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We seem to be working hard to have a blissful life and try all our efforts to have balance between our work and life. The concept of work-life started to evolve from the 1970's to describe the balance between an individual's work and personal life. Increasing and affordable technologies have made it more feasible for the employees to keep in contact with work. Employees have many methods, such as emails, computers, smart phones, tablets etc. which enable them to accomplish their work beyond the physical boundaries of their office. Employees may respond to an email or a voice mail after-hours or during the weekend, typically while not officially on the job. Generally, employees who consider their work roles to be an important component of their identities will be more likely to apply these communication technologies to work while in their non-work domain. Companies use email and distribute smartphones to enable and encourage their employees to stay connected to the business even when they are not in the office. While, physically the employees can be at any place or at home, these technological methods provide them with the convenience to have a digital workplace. The more the separation between physical workplace and the digital workplace is blurred, the more the work-life balance seems to be disturbed. Each individual responds in its own way to the work-life conflict, some may reduce the numbers of hours to work, some may avoid using their gadgets at home for work purposes, some may spend additional time at work to avoid carrying any work to home, some may allocate time at home during which they can do office work etc. Increased globalization and inter-dependencies of the economies of the nations across the world have resulted in increased working hours, and twenty four by seven work patterns. Work-Life Balance does not mean an equal balance. Trying to schedule an equal number of hours for each of your various work and personal activities is usually unrewarding and unrealistic. Your best individual work-life balance will vary over time, often on a daily basis. The right balance for you today will probably be different for you tomorrow. The right balance for you when you are single will be different when you marry, or if you have children; when you start a new career versus when you are nearing retirement. Usually, the balance seems to involve a job well performed in a day, followed by the time a person devotes to have relaxation, peace, enjoyment, religiousness, spend time with family etc. and other activities that takes away the stress, tensions and bring about happiness. Work-life balance or work-life effectiveness appear to be the ability to experience a sense of control and to stay productive at work while maintaining a happy, healthy home life with sufficient leisure. It’s attaining focus and awareness, despite seemingly endless tasks and activities competing for your time and attention. Going further, work-life balance entails having some breathing space for yourself each day; feeling a sense of accomplishment, while not being consumed by work; and having a fulfilling domestic life without short-changing career obligations. And usually it’s rooted in whatever fulfillment means to a person within 24-hour days, seven-day weeks, and however many years a person or our world might have left.
Many people expose themselves unsolicited to the so-called job stress, because the 'hard worker' enjoys a very high social recognition, is preferred by companies or employers and are more likely to receive promotions. The more the person's behaviour or acts shows being committed to the organisation, the more likely is the person to be preferred for promotions or bonuses over others. These aspects can be the cause of an imbalance in the areas of life. But there are also other reasons which can lead to such an imbalance. Uncertainty seems to be the dominant attitude to life in our modern society. This uncertainty can be caused by the pressure which is executed from the society to the humans. It is the uncertainty to succeed, not to achieve something what the society expects, self-esteem and especially the desire for recognition in all areas of life. In today's society, we are in a permanent competition. Appearance, occupation, education of the children - everything is compared to a media staged ideal. Everything should be perfect, the deep-rooted dislike to all average, the obsession to excellence, out of the box thinking - these are all considered as traditional and valued. Who ever wants or expects more - on the job, from the partner, from the children, from themselves - will one day be burned out and empty inside. He is then faced with the realization that perfection does not exist or there is always room for improvement. Who is nowadays empty inside and burned out, is in the common language a Burnout. But due to the definitional problems Burnout is till this date not a recognized illness. An attempt to define this concept more closely, can be: a condition that is faced by only the passionate people, that is certainly not a mental illness but only a grave exhaustion, but can lead to numerous mental sickness. In addition to the ultra hard-working and the idealists; mainly the perfectionist, the loner, the very serious and the sensitive are especially