Should I sacrifice my family responsibilities to become that independent, strong-willed, achiever I’ve always dreamed of?

Should I give up my dream to become a career woman [or man] and focus all my time and energy to rearing a family?

Or can I have both?

Work-Life Imbalance Plagues the World

The lack of work-life balance is a big problem for workers (and their respective companies) across the globe. For instance, in the UK, a Mental Health Foundation survey reveals:

• A third of the respondents feel unhappy about the time they spend at work

• Because of work, 40% neglect other aspects of their life

• 27% feel depressed, 58% feel irritable and 34% feel anxious when working longer hours

• A person’s feeling of unhappiness increase with increasing work hours

• More women (42%) report unhappiness than men (29%) due to conflicting life roles
• About two-thirds of employees experience the negative consequences of work-life imbalance such as the lack of personal development, poor family relationships and physical and mental health problems

Finding that “sweet-spot” between work and life is a problem for all workers, especially parents.

The time a person spends at work is an important aspect of work-life balance. More time at work means lesser time for personal activities, leisure and family relationships.

Like most countries in the world, America is not an exception — an OECD survey shows that:

• 11.3% of employees are working 50+ hours a week
• Full-time workers spend 60% of their day (roughly 14.3 hours) to leisure and personal care — less than the OECD average of 15 hours

If no action is done, this trend will continue to increase –– putting the mental, physical and social well-being of workers at risk.

Self-Check:  Are You Deprived of Work-Life Balance? 

Many employees don’t recognize that they are suffering from work-life imbalance (or choose to “endure” it for pay’s sake).

Identifying the problem early is crucial to maintaining a healthy body and rewarding family relationships.

Consider asking yourself the following questions:

• Do you feel burdened by work and family responsibilities everyday?

• Do you feel that work is something that you have to endure until the weekend?

• Do you feel completely exhausted every time you come home at night?

• Do you think your life is out of control?
• Do you find yourself wishing you had a clone to tackle all your responsibilities?

If you’ve answered “YES” to any of these questions, chances are, you are deprived of proper work-life balance.

It also means that you are more prone to health, mental and social issues that we are going to talk about later in this post.

Symptoms of Work-Life Imbalance

1. Physical and Mental Exhaustion

Physical and mental exhaustion happen when you work long hours and fail to establish the proper boundaries between your work and personal life.

As a consequence, you become less productive and your ability to think clearly is diminished.

Exhaustion can also taint your professional career since you can’t function properly and effectively.

2. Absence

How many soccer games, recitals, birthdays and anniversaries have you missed already?

Failing to have the proper work-life balance leads to absence. This can really hurt your family relationships — leaving your loved ones feeling unappreciated and unloved.

3. Poor Friendships

Friends are essential to your social and emotional support system. Focusing all your efforts on your career will hurt your relationships with them.

Friendships need to be nurtured as they are your source of positive energy when things get rough.

4. Increased Workload

Bosses love seeing hardworking employees. Work hard and do it consistently and for sure, they’ll award you with more projects and responsibilities.

And guess what? More stress. While promotions and recognitions lead to bigger salaries and career advancement, you have to make sure that everything is in balance.

Work-Life Balance Health Risks

Not having the proper work-life balance results in stress. And stress is not good.

This could lead to health concerns like:

• sexual health problems

• cardiovascular disease

• weak immune system

• depression

• weight gain

• substance addiction

• forgetfulness

• lack of focus

• lack of control
• physical and mental fatigue

7 Work Life Balance Quotes from Celebs

Get Rid of Things You Don’t Need

“I think it’s a false trade-off to say quality time vs. quantity – you have to have both.

So if you have long work hours like I did, how do you get rid of things in your life you don’t need in order to put that extra time into your children?

You need much more sensitivity in the workplace to the challenges young women go through in trying to do two very difficult jobs well.”

– Hillary Clinton 

Being a Mom and a Career Woman Take a Lot of Thought and Planning

“I was surrounded by plenty of working moms, including my grandmother, a pediatrician, and my mother, a writer and producer…I just thought, Well, that’s what moms do.

They work and raise their kids. I was brought up to believe I could do anything I wanted professionally and, of course, be a mother at the same time.

But I’m finding out that it’s complicated. It requires a lot of thought and planning and I haven’t figured it out yet.”

– Maggie Gyllenhaal

Family is the First Priority

“I think [balancing work and family] is something that most women in this country can relate to. It’s tough. It’s a tough balance, trying to be the best mom. And obviously my family is my priority.

And then also, I love what I do, and I love that I get to have a job that I enjoy so much and gives me the freedom to spend a lot of time with my daughter, frankly, and travel and everything else.

But it is hard not to spend every second with her.”

– Jessica Alba 

Stay True to Who You Are and What You are Passionate About

“I wasn’t going to give up who I was before I had the baby. It’s important to stay true to that as an example — also for my son to find out what his goals are, what he’s passionate about doing, so it’s sort of leading by example in that sense.

It’s a tough thing. I had a moment leaving him today to get ready for tonight of missing him, but every working mom goes through it. They know what it feels like.”

– Christina Aguilera

Balance Your Time and Compartmentalize Your Feelings

“Being a working mother can be fraught with tension at certain times. I definitely relate to the frantic fear that you’re screwing up — of doing the wrong thing despite the best of intentions.

I get up very early and get a lot of things done before my kids get up. And I compartmentalize and medicate myself on a daily basis.

Not really! I don’t medicate. But I do get up early.”

– Julia Louis-Dreyfus

 Remember Your Family

“Don’t forget about your family in your 20s. Because honestly, you’re gonna need them to baby-sit your kids when you’re in your 30s, and if you’ve ignored them or been a bitch to them, they’re not going to want to help you when you really need it.

And you will need it. Because it’s free.”

– Judy Greer 

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

“Your career won’t take care of you. It won’t call you back or introduce you to its parents. It will forget your birthday and wreck up your car.

Your career will never marry you…treat you career like a bad boyfriend. That way, if your career takes a turn, you can always sleep with somebody else.”

– Amy Poehler

Great Career and Healthy Family Relationships — You Can Have Both!

Can I really have a great career and healthy family relationships? Yes you can!

And this story deck will show you how. Celebrities, power couples and famous people share their secrets to having a happy, successful and well-balanced life.

We hope you’ll find their tips useful!

As usual, we at CakeHR appreciate you thoughts and comments. We love reading them so please don’t forget to share them below!

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