Work–Life Balance in Home-Based Businesses

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isla Kapasi ◽  
Laura Galloway
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Life Time ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Working At Home ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Home Based ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Study Participants

Home-based businesses are increasing in number throughout Western economies. One of the benefits of a home-based business is asserted to be improved work–life balance, yet there is little empirical evidence to support this assertion. Using a qualitative methodology, this paper explores the work–life balance in eight home-based businesses in the UK. Motivations for working at home include the desire for improved work–life balance, but the achievement of this aim among the study participants was found to be nuanced. Critically, home-based business is another employment context in which the work–life balance must be managed. This management is especially needed because of the blurring of work and life time and space, which may demand more self-discipline in home-based workers compared with those in employment or self-employment remote from the home.

scholarly journals Gender, Flexibility Stigma and the Perceived Negative Consequences of Flexible Working in the UK

2018 ◽  
Vol 151 (2) ◽  
pp. 521-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heejung Chung
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
The Uk

AbstractThis study examines the prevalence and the gender differences in the perceptions and experiences of flexibility stigma—i.e., the belief that workers who use flexible working arrangements for care purposes are less productive and less committed to the workplace. This is done by using the 4th wave of the Work-Life Balance Survey conducted in 2011 in the UK. The results show that 35% of all workers agree to the statement that those who work flexibly generate more work for others, and 32% believe that those who work flexibly have lower chances for promotion. Although at first glance, men are more likely to agree to both, once other factors are controlled for, women especially mothers are more likely to agree to the latter statement. Similarly, men are more likely to say they experienced negative outcomes due to co-workers working flexibly, while again mothers are more likely to say they experienced negative career consequences due to their own flexible working. The use of working time reducing arrangements, such as part-time, is a major reason why people experience negative career outcomes, and can partially explain why mothers are more likely to suffer from such outcomes when working flexibly. However, this relationship could be reverse, namely, the stigma towards part-time workers may be due to negative perceptions society hold towards mothers’ commitment to work and their productivity. In sum, this paper shows that flexibility stigma is gendered, in that men are more likely to discriminate against flexible workers, while women, especially mothers, are more likely to suffer from such discrimination.

Women and work‐life balance: is home‐based business ownership the solution?

2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Walker ◽  
Calvin Wang ◽  
Janice Redmond
Keyword(s):  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Women And Work ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Business Ownership ◽  
Home Based

scholarly journals COVID-19 and Work-Life Balance: What about Supervisor Support and Employee Proactiveness?

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Rajendra Kumar ◽  
Uma Mohan Mokashi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Supervisor Support ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Behavior ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
The Uk

The authors attempted to investigate how to resolve the growing work-life balance issue occurring due to COVID-19 Pandemic in the higher education sector. On the premise of prominent literature, the study conceptualized a framework to test if supervisor support and employee`s proactive work behavior could help address the work-life balance issue. Through applying the quantitative approach, the study collected data from employees working in a higher education institution in the UK. Results of the structural equation modeling found significant association and influence of supervisor support and work-life balance. The study also found a strong affiliation between proactive work behavior and work-life balance. However, proactive work behavior did not moderate supervisor support and work-life balance relationship. The study concluded that both supervisor support and proactive work behavior could be vital in helping employees to achieve their work goals effectively and efficiently without compromising their work-life balance. The study forwards prominent implications to guide practitioners, policymakers and researchers in this domain.

Work, health and the commodification of life's time: reframing work–life balance and the promise of a long life

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (7) ◽  
pp. 1458-1483 ◽  
Author(s):  
SIMON BIGGS ◽  
MICHAEL McGANN ◽  
DINA BOWMAN ◽  
HELEN KIMBERLEY
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Life Time ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
International Consensus ◽  
Demographic Ageing ◽  
Ageing Society ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Social Legitimacy ◽  
Long Life