endangered of a burnout. Burnout is more common in the people who think that only losers become depressed, who try to push things which are not in control to make them work just to avoid acknowledging any weakness of the work pattern or any lack in themselves, who set un-realisable goals, who are afraid of losing any competitive edge, who try to be ahead at any cost etc. All together they usually have a lack of a healthy distance to work. The phases of burnout can be described, among other things, first by great ambition, then follows the suppression of failure, isolation and finally, the attitude towards the employer or supervisor that, people are motivated purely by self-interest; becoming distrustful of human sincerity or integrity. Concerned persons have very often also anxiety disorders and depressions, which are serious mental illness. Those in high-stress jobs are more likely than others to suffer from stress-related medical conditions and to quit. According to a survey, four out of ten U.S. employees state that their jobs are very or extremely stressful. In the UK, many people are working under some dangerous levels of stress. One in five people said a fear of losing their jobs was the primary cause of stress at work, with a quarter of 16 to 24 year olds feeling undervalued in their workplace due to their bosses attitudes towards them. Another survey, canvassing the opinions of over 16,000 professionals across the globe, found that over half (51%) of Indian respondents say their stress levels have risen over the past year, in Hong Kong, the figure was 62%, compared to 73% in China. Four out of five Germans complain about too much stress, one in six under 60 swallows at least once a week, a pill for the soul, whether it is against insomnia, depression or just for a bit more drive in the stressful everyday life. Japan's health ministry has announced that there were 143 cases of karoshi (sudden death from overwork) last year, the highest level since it took notice of the problem in 1987, the root cause of karoshi being Japan's extraordinary long-hours working culture. Stress can lead to burnout, whether a person is a chief executive or a shelf stacker. People seem to be losing health to gain money and then losing money to restore the lost health. Young people who start their careers, even with honest hard-work set-up of the mind, after some time might find the work patterns to be stressful, superficial, with no real time recognition and lack of value or respect, and might consider the purpose to be meaningless. Among other areas of expectation from the job, job satisfaction plays an important role, even if the job is offering good monetary returns, lack of value or respect might create dissatisfaction from the job.
And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God. {Ecclesiastes 3:13}
Smith is a corporate professional working in a renowned company, he has an important appointment at 11 O' Clock. It is ten now and he has been thinking about the preparation of the appointment, as the deal will provide the company with new areas to explore and will prove as a benchmark for the upcoming events and growth plans of the company. Smith called his assistant Samantha on call to get the material ready for the meeting. Samantha arrived little late today, as she could not catch the routine train to office due to her child having little cold from last night and her child was unwilling to go to school today. So she arranged to get her child to stay at his retired Uncle's home today early morning for look after of her child. The manager of Smith has already talked to her and asked her the explanation of coming late. Samantha has been thinking about of how difficult it has been since last one year to work, everybody asks and complains. No one listens to her and Mr. Smith also had argued with her in the past about the work allocated and its completion. She did not want to change the job as it has been only two years since she shifted from her last company, but the things appear to be unmanageable here also. Smith received a call on his mobile from his old friend, who is in the city and that it has been long and he will meet him after the day's work is over. While he was on call, his boss called him on the intercom and asked him the status of the presentation material of the meeting, immediately he said to his friend on mobile to catch him later and informed the boss that the material is ready and will discuss with the boss at 10:45. It is 10:15 now and in a hurry he called Samantha in an authoritative tone to provide the material in next five minutes. Samantha took the material and the resignation later along with her. Smith was thinking that Samantha has always been co-operative and provided the material on time despite arguments, he should convey thanks to her. Samantha stepped in, and provided the material and when Smith tried to convey thanks to her and said 'Samantha..', the reply came 'I quit' and handed over the resignation. Smith anyway said thanks to her and took the resignation letter to be provided to the human resource manager. He kept silent for about two minutes after Samantha left, then he had a glance over the presentation material and at 10:40 went to his manager, who was angry because of the last month's performance of his another staff member and shouted at Smith for