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Work life balance review of literature
Work life balance review of literature
Work life balance review of literature
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Imagine for a moment the career of your dreams, the home and money you need, a life filled with little stress and prosperous living that supports whatever lifestyle you want, be it a family or anything else. Now imagine what it would feel like to have that same dream somehow be consumed by stress and uncertainty. Your work hours seem to be overbearing when coupled with social responsibilities and the care taking of your family, and this same situation is held by the people you know and love. Progressive changes in society have led to diverse situations in which people are either overworked or underworked with almost none left in between. It seems farfetched and you may be saying to yourself that your own career plan will not allow that to happen, but the current conditions of our society, specifically of the crucial middle class work force in America, begs to differ and points to that very nightmare becoming reality.
The excessive work load we’ve become accustomed to here in America, coupled with an ever increasing amount of social change, has left the American middle class workforc...
A little girl dreams of a white wedding with white doves flying over the ceremony and the fairy-tale honeymoon. Only then to come home to the yellow house in the country, with the white picket fence included. Everyone has daydreamed about their future and having the “perfect” house, with the “perfect” car and the “perfect” marriage- everyone wants to live the “American Dream”. There are many people that believe that the “American Dream” is a concept that they are entitled to and expected to live. Then, there are those who believe that you should use the opportunities that America offers as a stepping stone to earn and create your own “American dream”. However, as time goes on the mainstream idea of “living the American Dream” has changed. This change is mostly due to the ever-changing economy, professions, and expectations of the American people. Throughout the book Working, by Studs Terkel, we meet many diverse groups of people to discover the people behind the jobs that allows American society to operate and how their choice of a career path has changed their lives.
Although most Americans continue to believe working hard is the most important element for getting ahead, they no longer believe that it guarantees success (Hanson 2010: 570). "Lack of thrift, effort, ability, motivation, and self-control are the most popular explanations for poverty among Americans. Thus, inequality is justified and the Dream can stay alive in the context of one of the wealthiest nations with one of the greatest wealth divides" (Hanson 2010: 571). Instead of one undifferentiated American dream to collectively strive towards, there are several interpretations which pertain to differing social locations. This is because of the inequalities of advantages and disadvantages across generations produced by cumulative institutional processes and an unfair opportunity structure (Pallas 2008:
America was once known as a land of opportunity and prosperity. Now we are seeing that upward mobility is increasingly rare in the US. In fact, many Northern and Western European nations provide greater opportunity than the US. Despite this, many Americans continue to believe that social class is determined by hard work. 69% of Americans in a survey agreed that people are rewarded for intelligence, skill, and effort (139). This is obviously not the case, or millions of Americans would not be in the situation they’re in today. For instance, Terry Neumann strived to find full time work, but she could not afford her house after years of part time jobs and her divorce. The Stanley’s were also very hardworking, but stayed in their class. After years of work from both Jackie and Claude, they still had to put Keith’s college tuition on a credit card. Both of the families illustrate the challenge of upward mobility and America’s declining prosperity.
One would expect that social equality would just be the norm in society today. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Three similar stories of how inequality and the hard reality of how America’s society and workforce is ran shows a bigger picture of the problems American’s have trying to make an honest living in today’s world. When someone thinks about the American dream, is this the way they pictured it? Is this what was envisioned for American’s when thinking about what the future held? The three authors in these articles don’t believe so, and they are pretty sure American’s didn’t either. Bob Herbert in his article “Hiding from Reality” probably makes the most honest and correct statement, “We’re in denial about the extent of the rot in the system, and the effort that would be required to turn things around” (564).
Low Wages, Strong Backs also proves that factory workers in U.S. receives less wages for their hard work. Author speaks about the heavy weight lifting jobs which pays only “$8 an hour” (Meagher, par. 4). Author Meagher (2011, par. 6) gives an example of minimum expenditure that an individual needs for meeting all daily essenti...
The structural-functional analysis of jobs in the U.S. is governed by the workforce stratification and technology. The more educated and diverse a society is the better society’s job market is served. This social economic separation of class has been both good and bad for society. Many workers at the lower levels of employment are both pleased and displeased with many aspects of work. Though this fact also holds true with most any job at any level, pay scale often compensates for endurance of a particular job type. The security of a person’s job also is an issue that in today’s economic times forces one to be prepared for change. This is to say that even if one’s field of expertise is needed today it may not be tomorrow. This type of ever-changing job market leads many to believe that another socio-economic change may occur at any time. This change was apparent with the transition into the industrial age and again in the information age. These concerns caused stress, various health issues, a...
