See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/342158681

WORK-LIFE BALANCE IN PANDEMIC: A CONCEPTUAL STUDY OF PROBLEMS

AND CHALLENGES FACED BY WORKING WOMEN PROFESSIONALS

Article · June 2020

CITATIONS READS

0 813

1 author:

Swarna Latha
Bharathiar University
2 PUBLICATIONS   0 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Swarna Latha on 14 June 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

WORK-LIFE BALANCE IN PANDEMIC: A CONCEPTUAL STUDY

OF PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES FACED BY WORKING
WOMEN PROFESSIONALS

Dr.Swarnalatha.V1 Dr.Lalitha.P2
Abstract
Work -life balance is always challenging task for all working community that too women it’s a great challenge,
because fighting day to day chores at home and office is not an easy job. This purpose of this paper is to analyse
work-life balance of working women professionals in pandemic, and also problems and challenges faced by
them. The existing crisis has pushed people to do the job and home lives beneath the same roof for numerous
families, and they battle to manage everything is at this point visible to everyone. The present paper is
discussing about what are the problems and challenges faced by working women professionals and tips to
improve working from home in the pandemic.
Keywords: work-life balance, working women professionals, problems and challenges.

Introduction
In this challenging and pandemic situation balancing work life and home life is
overwhelming for any working class especially women, because, women spending a
disproportionate amount of time handling housework, childcare responsibilities and office
work too. An individual may live a life of which is happy, healthy and even successful when
there will be work-life Balance. Work-life balance has undeniably become some sort of
primary concern to all those wishing to have a high-quality of life (Breitenecker and Shah,
2018). It is yet to be confirmed with regards to the relationship between the happiness and
peace of employee and productivity in the particular working environment. Still, the basic
accord is that a happy worker will turn into a gainful and productive worker (Joo and Lee,
2017, Abualoush et al., 2017). In people management, keeping workforce healthy and
making them to work for longer time is still a great challenge only (Nielsen et al., 2008).
Typically, prosperity and well-being of employee, both physical and mental, is definitely
very important, and even this stressed in many studies, employee well-being waves the
success of an organization. For example, it has been noted that employees who sense good
and capacity to deal with less stress at work and at home are very likely to encounter
fulfilment towards their job, and this can altogether influence their well-being and
furthermore their business organization. (Koubova and Buchko, 2013)
Importance of Work Life Balance
The prominence of work life balance has been emerged mainly because of changes in the
environments like technology, economic, cultural and environment etc. (And Covid 19 is best

1
. Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies, T John College, Bangalore.
2
. Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies, T John College, Bangalore.

Volume IX, Issue V, MAY/2020 Page No : 6173

Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

example). Because of these changes the nature of work, organisation, employment, leadership
and relationship also changing. Many changes are happening in social level and institutional
level and of course these changes are having impact in lives of Indian families. So, it is
utmost essential for people to discrete work life from their personal life in such a way that
neither intrudes on the other. This has many important benefits like helps to maintain mental
health, physical health, make people better-rounded in the organisation, and increased
productivity.
Objective of the study
To study the challenges and problems faced by working women professionals
Review of the Literature
Pradhan and Hati, (2017), they carried out to examine the impact of employee wellbeing on
psychological empowerment (i.e., meaning, competence, self-determination and impact).
Attempts have been made to explore the intervening role of happiness with relationship
between employees’ wellbeing and empowerment. Data were collected on 96 executives
randomly selected from Indian service sector. The final outcome of the study unveiled that
employee wellbeing was positively associated with employee empowerment. Happiness was
established to be an important mediator between employee wellbeing and empowerment.
Khaled adnanBataineh (2019), he inspected the relation of work-life balance, happiness,
and employee performance, Accordingly, a questionnaire-based survey was intended to test
the aforesaid model based on dataset of 289 employees’ from the ( Med Pharma),
Pharmaceutical industries in Jordan. The end results show that work-life balance and
happiness positively and pointedly affect employee performance. However, job satisfaction
non-impact in employee performance.
Ashwini A Yarnal. (2020), she encountered Work life balance (WLB) is the modern
distinctive issue of health care industry, since employees consistently need to succeed and
advance at work place, simultaneously for family and recreation. Balancing these two
boundaries is the reason for burn out of employees and thus the employers perceived this as a
need of hour and want to introduce the work life balance strategies, plans and formulate
polices to employee morale, motivation and productivity. This paper illuminates the wide
options for employers and employees to interface work life balance practices for
organizational and personal performance.
Ways to improve physical and mental health
According to psychology there are nine ways to improve physical and mental health. Mental
health is considerably more than a determination. It is the general psychological well-being—

