A balancing act

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/06/2022 (827 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Life sometimes seems like a balancing act in an effort to juggle kids, careers, aging parents and endless other responsibilities. Throw in a global pandemic and we teeter even closer to tipping the scales.

or Karen Duncan, associate professor in the University of Manitoba’s community health sciences department, paid work is important — but so, too, is leisure time.

“People are experiencing a lack of balance among these activities in their lives and it can lead to a number of negative outcomes such as lower satisfaction with family, relationships and life in general,” she said.

“It’s also been shown to have negative health effects such as stress, poor sleep, depression and poor coping mechanisms such as addictive behaviour. If I’m not paying attention to this, I could be on the road to some serious health difficulties.”

For those in the 40-plus demographic, it’s often a life stage filled with many demands.

“There may be children who need attention or older family members who need increasing levels of care. There may be financial stresses. Work itself can be demanding because it’s a time when people are looking to advance their careers,” Duncan said.

“I think work-life balance has been much more difficult in the pandemic for people in this demographic. It’s phenomenally difficult trying to continue your paid work while you are taking care of your children, particularly for single parents.”

Katherine Breward, associate professor in the University of Winnipeg’s business department, said persistently high stress will lead to burnout typified by diminished personal achievement, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization — and all of these things can negatively impact the work environment.

Beyond that, Breward said a lack of work-life balance disrupts life in other undesirable ways that can lead to family conflicts, anxiety, guilt and a lack of availability to family members.

“I think it is important that these personal emotional and social impacts on the broader family are recognized in addition to business impacts,” she said, adding that changes to expectations for parenting styles might also contribute to the problem.

“There is a lot of research that suggests females are more negatively impacted by work-life issues than men (although both are affected), due primarily to ongoing gender-related imbalances in childcare and domestic work responsibilities.

”For those sandwiched in the middle of competing demands, self-care is a good place to start — although Breward acknowledges it might not always be possible due to time constraints.

“Really, though, the help needs to come more from employers. We need to have more realistic workplace expectations, paid sick and mental health days and paid days off for family care,” she said.

“Offering flextime can really help since it gives people more flexibility to attend to family appointments and other needs. Work-from-home options can also help if people have a suitable space in which to work.”

Although there’s a tendency to put responsibility on individuals, Duncan agrees employers have a role to play.

“Research shows employers incur costs when their employees are experiencing work-life conflict. There’s a real bottom-line incentive for employers to have policies in place that are going to be helpful to their employees’ work-life balance,” she said.

“It’s so tempting to think of this as an individual thing but, really, it’s societal. Work-life balance is not a luxury for those who can afford it — it is essential for everyone.”

Karen Duncan, associate professor in the University of Manitoba’s health sciences department