Case Study- Work-Life Balance

Madga Hyshka was delegated by her HR Director to assist the telecommunication giant in
Canada, Telplus with ways to mitigate the issues regarding work-life and family balance.
Some of her findings were that workers spent over an hour each day, commuting to work,
which translates into ten working days for the year.

Additionally, workers’ stress levels in 1989 were 64%, which subsequently declined to 46%
in 1999. Moreover, workers’ stress levels resided anywhere between moderate to high
resulting in depression and anxiety in 1999. Conversely, technology did not work in the
employees’ favour. They were expected to be online at all times for seven days a week.

As a result, Magda did some extensive research and used the U.S Bureau of Labour statistics,
and discovered that there was a steady increase in work hours for the past decade.
Approximately, twenty-five million American citizens worked forty-nine hours weekly
compared to eleven million who worked fifty-nine hours per week. Which works out to
thirty-six million of the American population reported being overworked.

Furthermore, workers complained that leisure and spending time with their families were at
an all-time low. Thirty-six percent of the accessible population was not fearful of sacrificing
pay cuts to have shorter trips to work. Interestingly, Demographers anticipated that over 50%
of children born in the nineties will dwell in the same household as their parents. Sixty-two
percent of women who have children under six years of age are employed. The demographic
of mothers with pre-schoolers will have the fastest growing segment in the workforce.

Another interesting prediction is 44% of the American population between forty-five and
fifty-five years will have elderly parents, as well as children below twenty-one years of age.
Conversely, the predictions of demographers were inconsistent with the discoveries. the
number of Americans living alone has surpassed the number of married couples with
children.
 Recommendations

The Executives at TelPlus must desist from practising Personnel Management in the
workplace, which contributes to their adverse health issues. Workers must not be treated as
machines and tools

The number of working hours should be reduced and focus should be placed on productivity
as opposed to their duration at work.

TelPlus should compensate workers with paid time off from work, such as vacation,
bereavement leave etc. Instead of glorifying overworking and rewarding workers with
tangible benefits.

The company should encourage synchronous breaks where employees would have time to
converse and develop interpersonal skills.

The firm can dedicate a space in the company for childcare to facilitate employees with
young children.

The company can promote health and physical wellness. For example, can have gyms,
marathons and nutrition and aerobics burnout.