Thursday, 9 March 2017

Personal Experience


Personal experience

                                                 

I am an international student and came to Canada in September 2016. When I came here I was so home sick and depressed. So, I thought to start work to divert my mind to settle down as soon as possible. There were a lot of hardships that I had to face. I started from a pizza store. It was tough in the beginning as I was suffering from dilemma whether to stay here or move back to India.

But somehow, focusing on my goals and thinking about my career I made a tough choice. I always tried to keep my personal problems apart from my work to excel and I got succeeded as my owner appreciated me for my work. It was great experience working with such a wonderful supervisor who was so supportive and slowly I started enjoying my work. This job helped me a lot to settle down here in Canada. Because I always tried to keep my personal problems apart from my work, as I enter the store, just forget about what is happening outside.

But after few months I had some issue with one of my colleagues and was asked to work over time during my exams. I tried to refuse my owner to avoid extra hours so that I can achieve good marks but he denied my request. Fortunately, I managed to score good marks even after so much stress because I couldn’t let my study get sacrificed on my work account but it doesn’t matter until unless you get succedded.

This is what I learnt how to achieve work life balance.

Factors that affect and risks associated with work-life conflict


Factors affected and risks associated with work-life conflict

Work load is grasping our lives in today’s competitive environment, an imbalance between personal and professional life can cause harm to many factors and birth to many risks.

Though work should not be overlooked due to any reasons but it is obvious that unnecessary prioritizing work can negatively affect our family relationships, due to which our parents, spouse and kids doesn’t get enough of our attention (David, 2011). This leads to more stress, fatigue, deprived sleep, and ultimately lower energy to devote time to them. (Causes of Stress, n.d.) Ultimate purpose of each individual working is to achieve hi/her goals, earning a reputable position and leading a luxurious and lavish lifestyle and for all this a lot of sacrifices are made but there is no sense of compromising your family because all that we do is to satisfy them. (Siddiqui, 2013)  Moreover, our career can be targeted as well due to excessive work load there are chances to miss your dead line or the quality of work done gets affected. (Peter Burg, 1999) Excessive work load can aim your health and wellness causing physical, emotional, and behavioral problems. It can lead to employee absenteeism, employee turnover rate, reduced morale of employees more chances of accidents. (The difficulty of balancing work and family life, n.d.)

Both personal and professional life shall not be contradictory but complimentary to each other. Having a fruitful career by negotiating our personal life is not at all a healthy sign. In future having a vibrant personal and family life is an element of success. Though keeping a balance among two is not that easy but sincere actions can lead to satisfactory results. (Effect on Family Life, n.d.)

sources: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JFBM-06-2014-0013
               http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/causes-of-stress#1
    https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/herman/reports/futurework/conference/balance/bergappelbam.htm
                 http://www.ncchpp.ca/docs/633-DiffBalancingWorkFamilyLife.pdf
                 http://www.care.com/special-needs-effect-on-family-life-p1167-q227936.html


Tips to Accieve work- life Balance

LINK TO VIDEO Here is the 1 Minute video About workplace balance
Tips to achieve work-life balance


Now let’s talk about some of the ways to achieve work-life balance in life.

1.    Be open about your needs and try to prioritize them: Always speak or express about your feelings, never let others to guess your comfort level s. Try to figure out what really matters more because time is something that you cannot buy more. So, it’s better recommended to respect the time and avoid wasting it over vague and useless things to be successful. To enjoy the journey as much as destination pace yourself. (Cincotta, 2015)

2.    Try to schedule and execute some ideal time: While planning your week, always try to devote some time for your family or friends whatever gives you pleasure. And always remember while you are with your family adopt the policy of grasping the off button of your gadgets to spend some quality time with them. Alan Cohen quoted “There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither”. After all we all need some time off from our schedules to swing our moods. A little relaxation makes you go a long way. (Lee, 2014)

3.    Ignore the expectations of others: Don’t always show your 24/7 availability to your boss if you are unable to manage. It is easier to say no than said done. Don’t fear don’t always try to explain your point of unavailability clear to others. Try to step away from the email because there are always emails pending realizing your employees that you shall reply within 24-48 hours. Try to ignore the shoulds’ that come from others because it is impossible to satisfy others fulfilling their expectations so always look into your ease. (Ten tips for a better work-life balance , n.d.)

4.    Outline boundaries around your personal life: Never let your personal life issues affect your performance at work it is a big hinderance on your path of success. Every individuals face problem in families related to their parents, spouses or kids and it happens throughout your life but you cannot let it harm your career. (Uscher, n.d.)


source:  https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235427
              https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahlee/2014/10/20/6-tips-for-better-work-life-balance/2/#346c2ef652a1
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/07/ten-tips-for-a-better-work-life-balance
http://www.webmd.com/women/features/balance-life#1 

Importance in Balane in work and life


Balance is a key to success


Balance means to offset the value of two things and compare them

Work-life balance is a notion involving prioritizing between work [career, goals, aim and ambition] and lifestyle [well-being, fitness, health, pleasure, mental satisfaction, leisure, family and social-life. It is the favorable settlement of on-the-job and private time to facilitate personal and professional satisfaction without negatively affecting productivity and professional success. (Bird, 2003) It indicates a person’s ability to manage commitments for work and personal life simultaneously. Work Life Balance does not mean balancing perfectly [like an effort to schedule an equal number of hours for all the personal and professional stuff]. So, it’s like being practical as there should be flexibility in life. Factors affecting this balance are workplace and working conditions, like the flexibility and number of working hours, sufficient time off, an appropriate workload and wellness initiatives in the workplace such as yoga classes and  mindfulness training. (Virtual Medical Center, n.d.)The level to which an organization encourages a consistency between the professional and personal lives of employees is mostly an impact of management styles. ROWE [RESULTS-ONLY WORKPLACE] approach allow employees to manage their personal and social lives in a way they want as far as they are fulfilling their professional targets. Enhancing work-life balance appears to be efficient to most of the employers. Federal Reserve Bank conducted a study that proved work-life balance enhances employee productivity by 10.6due to reduced absenteeism, increased degree of employee involvement, all these ultimately leads to achievement of desired goals. (Davidson, 2014)