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Career demands and family
demands increasingly compete for priority.
Finding the right balance between career demands and family responsibilities has become a
consuming passion in America these days, one that goes way beyond late nights and missed
piano recitals. According to researchers, the family-work tension has a much deeper
impact, affecting workplace attitudes, behavior and culture.
Consider Carole C., a northern Virginia mother and journalist. Last spring she quit a good
wire service job to stay home with her son. She had wanted a less demanding schedule, but
she couldn't persuade her company to let her work part-time or share a job.
Her situation is typical of millions of other Americans who are buffeted by the
career-home conundrum. According to Robin Hardman, a spokeswoman for the Families and Work Institute in New York, and there's no easy solution.
"Our research shows consistently that people are working longer hours but want to
actually work fewer hours because of family concerns," she says. A 1992 study by the
institute found, for example, that 42 percent of U.S. workers wanted to work fewer hours
to spend time with family. A similar study in 1998 found that number had increased to 67
percent.
One of the most extensive corporate studies to date--an 18-month survey at Baxter
Healthcare--found that the
work-life conflict is a major workplace concern, affecting men and women, single and
married people, high-income and wage earners alike. That study showed that 30 percent of
the company's workers struggled to balance careers and family demands; 42 percent had
looked for new jobs because of it.
How can you manage stress between work and family demands? In the short run, it obviously
helps if your boss is flexible. Start by asking for flex-time, and investigate on-site
child care. Find out if your company will let you work longer hours each day in return for
one day off every two weeks, as is common in the federal government and some companies.
If your employer doesn't have any formal programs, seek more creative solutions, including
possible job-shares or telecommuting, says Barry Lawrence, a spokesman for the Society of
Human Resource Management in
Alexandria, Va.
"Try to devise alternate approaches to building more family time. Be flexible but
also be persistent," he advises.
You may increase family time by using proven time management techniques. For example,
delegate more often, reduce work-related travel when possible, and avoid time-wasting
meetings and phone calls.
Longer term, it's important to reexamine the structural causes of work- family imbalance.
Says Hardman, "It's not just about getting better child care or working part-time,
it's also about 'how do we go about our work generally?'"
She says truly forward-looking companies are rethinking daily routines--focusing on having
fewer meetings, for example--and rewarding organization and planning that avoids the
"crisis mentality" that afflicts so many in the workplace today.
"That's not only bad for families, it's also bad for business," she says.
Reprinted with permission of CareerBuilder.com. CareerBuilder, Inc.
has emerged as the leading provider of E-cruiting (electronic recruiting) services with
the CareerBuilder Network, its pioneering model to provide employers with a choice of the
best career sites on the Web from a single vendor. The CareerBuilder Network is made up of
over 25 leading professional, broad appeal, diversity, and industry career centers.
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