Article Review

The Source

Susan Dominus’s New York Times Magazine Article, “Rethinking the Work-Life Equation,” https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/rethinking-the-work-life-equation.html

A Brief Summary of the Reading

It requires more than regulations to create a completely dynamic workplace. The entire workplace culture needs to shift. The goal is to demonstrate that, even when firms promote adaptability through company rules, it might require some time for staff members to become comfortable, permitting their private lives to infringe on the limitations of their work lives. Achieving this transformation must begin with the employer’s manner of understanding and discussing work-life balance.

A Question About the Reading

Does it take more than just policies to make a workplace truly flexible, and how do companies that believe in giving their workers more control over their schedules make it work?

A Brief, Strongly-Worded Opinion One Way  

Employees who would work anytime they wanted to provide their tasks were finished on time and satisfied their objectives. Employees who accomplished their goals were, in short, considerably happier: they slept well, were fitter, and had less anxiety. These impacts even filtered downstream to workers’ children, who experienced decreased instability in the face of their everyday pressures; teens saw their patterns of sleeping increase. These workers indicated less desire to quit the company a year and three years later. It was a means of defying some workplace culture standards by encouraging managers to recognize the responsibilities well beyond work publicly. For many years, an impression of professionalism was intimately linked, maybe notably for women, to rigid regard for boundaries — to presenting oneself at work as somebody entirely free from the complexity of personal life. These restrictions may have been detrimental.

A Brief, Strongly-Worded Opinion in the Opposite Direction

Not every company is ready to commit months of ideation to accomplish the daring culture transition that the research groups made. However, sometimes it is nothing more than the culture that prevents firms from implementing important adjustments that would provide immense peace of mind to their personnel. Flexibility appears to be frowned upon in the institution, especially amongst nonparents. These are largely men and single persons without kids who are least capable of managing their work-life balance, perhaps since they believe they have the least right to take the granted break.

A Somewhat Longer Opinion That Tries to Take Both Sides Into Account: 

 Work anxiety is sometimes misunderstood as workplace regret, a particularly destructive kind of anguish. The sensation haunts you as you race into the workplace, panting, realizing you’re late, or even as you sneak out for a “meeting,” which is a much-needed haircut schedule. According to a countrywide poll, up to 96 percent of workers have flexibility, but just 56 percent say their firm is extremely accommodating of that choice (Kaufman). Most businesses have previously recognized the importance of flexibility in staff hiring and retainment: Based on one key research, 63 percent of firms now allow “few” workers to function from their homes on an irregular routine (Utom and Oko). And according to a poll done last year by the Families and Work Institute, 40% of participants felt that those who requested time off or different timelines to manage private or family issues were almost impossible to receive at their workplace. BDO was among these corporations that provided “mobility, but employees were not exploiting it,” according to Harris Schwartz. It did not feel culturally accepted, particularly for nonparents.

WorkS Cited

Kaufman, Eric K. Balancing the Work/Life Equation: Enjoying the Merits of a Marginal Life. 2019.

Utom, Vincent, and Chika Oko. Work Engagement and Work-Life Balance as Predictors of Productive Work Behaviour Among Commercial Bank Employees. 2016.