the material as it is already getting late. They discussed, the meeting started on time and went all fine, and finished at 12:30, thirty minutes prior to the completion time, as the client had to catch a flight to another city for business deal. Smith was hopeful and little nervous, that his manager might be unhappy, as the client left in between. He skipped his afternoon meal and checked the remaining work. In the evening Smith realized he forgot to hand over the resignation letter of Samantha to the human resource manager because of the meeting and received an explanation call from the human resource manager for the delay. He immediately submitted it with acknowledgement and explained the reason. His manager called him on phone and said that he might find an alternate to Smith as per the client's requirement, and be ready to move in to the new project by tomorrow morning. Smith was thinking it difficult as the new project might require shifting to new place and he recently got his child admitted in a reputed school. He received a call from home that his mother is having headache and wanted Smith to get her the medicine while returning from office. His manager informed him after ten minutes of the last call from home, that the Client was happy about today's meeting and wanted Smith to work for the same project and praised him. Smith got a relief that all went fine and while moving out of the office, his old friend called him, whom he asked to meet after office hours. He met him at the coffee shop of the busy street, half an hour drive from his office and remembered the memories of school days. While he was about to pay for the coffee, he realized that the cash is finished and the nearest ATM is a mile away and the coffee shop takes cash only, his friend compelled him to keep his purse and paid for the coffee and took leave. Smith drove to home, thinking that he will withdraw cash tomorrow morning at the office premises ATM and there is sufficient petrol for three days. He stepped in to the home and his wife started complaining about the backyard junk, which was to be disposed off. Smith informed her that, he already talked to a guy he knows, who will carry it away this Sunday. Then his mother came and asked about the medicine, which he forgot. He said sorry and immediately he drove to the nearest medicine shop, which was about to be closed and purchased the medicine through the card and came home. It is already late, they had dinner and while going to sleep Smith thought that it was tough day, and gave thanks to the Almighty that all went well.
Bethany works at a business firm. Today she has to attend parent teacher meeting at her younger son's school. Her husband David went to office as the client was visiting him regarding an assignment. Bethany met the maths teacher of Philip, her younger son, who informed her that Philip needs to improve in maths, overall he is keeping good in all aspects of study. While moving to office, she is thinking that she has to find a maths tutor for Philip, as her son requires special attention in the subject. She had already informed her manager that she would be coming late due to the meeting. When she arrived, her colleague Vijayalakshmi came to her and said 'Happy Birthday!', it's her birthday today. The whole team came and wished her. Bethany is planning to leave early today, as she has to find a tutor for Philip and thinking that today the family will eat outside to celebrate her birthday. As she started working, she received an email from the offshore team, that project module needs to be completed today as there is some change in the schedule of implementation. She has already completed eighty percent of the work, and completing it today would require additional one hour than the routine. She thought that she will increase the work speed to complete the same on time and leave for home. After some time she realized that she forgot to pay the electricity bill of the house and today is the last date of the same. She tried to log in to pay it online, but she forgot her internet banking pin, she called the support team of the bank and inquired about resetting the same. The support team informed her that they will need basic details to identify the customer and then the password will be sent on personal mail ID. She provided the details and support team said, as today the server maintenance task of the bank is carried out, there will be some delay in sending the password. It is 12:30 now and the project team gathered at the cafeteria to have a little get together on Bethany's birthday, she offered them snacks and fruit drinks. Later, her manager informed her that one of the team mates went home, as his mother was ill and needed hospitalization, so she has to complete his part also as no one else knows about that module. She felt overwhelmed by the work, but carried on to complete it. Her team leader called her and said that he would like Bethany to note down some details regarding the module, she hurriedly took the pen and started to note the details in the notepad, but pen was exhausted, she managed to type the details on the notepad of her computer. After some time her manager called her and informed her that the module needs to be completed and the results be sent on or before 4 PM for the offshore team to start their part, it is 3 'O clock now. At around 