Volume IX, Issue V, MAY/2020 Page No : 6174

Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

the way one feel about them self and as well as others and capacity to deal with their
emotions and manage regular challenges. Making these changes will pay off in all aspects of
life. It can boost mood, build resilience, and add to your overall enjoyment of life: Rolling
out these improvements will pay off in all parts of life. It can help to have good state of mind,
fabricate strength, and add to overall satisfaction throughout everyday life:
1. Tell yourself something positive.
2. Write down something you are grateful for.
3. Focus on one thing (in the moment).
4. Exercise.
5. Eat a good meal.
6. Open up to someone.
7. Do something for someone else.
8. Take a break.
9. Go to bed on time.
Discussion
The new corona virus outbreak, many organisations are implementing voluntary or perhaps
mandatory work-from-home policies, which mean lots of us will be working with an unusual
concern: working from home, the first time, full-time. Even though people have done this
before, working from home because of corona virus may possibly feel like an entire world is
new world: It’s almost certainly sudden. It might become to have an extended period of time
rather than a day and nobody aware how long it will last. The whole world is involved and of
course we still cannot necessarily socialize. And here challenge for women is managing both
personal as well as professional without any support from maid because of pandemic doing
all day to day activities at home, managing office work, taking care of kids, elderly people
etc., really hectic task for women to do all these things. According to ILO, Women globally
make up over 70 per cent of workers in health, including those working in care institutions.
They are on the front line of the fight against COVID-19. As a result of the pandemic they
are facing a double burden: longer shifts at work and additional care work at home. For the
almost 100 million female workers in health and care institutions around the world, balancing
work and family responsibilities has always been a challenge. The outbreak has shed light on
these longstanding gender inequalities. It has also exposed and exacerbated an already
existing global care crisis.
Now-a-days a very common dispute that everyone is facing and may have heard about is
burnout. This happens whilst immense stress is placed onto a person, culminating in

Volume IX, Issue V, MAY/2020 Page No : 6175

Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

“chronic stress.” That pressure may be precipitated by lots of things, from outrageous
workloads (and no work-life stability) to virtually now not feeling valued for
the difficult work one do. Even worse still, the pressure caused from such a lifestyle can lead
to different physical issues like excessive blood pressure and heart disease. Studies monitor
that people who balance work-life stability are much greater productive than people
who do not. A positive lifestyle consequently prompts stunning outcomes.
Young personnel with the ability to find suitable balance among work and own family
commitments seem like the productive ones. Accordingly, organizations that provide
adequate opportunities to their employees in managing their work and family roles will
in turn achieve the gain from their employees showing more potent stage of performance.
Having a whole some work-life stability facilitates personnel in appearing her/his
consigned responsibilities in more competent and effective manner.
Parallel study result was too reported in Richert- Kaźmierska and Stankiewicz, (2016) where
the authors advised the conceivable happening of intolerable increase of staff turnover,
particularly among people with more potential, talent and different career opportunities,
because of failure in addressing work and life components.
7 Essential Tips for Working from Home during the Corona virus Pandemic (Regina
Borsellino, 2020)
1. Get Dressed
The first tip is get dressed. There is no need to get dressed as formally as you may for
work, but the simple performance of changing clothes act as an indicator that it’s time
to wake up and get matters done. “Don’t underestimate the influence of
placing on garments suitable for public viewing. It makes you feel confident and
facilitates to draw the road between being at work and being at home”
2. Designate a Workspace or Home Office
One of the massive challenges while it comes to functioning remotely is keeping your
work and domestic lives separate. Everyone has to make their workspace comfortable
with a fine chair because to sit for eight hours a day and followed by a few
decorations and pleasant settings. Also an area with good natural lighting if it is
possible.
3. Keep Clearly Defined Working Hours
The next tip is to clearly defining the working hours. It’s just like tip two (setting
physical work area), one should be clear about when they are working not. Here,

