join the workforce, but their emergence has been accompanied by growing threats to their security. Like many working women, Poonam, a 21-year-old barista at an upmarket coffee shop in the capital, often stays late serving customers and says her parents fret nonstop about her comings and goings, calling her every night. I try to get an auto-rickshaw (home) because it's safer but the drivers haggle for double pay and I can't always afford it. So I end up waiting late at night for the bus, which never arrives on time, she told AFP. Once on board, Poonam, who declined to give her surname, says that sexual harassment is a constant risk. There's nothing you can do about it, if you tell your family, chances are they will just tell you to stay home, she said. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that economic progress is impossible without the active participation of women, but there are signs that the Delhi gang-rape case has led some to turn their backs on the workplace. A survey by industry group ASSOCHAM published this month showed a 40 per cent fall in the productivity of female employees at call centres and IT firms in the country because many had reduced their hours or had quit their jobs. Insensitive comments from politicians implying women are to blame for sexual assaults and clumsy safety tips from police have only fuelled anger among commuters. A Delhi Police advisory posted on its official website suggests that women should turn off prospective attackers by vomiting or acting crazy. Just days after the December 16 gang-rape, KP Raghuvanshi, a senior police officer in Mumbai told female college students to carry a packet of chilli powder with them always and use it when threatened, the Press Trust of India reported. While trains in Mumbai and Delhi run segregated women-only coaches in response to the high incidence of sexual harassment, many have now called for more vigilance by authorities and frequent police checks.

Police and prosecutors have outlined how the student and her male companion struggled to find transport to go home and so agreed to climb aboard the bus driven by the rapists. The group allegedly beat up the man and repeatedly raped and assaulted the victim with a rusting metal bar in the back of the bus while driving around Delhi for some 45 minutes. Five adults were due to go on trial on Monday on charges of rape and murder in connection with the attack. Since the attack, beautician Misarvan, who often boarded similar privately-run buses to visit her widowed mother in west Delhi, says she is too afraid to keep doing so and now spends more to take an auto-rickshaw instead. Like her other female colleagues, she tries to leave work as early as possible and expresses no faith in the Indian police's ability to protect her. Nowhere in this country is safe, says the mother of two, the first woman in her family to have a job. I worry a lot about my daughter growing up here, whether she will have to endure the same problems, the same risks that I deal with every time I leave my house, she added. - Sapa-AFP