03:33 PM, she got a call from her brother, who is a doctor, he wished her on her birthday and said that as he was moving by his home, he stopped there for some time, and handed over the phone to her mother. She is on call and working on the computer also to complete the module, her mother and father also wished her and the call closed at 03:42 PM. She is nervous and stressed, as she will not be able to complete the module on time and will require another one hour. She is writing a mail about the delay and that in next one hour, the module will be ready. As she was writing, she received a mail from the offshore team that module can be completed by tomorrow also, as the client wanted a change to be incorporated in to the module, which he will inform by today evening. Bethany felt relieved, she moved out to have some water and sat for few minutes. She returned and started to complete her own work which was already delayed by two hours. She received a message on her phone that her internet banking pin has been reset and the same has been mailed to her email ID. She logged in, and paid the electricity bill on time. She completed her work, informed her manager about the status, and that the module completion will be taken over by her colleague when he will return tomorrow. It is 07:43 PM now, and the traffic is increased on the road to her home, it started raining also which further slowed down the traffic movement. She received a call from David, asking her if everything is fine at work, she informed that she is on the way to home and will let him know when she is home. She arrived home at 08:54 PM, usually it takes thirty minutes to home on normal days. She is late, and she rushed in to the Kitchen to prepare the dinner, as it is already late. While she was making arrangements, her daughter called her and said that daddy is not feeling well. She left and moved out to the living room and heard a group of voices 'Surprise!'. Her family had planned a surprise birthday party. Her mother-in-law and father-in-law were also present, they wished her. Her immediate next door neighbours were also there and they also wished her, while she was talking to them, they informed her that they were out today to find a home tutor for their child. She inquired further and said that she was also looking for a maths tutor for Philip, her neighbours told her that they have found one home tutor who will teach Philip also at reasonable charges. They finished their dinner and took leave, Bethany went to sleep and gave thanks to the Almighty for the day and the blessings received.
Sometimes, there are situations in life that seem to be unmanageable. Due to some personal, professional or other reasons, a person might have to look for other jobs or work allocations, it may appear that due to some unavoidable circumstances, it may not be possible to continue in the same career path, may be that there are many losses incurred in the business and it is not making any profit, might be the fear that it may damage the reputation and status of the person in society if the news of running unsuccessful work or business spreads out, whatever may be reason that it appears it is not possible to sustain and it seems the career is ending. It might appear that there is no way out, the path seems to be closed. Career may end, and it may appear intolerable also to start anew, but it is nowhere related to the belief that the life ends with the career. The image of a successful person is portrayed as one having riches, luxuries and possessing positions, no matter at what costs these are obtained, they appear to be always busy, running after money, and with all efforts, trying to make their life become rich. This illusionary image of a successful person might confuse people about how to be successful in the world, coming out with numerous theories, strategies and concepts to become successful. It may appear that only self-oriented and money seeking people are successful at work, only such people are ahead, and take the credit of anyone's hard work. All that might remain, but for a short time and has no stability, and Yahushua has already informed us through the example of prayer about such people that they have their rewards. It may be possible that after leading a self and money oriented life, a person may find it meaningless or worthless, and might turn to a life more worth living. True success does not lies in never failing, but learning from the failures; it does not means earning monetary gains, wealth or positions of this world only, but having an understanding of, and faith in the Holy Scriptures; it does not means securing comforts or luxuries of this world, but to serve with the resources available. It should not be counted for a loss, if a person loses job to maintain righteousness, but a victory. Careers and opportunities are man-made things, if some paths are closed, some other alternate paths will certainly be provided by the Almighty, as He knows our situations and circumstances, just be patient and have faith in Him and His words. Remember, everything that this world can provide will not go with us and can never be compared to the promise of eternal life, which the Almighty Himself assures to all those, who will walk according to the instructions and commandments of the Holy Scriptures, while keeping the faith in the same.
