Balancing Family & Work Life Essay

I. Introduction A. Thesis Statement Attending school as an adult, and maintaining a source of employment can be a daunting task, as many adults who had to delay their college education must know. One of the most challenging aspects of adult life consists of learning how to adjust accordingly to the rigors of life at home as well as the workplace. Failure to do so can lead to a life of complete disarray, stress, illness and exhaustion. II. Body Paragraph #1 – Topic Sentence #1 Traditionally the typical age group for freshmen in college was between 18 to 19 years of age. That reality has slowly changed as more young adults are finding their way back in the classroom, while holding down a job. The information I found in P.14 of the ebrary book: Families and Work: New Directions in the Twenty-First Century, by Fredriksen-Goldsen, Karen I. states: â€Å"Of the more than 69 million American parents with children under the age of 18 (Famighetti, 1998), almost 90 percent are employed (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998).† At the same time, there are working professionals attempting to achieve a college education in order to refine their skills, or to gain new ones. Among those working adults, young couples typically tend to have a harder time with managing the broad aspects of life, especially those who are in the early stages of their relationship, which has the potential to result in a lot of growing pains. A. Supporting evidence The information found in an article from the following website; http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2421/T-2233web.pdf states: â€Å"Family and work settings have a built-in potential for conflict. Adults may get overwhelmed with the excessive demands that are required of them from either end of the spectrum, leaving them with the feeling of having very little time to accomplish those tasks.† Finding a balance between work and home involves finding ways of accomplishing the tasks at home as well as duties at work. Those responsibilities are often shared among couples in a healthy relationship. The equality of the shared house  chores, however, is up or debate. It has long been stated that the task of maintaining the home primarily fell on the woman’s shoulders, while the man focuses mainly on duties in the workplace. For some married couples, trying to get their husband to help with the housework typically led to domestic disputes. In recent years however, men have been getting more involved with parenting than ever before. A passage from (Giraffe 2011) states: â€Å"The recession of 2008 contributed to this arrangement because increased unemployment left more fathers available to care for their children and the reduced family income made outside childcare services unaffordable.† The traditional view of the American household should change because of an increase in the number of two-parent families entering the labor force. One of the primary services built around that change in society is the daycare system. Many of those two-parent families, as well as single parents may not have direct support from their families to take care of the children while they’re away at work. While some of the household work, such as childcare and housekeeping, has transitioned to outside providers, many working mothers cannot afford to employ these services (Giraffe, 2011). Unfortunately a big portion of their income goes to high daycare fees. III. Body Paragraph #2 – Topic Sentence #2 When the constants demands of life are far too much to bear, employees tend to feel the need to escape, and seek an alternate reality. We must look at the adverse effects that those long work hours have on the human body. Overworked individuals can suffer from work related illnesses as a result of excessive stress. Work related stress can result from extended hours due to mandatory overtime in some case. An employer’s rigid work hours which can prevent employees from tending to occasional issues at home can also be blamed for stress on the job. Employees suffering the effects of stress in the workplace tend to have bouts of absenteeism. A. Supporting evidence Absenteeism in the workplace is a major issue, with tangible and intangible costs. Although the absentee loses wages in the process, the major loss is at the expense of the employer. The ebrary book by Lynn  Tylczak, (Attacking absenteeism 1990), describes the intangible costs of absenteeism as follows: â€Å"Absentee costs are difficult to quantify. Experts estimate direct wage loses of more than $30 billion per year, and that’s just the beginning. Employers also need to consider the costs of supplementary or replacement workers. These costs include: Regular wages, overtime wages, and company benefits Supplementary benefits, such as Social Security, worker’s compensation, and unemployment compensation Administration of recruitment, selection orientation, and training Penalty costs resulting from delays.† The author (Lynn T. 1990) also gives the following explanation from the tangible cost of absenteeism: â€Å"It forces managers to deal with problems of morale, discipline, job dissatisfaction, job stress, team spirit, productivity, turnover, production quality, additional administration and overhead.† Many employers have become more cognizant of the disastrous effects of having stressful employees in the workplace. This is not only calculated in monetary losses based on productivity, but also in the valuable asset (the employee) which could potentially offset those losses. IV. Body Paragraph #3 Topic sentence # 3 Those who value their time with their families certainly appreciate the value of being away from work. This is particularly why a lot of us look forward to our vacation time. It us the opportunity to recharge our batteries and gives us the courage to return to our regular lives. Many employers have adapted to the changes in society by implementing new ways for employees to earn vacation time from work. A. Supporting evidence While some of us are comfortable being â€Å"working stiffs†, most people would rather look forward to their time away from work. An ebrary book by ANDERSON, NELS titled Work and Leisure states: â€Å"Although leisure reflects and supplements work, it is also used as a release from work. Some are of the view that unless a man has worked he cannot really enjoy leisure. They hold that while a man is working to earn a wage or salary, he also ‘earns’ leisure.† It is absolutely true that in order to fully enjoy our vacation time, we must work hard for it. That time of leisure can then be considered our reward for achieving the demands required of us in the workplace. Those who properly plan their vacation can benefit from sights  rarely seen in everyday life. Most people find it more beneficial to take their vacation in some exotic location. The topic on how to enjoy a proper vacation will vary from one employee to the next. V. Body Paragraph #4 Topic sentence # 4 Employers have devised lots of ways to keep valuable talent within their workforce, while allowing them time to accomplish their house work. Those arrangements can be profitable to the employer as well as the employee in some cases. Some of the sensible ways employers provide to employees are flextime, teleworking, and employee incentive just to name a few. A. Supporting evidence Flextime is highly valuable to employees because it allows them to have more control over the balancing act of work and home life. It also provides them the option of choosing when to complete their work. Flextime allows employees to handle personal business such as doctor appointments or school functions without having to take sick leave or vacation time. Employers’ personnel needs are met and they get employees at their best. In highly skilled positions where competition for employees is fierce and employee turnover costly, flexible schedules can also reduce attrition by making employees more content with their jobs (Giraffe, 2011). Teleworking provides some lucky employees the opportunity to work remotely. With this system employees can either work from home or in some shared work spaces. In most cases employees would prefer to work from home because it is the ideal place to work from. This reduces the work commute, and the amount stress to the employee. It takes an especially disciplined employee to work from home, because of the constant distractions from home can cause the employee’s work performance to suffer. Employers must be careful when considering the type of employees they provide that opportunity to. Through teleworking, some employees do get to achieve balance between family and work life.