Managing a healthy work-life balance has always been a challenge, but today’s working parents have more on their plate than ever. With the pressures of the housing shortage, rising inflation, and more Americans taking on multiple jobs in order to make ends meet, it can seem almost impossible to successfully balance responsibilities at work and at home.
Organizations can support working parents by demonstrating the empathy and flexibility that will help their employees be successful in every part of their lives. Here’s what employers need to know about improving work-life balance for working parents:
What is work-life balance?
Work-life balance is the management of time spent working compared with the time spent doing things outside of work. Much of the conversation around work-life balance centers on how hard it is to achieve and puts the onus on the individual to correct the imbalance—when the truth is, some people just have too much work, too many responsibilities, or not enough support.
Work-life balance looks different for everyone depending on their role, job flexibility, commitments outside of work, and support network. It’s also subject to change. There may be times when work looms larger and other times when employees can focus more on what they enjoy outside of work. However, with remote work as the new normal, your employees can feel constantly tethered to their work—which makes prioritizing work-life balance more important than ever.
Making remote work work
Especially over the past two years, ensuring employees are able to have a healthy work-life balance has been a key part of creating a healthy work environment. When work and life aren’t balanced, there can be major ramifications, ranging from burnout and lower productivity to physical illness and higher rates of attrition. The pandemic has already taken a toll on Americans' physical and mental health, and a lack of work-life balance may be contributing to the major increase in stress and anxiety over the last two years. Research shows that remote workers are more likely to work longer hours and work nights and weekends—unable to disconnect fully from their jobs on their devices.
Poor work-life balance may also be contributing to trends in employment and attrition. As the Great Resignation continues, record numbers of workers are still leaving their jobs—and many are citing burnout and a lack of flexibility as key reasons for quitting.
The challenges employees with families face
While many people struggle with the complexities of work-life balance, working parents face a unique set of difficulties, often compromising to be able to “do it all.” Working parents have to navigate the constantly changing status of the pandemic, uncertainty about school and childcare schedules, the costs of childcare among a shortage, and financial anxiety. This lack of support at home has serious consequences—a new Pew Research study found that roughly half of workers who recently quit their jobs point to childcare issues as the reason.
Because women bear more of the childcare burden, their work-life balance has been disproportionately affected. This intensified second shift has led to acute attrition among working moms, with a 6.5% decline in working mothers in the labor force between 2020 and 2021.
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