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Managing employee turnover and retention
Managing employee turnover and retention
Managing employee turnover and retention
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Balancing A Career and A Family
Abstract
Regardless of where they are in their careers, working mothers have a tough time achieving balance between work and family. Generally, women take on or are given more responsibility for their homes than are men, leading to frustration and exhaustion. In this paper we will address some of the issues involved in balancing career and family. This paper will provide some solutions for the most common problems arising from todays busy schedules, and provide some insight on how to make the most of your time.
The Scales of Life
Working all day and then coming home to a young child can be difficult, at best. After putting all one’s energy into doing his/her job well -- answering to a boss's, co-workers', clients', and/or employees' demands. The last thing a parent may feel like doing is answering to their child's. However, these thoughts just make people feel guilty. These and other problems are more common in today’s households than society may realize. The stresses people face in the workplace today are far more demanding than they were during their parents careers.
Today’s workforce is made up of just as many women as men, and in many cases, both parents have careers which leaves little in the way of quality time for children, and/or social time for adults. This essay will explore some solutions that others have used to change their lives, and careers for the better.
One of the most common reasons for high levels of stress in families today, is caused by dissatisfaction and/or tension in the workplace. People have often heard the addage “Leave your Job at the Office”, but how many are capable of just turning things off, when they leave for the day? Not many, and becau...
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...ven many the freedom from debt that allowed them to return to school or pursue a new, sometimes lower paying, yet less stressful occupation. Financial counseling is another alternative that has helped many to understand the nature of their debts, and gain control of them so that lower wages or new careers became a possibility. These and many other stress alternatives are available to most everyone, but it’s up to each individual to make a conscience decision to improve their lives, only then can they start down that road into the unknown; which for most, has been a very liberating journey.
References
1. The Career Journal (2001). Stress in the Workplace: The Silent Danger. Career Journal. Retrieved February 1, 2001. From http://www.careerjournal.com/jobhunting/change/20030225
2. Oldenburg, Ray (1989). The Problem of Place in America Pub Group West.
At what point does work life start interfering with family life to an extent that it becomes unacceptable? Is it when you don’t get to spend as much time with your family as you would like, or is it the point where you barely get to see your family due to long hours at work? Is it even possible to balance work with family life? Anne-Marie Slaughter, the author of “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”, believes this balance is impossible to achieve in this day and age. In contrast, Richard Dorment, the author of “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All”, believes that there will never be a day when someone will have it all, certain sacrifices will always have to be made. Both of these articles are similar in the respect that they both examine balancing a demanding career with raising children. The two authors’ views on the subject differ greatly, especially regarding how gender roles have a significant impact on our society.
Gorski, P. (2010/2011). The Myth of the Culture of Poverty. Annual Editions: Social Problems 10/11 , pp. 67-70.
College degrees, jobs, and income stream are all quantifiable items, however, a gauge on work-life balance, parenting abilities, and dedication at home cannot be measured by a number. In the past, men have been viewed as the backbone of the family. The typical day consists of getting up the earliest, going to work, coming home late at night, maybe missing out on trivial matters, but ultimately paying the bills. As time progresses, roles in households have shifted significantly. Now more than ever women are extremely active in the workforce, local communities, and politics. The obstacles faced by men and women are inherently different, but men seem to fall under an intensified microscope when it comes to intertwining family life with a career. Richard Dorment dives deep into these issues in his piece, "Why Men Still Can't Have It All." Although the argument may seem bias in favoring the rigorous lifestyle of men, the
... crying.” The plaintiff alleges violations of his constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988 (2000) and civil rights conspiracy in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985 (2000). The defendant moved to dismiss the complaint in its entirety on the basis of qualified immunity. The court dismissed the state law claims but found that the defendant had in fact violated the plaintiff’s constitutional rights due to the fact that “a state actor, through his agents, cannot randomly beat a student.” The defendant was also denied dismissal of the claim based on qualified immunity because a state actor cannot arbitrarily commit violence against a student. The plaintiff was able to show that Coach Edmundson’s conduct did violate his constitutional right of substantive due process to be free from the infliction of malicious corporal punishment by school official.
The impact from changes in economy, technology, social and lifestyle in today’s environments have boosted the awareness of flexible working arrangements in an organisation. Evidence from the previous study indicated that the competitive working environment and increasing workload had caused family and personal life being neglected (Mary & Chris, 1998). Smith (1993) pointed out that working women should have balance between tasks in the office and responsibility to the family especially on safety, health and children needs. Therefore, Cook (1992) suggested that through the implementation of flexible working hour’s schedule, the responsibilities over children’s safety and education will be more secured. This is due to the fact that they are able to engage for a better coordination between work and responsibilities to the family. This statement is than further supported by Emmott and Hutchinson (1998). They found out that the implementation of flexible working hours schedule could increase and balance women’s responsibilities in work and family. It is a fact that children need love, food, safety and parents’ attention to ensure that children lead to a normal life. This complies with Maslow’s theory of motivation that emphasizes the aspects of safety, love, needs for food, esteem and self-actualisation that needs to be fulfilled by individual in order to increase the motivation at work.
