How Technology Helps Attain Work-Life Balance!

Thousands of employees may stop attending offices in the future!

They will now be working from home.  Sure, it was possible to work from home even earlier and many were doing it, but now advanced technology has created a more conducive work environment, bridging the gap between time-zones and locations.

Laptops, mobile communications and smart phones have changed the way things work at the workplace and increased personal productivity levels tremendously.  For many people, these gadgets have transformed their work-life balance.

What is work-life balance? It means maintaining a proper balance between one’s professional and personal lives, which includes family, pleasure etc.  Have you spent quality time with your family recently?

In the current day scenario, where it has become increasingly difficult to draw a line between work and home, the concept of attaining a work-life balance holds more relevance than ever before.

Employees from all occupations experience burn-out and higher stress levels which affect their lives.  A survey revealed that about 50% of employees from different backgrounds feel that their jobs are affecting their sexual and interpersonal relationships.  Not only that, it affects their health too, and results in heart diseases, sexual problems, infertility, muscular problems, exhaustion, alcoholism, smoking, depression and many other issues.

Children are affected too!  Most working parents have to hire childcare providers to take care of their younger children.  Where older children are concerned, a parentless home drives them to occupy themselves after school through various activities that a parent would normally restrict to; such as using the internet without any guidance, playing video games, watching television.  This is one of the major reasons cited for millions of children visiting porn sites online, which in several cases causes irreversible damage to the young impressionable minds.

The new-age employer understands these problems and since higher productivity is what interests them the most, they are willing to achieve this through ensuring work-life balance for their employees.  Such employers, who use technology to enhance working arrangements are looked at as better employers, and employees are more likely to experience job satisfaction and stay in the organization longer.

Today’s employee loves the idea of telecommuting and finds it highly attractive for a variety of reasons; one of them being the increased travel time.  Technology has a major role to play in the way things have changed for the better.  Now employees can put their commuting time to good use by using technology like the Blackberry that allows them to read and respond to mails, even hold conferences.  They can keep themselves updated on every aspect of the workplace even when out on a meeting.

The ability to work away from the office or from home boosts productivity; although, the working hours may at times be longer.  Most employees do not mind the extra working hours as the flexibility of the virtual workplace offers them greater freedom than ever before.

The work-from-home concept is huge now and has become a common trend.  This allows employees to take care of their official as well as personal responsibilities efficiently.  Working from home involves less commuter stress, more control over their schedule, more time with the family and the most significant fact is that it can enhance the much-longed for work-life balance.

It helps new mothers or women on maternity leave and others too, as they can fix their own flexible working hours or work part-time from home or visit their office just a couple of days in a week.

Over the years, advancing technology transformed the workplace. All this is made possible through remote access and broadband connectivity, which enables employees to work from anywhere in the world. Internet provides global access at any time of the day or night and employees are never more than a heartbeat away from information they need.

In order to be able to put these technological benefits to good use and balance work and home, an employee must ensure that he or she limits the extent to which technology is allowed to affect their lives, and use it wisely with self-discipline.  Maintaining a proper work-life balance not only helps in reducing stress levels but also improves the overall quality of life.