ABSTRACTHow to respond to an ageing society has become an increasingly important question, for employers, workers and policy makers. Here we critically engage with that debate, arguing that future approaches to the relationship between work and age should take into account multiple influences on older worker behaviour, including the combination of economic, lifecourse and personal priorities. We consider the international consensus that has emerged about the primacy of work as the solution to what to do with a long life. We then address the uncertain nature of work as it affects older workers, and discuss the commodification of time in relation to a productivist approach to demographic ageing and the attitudes of older workers themselves. A tension is noted between pressures for continuity and discontinuity within the adult lifecourse which is often eclipsed within a policy discourse that tends to focus on continuity as a route to social legitimacy. Thinking about life-time as a meta-narrative, a tension between existential life priorities and commodification, may help to explain the ease with which ‘live longer–work longer’ policies both dominate and obscure the potential of a long life. Finally, we examine the implications for work–life balance and suggest this needs to be radically re-thought when addressing the purpose of a longer working life and the promise of a long life in general.

scholarly journals Women’s employment patterns after childbirth and the perceived access to and use of flexitime and teleworking

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heejung Chung ◽  
Mariska van der Horst
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Large Household ◽  
Family Demands ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right

This article sets out to investigate how flexitime and teleworking can help women maintain their careers after childbirth. Despite the increased number of women in the labour market in the UK, many significantly reduce their working hours or leave the labour market altogether after childbirth. Based on border and boundary management theories, we expect flexitime and teleworking can help mothers stay employed and maintain their working hours. We explore the UK case, where the right to request flexible working has been expanded quickly as a way to address work–life balance issues. The dataset used is Understanding Society (2009–2014), a large household panel survey with data on flexible work. We find some suggestive evidence that flexible working can help women stay in employment after the birth of their first child. More evidence is found that mothers using flexitime and with access to teleworking are less likely to reduce their working hours after childbirth. This contributes to our understanding of flexible working not only as a tool for work–life balance, but also as a tool to enhance and maintain individuals’ work capacities in periods of increased family demands. This has major implications for supporting mothers’ careers and enhancing gender equality in the labour market.

scholarly journals The Intersection of Reproductive, Work-Life Balance and Early-Education and Care Policies: ‘Solo’ Mothers by Choice in the UK and Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 458
Author(s):  
Ana Bravo-Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Early Education ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

This article focuses on women who have opted to be mothers on their own by choice in the UK and Spain, and how their access to assisted reproductive technologies in the National Health Service was affected because they were 35 years old or older, forcing them to go to private clinics for their treatment. Having given birth to their children, the participants face a second obstacle: the lack of policies that support work-life balance. A third obstacle also arises, in the form of a lack of childcare and early-education provision, particularly in the UK. The last two obstacles affect the whole population, but they are intensified in the case of solo-mother-families where the mother is responsible for simultaneously being the caregiver and the sole economic provider. Solo motherhood by choice highlights the impact of the absence of these policies, and the inequalities that result from current contemporary conceptualizations of family, woman and early-childhood-care and education. This article draws on ethnographic research that took place in the UK and Spain where I conducted 60 in-depth interviews and participant observations. The aim is to provide an analysis capable of capturing and confronting how inequalities affect women-mothers-workers and their children.

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Werdie Van Staden ◽  
James Appleyard
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
The Third ◽  
Regulatory Changes ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

This issue features the third set of articles in the volume on work–life balance and burnout. It focuses on burnout among physicians and an intervention pursuing well-being by which to prevent or recover from burnout. Burnout among physicians is addressed from perspectives from the United Kingdom (UK), Nordic countries, Japan and Germany [4]. Different from the focus on burnout among physicians in these four articles, another article [7] focuses on interventions that pursue well-being by which one may prevent or recover from burnout. Burnout is a global problem adversely affecting physicians and patient care. In the UK, the first article shows, burnout among about a third of physician puts their national health service at risk. Burnout is linked to working conditions leading to emotional exhaustion and impediments to a good work–life balance. Working conditions brought about by regulatory changes in Japan and Germany feature respectively in the third and fifth articles. The fourth article drawing on Nordic studies underscores the person-centered point that burnout among physicians is adversely affecting the very foundation of the physician’s work, that is, the relationship with the patient. This issue, furthermore, features an article on the quantitative effects that well-being interventions had on the personality and health of a sample of refugees living in Sweden.

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