Why are poor people poor? Why do poor people seem to stay poor? Some scholars blame the preceding postulations on the the attitudes and behaviors of the culture. Others blame a culture of poverty on the specific individuals that form the culture. Hence, the controversy surrounding the culture of poverty is generated from assumptions that are placed upon the examined community. Assumptions that are placed on the culture lead to an unyielding cycle amongst the inhabitants of the culture. Under the unyielding cycle, the beliefs and actions of the culture are constructed not only on how the people value themselves, but also in part by how onlookers perceive and categorize these inhabitants. In essence, the culture of
Stone (2007) conducted “extensive, in depth interviews with 54 women in a variety of professions-law, medicine, business, publishing, management consulting, nonprofit administration, and the like- living in major metropolitan areas across the country, half of them in their 30’s, half in their 40’s” (p. 15). Keep in mind these women Stone (2007) focuses on are “highly educated, affluent, mostly white, married women with children who had previously worked as professionals or managers whose husbands could support their being at home” (p. 14). Her findings revealed women are strongly influenced by two factors: workplace push and motherhood pull. “Many workplaces claimed to be “family friendly” and offered a variety of supports. But for women who could take advantage of them, flexible work schedules (which usually meant working part time) carried significant penalties” (Stone, 2007, p. 16). This quote represents the workplace push, where women are feeling encouraged to continue their rigorous careers with little to no family flexibility being offered from workplaces. The motherhood pull is a term used to describe the way mothers feel when they face the pressure of staying home to raise their children while still expected to maintain a steady job. “Motherhood influenced women 's decision to quit as they came to see the rhythms and
Oscar Lewis asserts that the term “culture of poverty” is the theoretical label that describes in positive terms a subculture of western society with its own structure and rationale. Also, Lewis argues that these attitudes and beliefs are handed
There are two main explanations to poverty, the cultural and structural. Sociologists mostly use the structural causes to explain the poverty in America. The cultural issue puts more fault and cause on the individual and the “culture” they create—making it seems like a repetitive cycle. Nonetheless, poverty is a very complex issue, even though culture and the individual do play a part, there is much more to it and thus the structural causes explanation comes in. With even the causations and explanation being so complex the solution must also be multi-faceted and flexible—being able to conform in many different situations and settings. Looking at history and seeing how others have faced the issue of poverty in their societies could lead us to find some answers. This paper will be studying zakat—a charitable tax found in Islam—and seeing if it can mitigate the plight of the poor in America.
Heise, K., & Suh, S. (2014, October 14). Re-Evaluating the "Culture of Poverty". Retrieved from https://thesocietypages.org/roundtables/culture-of-poverty/
In a society with the muajority of mothers joining or returning to the workforce, there is a growing body of research documenting the demands placed on these women and what can be done to help their transition into this new role. According to the United States’ Department of Labor, in the year 2012, 70.5% of mothers with children under the age of 18 were a part of the workforce; of these women 73.7% were employed full-time, working over 35 hours a week, and 26.3% were employed part-time, working less than 35 hours a week (United States Department of Labor, 2012). Given this information, it is becoming more important to further research how this new role as an employee affects the role of parenting and what can be done to help this transition. The intent of this paper is to compare the experiences of a working mother to the current research on the topic of working mothers. Moreover, this paper addresses the demands placed on working mothers as well as the factors that ameliorate their transition into this new role.
Today, in a vast majority of families, both the wife and husband have a job. Many working parents are under stress as they have to try to balance the demands of their work, children and relationship. Over the past 25 years, women's and men's roles have changed dramatically. In fact, the world of work and home are not separate, research indicates a profound impact on work and home life.
More and more women work outside and inside the home. The double demands shouldered by these women pose a threat to their physical health. Whether you are an overworked housewife or an exhausted working mother the chances are that you are always one step behind your schedule. No matter how hard women worked, they never ended up with clean homes. Housewives in these miserable circumstances often became hysterical cleaners. They wore their lives away in an endless round of scouring, scrubbing, and polishing. The increased strain in working women comes from the reality that they carry most of the child-rearing and household responsibilities. According to social trends (1996), women always or usually do the washing in 79 percent of cases and decide the menu 59 percent of the time. Picking up the children at school or doing grocery shopping are just a few of the many typical household-tasks a woman takes on every day.
Potato is one of the most nutritious and commonly edible foods in our society today. But there is a fascinating story of how Potato came to be widely consumed today around the world today. Potato also known as Solanum Tuberosum for its scientific identification was a wild plant. It was first domesticated in 10,000 BCE around the Lake Titicaca basin in the Andes region by the farmers. This region was not the best for agriculture because of the terrain but Potato rose to the occasion to become the most dominant food. Potteries of the Andean civilization depicted Potato as the chief crop. This region is in present day Southern Peru and Northwest Bolivia. The warm summer days enhanced the growth of plants and cold nights improved the growth of tubers; hence Potato was able to survive in this region. The farmers with their trial and error method figured that Potato can be bred through its seed. The seed of a Potato produce different fruits with varying sizes and color. The most significant of the domesticated Potato by the Andes farmers was the Solanum Tuberosum Andigena. This Potato had large tubers, well rounded and can grow only near the equator. Pre-Columbian population grew over 200 different types of Potato, making this plant few of the widely domesticated foods worldwide. The planting of Potato occurred at different elevations which enabled Andean farmers to plant and harvest it all through the year. Indigenous people of South America preserved Potato and stored it in case of a famine. The cold dry climate of the Andes region made this long-time preservation possible. The process involved covering of already harvested Potatoes from mist and leaving them in the cold night. The next day with sunshine on the Pota...
Everyday, there are workers who come home from their jobs with a high amount of health issues. Headaches, aching muscles, exhaustion, and many more health issues have workers wondering why this is happening. All of these symptoms can be linked to stress in the workplace. Job stress has become more of a problem than ever before. Numerous studies show that job stress is the major source of stress for American adults and that it has escalated progressively over the past few decades (“Workplace Stress,” 2004).