A recent survey conducted by Universum Communication found that work-life balance is No.1 on the list of short-term career goals amongst professionals. But while work-life balance is an increasingly popular term, many of us are still unsure about how to achieve it, or lack the confidence to approach employers to negotiate flexible working hours. Work-Life Balance for Dummies will offer readers advice and simple strategies to achieve more balance whatever their situation. Discover how to: Work out your priorities Put off procrastination and improve your time management Move your boss towards work-life balance Cast your net wider and change jobs and employers Plan a relocation About the author Jeni Mumford is the author of Life Coaching For Dummies. She is a personal life coach who works with both individuals and organisations on personal development. She runs holistic coaching events in the UK and Italy and is an accredited NLP practitioner.

Work-life balance is one of the most important issues facing employers and managers today. Employees at all levels are no longer willing to trade their quality of life in order to get a decent standard of living. Managers can no longer afford to ignore the costs that the long-hours culture imposes on their organisation. Overwork causes stress-related absenteeism, poor retention levels, low creativity, appalling customer service and unethical employee behaviour. Combine that with the risks of being sued by a stressed employee or a parent who wanted to work flexibly, and the business case for paying real attention to work-life issues has never been stronger. This text sets out the roadmap for moving your organisation towards a positive work-life culture. With clear and practical advice for HR and line managers alike, Managing Work-Life Balance shows you how to engage employers, managers and employees in the process of controlling the inherent conflicts between the worlds of work and home.

At the risk of sounding frivolous, there is a good case to be made for the argument that women constitute the revolutionary force behind contemporary social and economic transformation. It is in large part the changing role of women that explains the new household structure, our altered demographic behaviour, the growth of the service economy and, as a consequence, the new dilemmas that the advanced societies face. Most European countries have failed to adapt adequately to the novel challenges and the result is an increasingly serious disequilibrium. Women explicitly desire economic independence and the societal collective, too, needs to maximise female employment. And yet, this runs up against severe incompatibility problems that then result in very low birth rates. Our aging societies need more kids, yet fertility levels are often only half of what citizens define as their desired number of children. No matter what happens in the next decade, we are doomed to have exceedingly small cohorts that, in turn, must shoulder the massive burden of supporting a retired baby-boom generation. Hence it is tantamount that tomorrow’s adults be maximally productive and, yet, the typical EU member state invests very little in its children and families.

Identifies a set of personal interventions that employees commonly use to increase their work-life balance and life satisfaction.

Work-life balance is a key part of a healthy and productive work environment. An individual who achieves this balance successfully dedicates an equal amount of time to work-related tasks and personal matters without experiencing stress or becoming overwhelmed. Maintaining a work-life balance helps reduce stress and helps to prevent burnout in the workplace. Long-term pressure is one of the workplace's most common health issues. It can lead to physical symptoms such as diabetes, digestive disorders, chronic pain, and heart problems.

Work-life balance picks up where conventional time management stops. After you have prioritised ruthlessly, learned how to delegate, dealt with interruptions, managed your managers, planned and reviewed and still find you are overworked then it is time to try something else. Use this book to re-establish control over your life and to understand the impact of work pressures and issues in your personal life, it will show you how to: audit your work-life balance to find out which areas are really causing you the most tension establish what you want out of your work and your life outside work, this is important because your aspirations change allocate time and other resources to ensure that work and life outside work are given the right priorities with reference to your emotional commitment deal with the expectations of others cope with specific issues such as: the long-hours culture, dealing with excessive workloads, working in a caring profession as well as being a teacher. The book outlines a range of strategies to help teachers to achieve the right work-life balance for them. It can also be used for whole school staff development programmes – after all work-life balance is the responsibility of head-teachers and governors too.

This innovative and thought-provoking Research Handbook explores the theoretical debate surrounding work–life balance, and provides a reflection on the opportunity to adopt multilevel research approaches and perspectives, along gender and temporal axes. The Research Handbook is an international overview of current research on work-life balance, considered in macro, meso and micro perspectives.

What are the effects of conflict between home and work? Does work stress affect those who live with you? In the rapidly changing modern work environment, time pressures seem ever increasing and new technology allows work to be conducted any time and anywhere. These are just two of the factors that make it more and more difficult for working men and women to integrate work and home life. Consequently, there is a need for flexible and innovative solutions to manage the work-home interface. Work-Life Balance: A Psychological Perspective presents up-to-date information on work-home issues, including the latest research findings. The book’s emphasis is strongly psychological, with a focus on practical solutions, and includes chapters which deal with psychological issues such as the conflict between work and family, how work stresses may affect partners, and recovery from work. It also includes sections on legal issues, as well as examples of initiatives being implemented by leading employers. Contributors are drawn from the leading researchers in their fields and reflect the international character of the current challenges facing employers and employees. Its practical focus and innovative approach make this an essential book for managers, HR professionals and organizational psychologists, as well as students in these disciplines. The theoretical basis and research focus mean the book will also be invaluable for researchers investigating workplace issues.

As we begin the twenty-first century, UK employees work the longest hours in Europe. Workplace stress and home responsibilities are among the top five causes of absence from work. Yet work-life balance has emerged as a key concern for employers, policy makers and the media. This edited volume contains findings from 14 research projects within the ESRC's Future of Work Programme. The research examines the notion of employment flexibility and the effects of gender and care responsibilities on work and work performance. Conflicting needs of employers and employees and the gender divisions in work and family life call into question the feasibility of achieving the Government's aim of work-life balance for everyone.

Pressure to achieve work-life "balance" has recently become a significant part of the cultural fabric of working life in United States. A very few privileged employees tout their ability to find balance between their careers and the rest of their lives, but most employees face considerable organizational and economic constraints which hamper their ability to maintain a reasonable "balance" between paid work and other life aspects—and it is not only women who struggle. Increasingly men find it difficult to "do it all." Women have long noted the near impossibility of balancing multiple roles, but it is only recently that men have been encouraged to see themselves beyond their breadwinner selves. Gender Equality and Work-Life Balance describes the work-life practices of men in the United States. The purpose is to increase gender equality at work for all employees. With a focus on leave policy inequalities, this book argues that men experience a phenomenon called "the glass handcuffs," which prevents them from leaving work to participate fully in their families, homes, and other life events, highlighting the cultural, institutional, organizational, and occupational conditions which make gender equality in work-life policy usage difficult. This social justice book ultimately draws conclusions about how to minimize inequalities at work. Gender Equality and Work-Life Balance is unique as it laces together some theoretical concepts which have little previous association, including entrepreneurialism; leave policy, occupational identity, and the economic necessities of families. This book will therefore be of particular interest to researches and academics alike in the disciplines of Gender studies, Human Resource Management, Employment Relations, Sociology and Cultural Studies.