Volume IX, Issue V, MAY/2020 Page No : 6176

Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

people can do better work and be ready to switch back to the office if they stick with
fixed working hours.
4. Build Transitions Into (and Out of) Work
The next tip is, our morning commute no longer simply receives us to work —from
one physical area to another, however it also gives our brain time to get ready for
work. Just because not travelling doesn’t mean we shouldn’t carve out equivalent
routines that will help us to ease into our workday. Give yourself something so that it
will give signal to the end of work and aid as a buffer.
5. Don’t Get Too Sucked in by the News—or Anything Else
The next important tip is managing distraction. Distraction it is one of the great
challenge faced by people who are working from home exclusively people new to this
set up and not used to it. “Your home is right in front of you,” Berger says. That
means that something people usually considering getting home to after work is now
with them. It’s human being to get distracted. But it is in their hand how much people
can let them self get distracted.
At present, one of the prevalent distractions is the news. And if you’re operating
remotely because of the new pandemic situation, checking in on COVID-19 updates
is going to be on the front of your mind. Its right to stay informed, undeniably, it’s
also easy to scroll yourself into a stressful situation.
6. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
If you don’t usually work from home, probabilities are there can be a few bumps in
the road when you have to all at once go fully remote. The key to steering through
these bumps is communication—especially together with your supervisor and direct
reports. Either before you make the transfer or as soon as you recognize it’s
happening, give you a plan that lays out expectancies for how often you should test in
and how you’ll carry any adjustments or new assignments to one another. Do the
same with everybody you normally work collaboratively with during the day.
7. Don’t Forget to Socialize
When the complete office starts running from home, you’re reducing off numerous
the casual social interactions you’re used to having for the duration of the day that
help you feel less lonely and break up the monotony of work. “People forget about
they want to be round others because it’s the small talk and random fireplace alarms
that preserve your days feeling unique and prevent that hamster-wheel feeling. When
you figure from home, you don’t have that,” Combat this by speaking along with your

Volume IX, Issue V, MAY/2020 Page No : 6177

Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

co-workers at some point of the day through Slack, calls, text, Zoom, or however your
business enterprise communicates. If you generally ask your co-workers
approximately their weekends, keep that up. If you’d normally comment to them
about a selected topic, reach out. These little interactions go a prolonged way.
Conclusion
The main objective of the study is to analyse the problems and challenges faced by working
women professionals in this pandemic situation. Nobody knows when the things will become
better and world will back to normal state. During starting time of pandemic really women
working professional faced many problems because both has to manage in one place that to
the situation is sudden and unexpected. So many women all over world faced stress, sleeping
problem, mood swing because of over burden and research also reported the same. But now
things are habituated and women are coping with the situation. To conclude, the current study
helps women to improve mental and physical stability and also tips to improve work from
home in this pandemic.
Reference
Adnan Bataineh, K. (2019). Impact of work-life balance, happiness at work, on employee
performance. International Business Research, 12(2), 99-112.
Breitenecker, R. J., & Shah, S. A. M. (2018). Relation of work-life balance, work-family
conflict, and family-work conflict with the employee performance-moderating role of job
satisfaction. South Asian Journal of Business Studies, 7(1), 129-146.
https://doi.org/10.1108/SAJBS-02-2017-0018
Dr. Ashwini A Yarnal (2020) 'Worklife Balance Issues in Health Sector – A Case Study of
Vatsalya Hospital Vijayapur Karnataka', International Journal of Current Advanced
Research, 09(03), pp. 21437-21443.
Helmle, J. R., Botero, I. C., & Seibold, D. R. (2014). "Factors that influence perceptions of
work-life balance in owners of copreneurial firms". Journal of Family Business Management,
4(2), 110-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFBM-06-2014-0013
Joo, B. K., & Lee, I. (2017). "Workplace happiness: work engagement, career satisfaction,
and subjective well-being", Evidence-based HRM. A Global Forum for Empirical
Scholarship, 5(2), 206-221. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-04-2015-0011
Koubova, V., &Buchko, A. A. (2013). "Life‐work balance: Emotional intelligence as a
crucial component of achieving both personal life and work performance". Management
Research Review, 36(7), 700-719. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-05-2012-0115

Volume IX, Issue V, MAY/2020 Page No : 6178

Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

Nielsen, K., Randall, R., Yarker, J., & Brenner, S. O. (2008). “The effects of transformational
leadership on followers’ perceived work characteristics and psychological well-being: a
longitudinal study”. Work & Stress,22(1), 16-32.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370801979430
Pradhan, R.K., Hati, L. and Kumar, U. (2017) ‘Impact of employee wellbeing on
psychological empowerment: mediating role of happiness’, Int. J. Manufacturing Technology
and Management, Vol. 31, No. 6, pp.581–595.
Richert-Kaźmierska, A., &Stankiewicz, K. (2016). Work–life balance: Does age matter?.
Work, 55(3), 679-688.
Saenghiran, N. (2014). Towards enhancing happiness at work: a case study. Social Research
Reports, 25, 21-33.
Semlali, S., &Hassi, A. (2016). "Work–life balance: how can we help women IT
professionals in Morocco?". Journal of Global Responsibility, 7(2), 210-225.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JGR-07-2016-0017
Links
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/women-s-mental-health-matters/201510/9-ways-
you-can-improve-your-mental-health-today
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/all-the-days-are-blurring-together-how-to-battle-
burnout-and-find-a-healthy-work-life-balance-during-the-pandemic-2020-05-13
http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_741060/lang--en/index.htm
https://www.themuse.com/advice/coronavirus-work-from-home-tips

Volume IX, Issue V, MAY/2020 Page No : 6179

View publication stats