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. {1 Timothy 6:7}
If every day seems like it is a soul-crushing struggle for you, then you should know this also that you are not alone. Adriana Alvarez is a 22-year-old single mother from Chicago, with a three-year-old son named Manny. To support Manny, she works full-time as a cashier in Chicago at a renowned fast-food chain restaurant of the world. She has worked there for five years, but still make $10.50 an hour. The only way they can make it work is with food stamps, Medicaid, and a child care subsidy. Most of her coworkers are in the same boat, no matter how long they've held their jobs. With child care, transportation to work, food, rent, and other basic expenses, there’s no money left over for living. Every time she thinks about taking Manny somewhere fun, like to a movie, she has to think about whether they can really afford it. They live in a basement apartment, because it’s all they can afford. When it rains, water seeps into the apartment. This wetness brings mold, and they can’t get rid of the odour. She can’t even leave anything on the floor, which is tough with a three-year-old. Toys or anything else on the floor may get ruined when the water comes in. She is taking part in nationwide strikes to try to force the company to pay workers like her a livable wage. Unfortunately, that simply is not going to happen. Fast food chain restaurants are already experiencing a sales downturn, and if they raise wages substantially, they will get taken over by the competition, and moreover those jobs were never meant for people that are trying to raise families. Earlier it was teenagers and senior citizens that worked at such restaurants, but now millions upon millions of Americans in their prime working years are doing such jobs. It is really easy to tell Adriana that she should 'get a better job', but that can be extremely difficult, especially if you don’t have much education. The story of Adriana is real and there are tens of millions of other Americans that have similar stories.
Life and the circumstances are difficult, and will continue to remain so or might become difficult further, until the great day of the Almighty arrives. To try our best to accommodate and survive the changes, we should walk as per the commandments of the Holy Scriptures while performing our daily duties. Employers can offer a range of different programs and initiatives, such as flexible working arrangements in the form of part-time, casual and telecommuting work. More proactive employers can provide compulsory leave, strict maximum hours and foster an environment that encourages employees not to continue working after hours, they can offer employees flexible office hours routine and provide compulsory consultation or communication channels so that employees do not feel undervalued or overlooked. This in turn will help the organization achieve long term goals, sustainable growth and retain the workforce which is any organisation's strongest asset. Employees who are looking for new options or who have retired can go for self-employment options. When you have worked for others all your life, shifting to self-employment without someone directing your work, can be frightening or seem overwhelming. However, you have valuable skills and knowledge which, with the blessings of the Almighty, can be turned into an income producing business. Take your life experience, your job aptitude, the skill set you have learned and look for a vocation that uses what you already know. By creating a job from what you can do and are good at, the transition to self-employment will be much easier. Self-employment options may include a wide range of services like beautician/barber (may be done out of one’s home or the service taken to nursing homes and retirement centers); Tutoring or teaching foreign language, special skills or technical knowledge (for the less privileged children or people); Home Health Care (for the elderly and handicapped); Taxi services - transportation for the elderly or handicapped; Sewing, mending, tailoring, alteration of garments; Knitting services (for the elder or child care centers); Laundry - washing, ironing; Child care or elderly care (In their home or yours); Cleaning services for the house, businesses and schools; Window washing; Parks and Grounds maintenance; Selling clothing, firewood or home décor products like drapes, curtains, pillows etc.; Repair services like electrical, plumbing, general carpentry, automotive repair (at the person’s home or business); Copier and printer maintenance and repair; Computer maintenance and repair; Web designing, graphic design for printers, marketing, programming, software application design, online services etc. Farming can also be considered as an employment option, if you do not have a lot of acreage, specialized farming can be done in a greenhouse or in your house under grow lights which may include organic farming, herbs and flowers, hydroponic gardening etc. Performing our duties and offering our services might be a blessing to someone in need.
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