The end of World War 1 heralded global social and political transformations and technological advancements that have impacted positively and otherwise on socio-economic development and work (ILO, 2016). It is the opinion of the International Labour Organization (ILO) that the positive fallouts of this socio-political and economic transformations have been lopsided as “many workers continue to face important deficits in their working conditions, and the prospects for improvement are being tested by the emergence of new types and forms of work” (ILO, 2016; p. 1).
In the line of work, exist a wide range of diversity issues that affect the middle age group population up to retirees. We are talking about the individual who is the major supplier to a household. The population of United States is rich in diverse cultures, languages, traditions, support system, and values. According to Edward Gordon, (2010), “more than fourteen million Americans are unemployed today. And three million stem-related jobs were vacant across the US economy.” These numbers were stated through different firms, which recognized the existence of a grand number of the unemployed population that do not have the skills needed that businesses require for the survival
Pink would at least partially agree that much of the value from work comes internally rather externally. This conflicts, he would also argue, with the age-old idea that employers often find purpose for the average worker to be "a perfectly nice accessory, so long as it didn't get in the way” of making a profit.[2] Both Pink and Zweig attempt with their insights to explain the American cultural norms of individualism and the desire of every worker for fulfilling,
The middle class job certainly does not have the same foothold in the American economy as it once did during the industrialization period all the way up until the 1980s. Over the last three decades this job sector has seen a major decline in demand, but to understand how and why this need has fallen it is imperative to understand what exactly constitutes a high, middle, and low skill job occupation. Middle skill jobs usually involve carrying out routine and procedural based tasks. Occupations in this sector include jobs in sales, office and administrative support, production, construction, and transportation (Tüzemen, p 4). High skill jobs typically require a significant amount of college education. Individuals located in this job sector usually possess a bachelor’s degree or higher and work in managerial, professional, and technical occupations, inc...
workforce is at a low point. The proletariat or labouring class is being replaced by the services sector. A new kind of working class is thus formed. We must consider this and adapt Marxist theories accordingly.
Yet, what may be true for blue collar workers or state employees – is not necessarily so for white collar members of the liberal professions. It is not rare for these people – lawyers, accountants, consultants, managers, academics – to put in 80 hour weeks. The phenomenon is so widespread and its social consequences so damaging that it acquired the unflattering nickname workaholism, a combination of the words “work” and “alcoholism”. Family life is disrupted, intellectual horizons narrow, the consequences to the workaholic’s health are severe : fat, lack of exercise, stress take their toll. Classified as “alpha” types, workaholics suffer three times as many heart attacks as their peers.
Fagan, C., McDowell, L., Perrons, D., Ray, K., & Ward, K. (2006). Introduction: work, life and time in the new economy. In C. Fagan., L. McDowell., D. Perrons., K. Ray & K. Ward (Eds.), Gender divisions and working time in the new economy (pp. 1-15). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited...
Gabelli School of Business and professor Candy Bianco from Bentley University developed an article which examines the lifestyle balance between career and the home life desired by the next generation of workers. The conclusion indicates that maternal work patterns are highly related to lifestyle choices for men and women. This article is related to Claudia Rawlins’ article in the way that she mentions Millennials do not care more about money than they do having a comfortable life. This article may be bias because most of the surveyees in this study were females. This reading is addressed to inform the public of the ways Millennials look at the workplace. This detailed account provides wonderful information that any scholar or adult may be interested
According to economists and other analysts, the American, college-educated workforce will face the same pressure that the automotive and manufacturing sectors faced long ago. Employers are already offshoring computer coding, certain types of accounting and medical consultation such as readings of X-rays, CT scans and similar services that require extensive training (Blinder 10). Outsourcing has become very common now. Statistics Brain research institute reported that a total of 2,382,000 U.S. jobs were outsourced in 2015, leaving millions of employees’ jobless and losing billions on wages ("Statistic Brain"). Careers at risk included auditors, lawyers, real estate brokers even chemists. In an excerpt from “The Untouchables”, Thomas Friedman advises that if you expect your work life to flourish, you had better make yourself untouchable. It means jobs of people which cannot be automated, outsourced or digitized. Yes it’s true not all jobs are outsourced to foreign countries like India or China sometimes technology comes in and a job that belonged to the cashier can be done at a self-checkout counter or that of a bank teller can be done through your personal mobile banking applications on your phone. Most of these jobs are called “old middle” job and unless the