Consequences of Work & Life Imbalance

Sustaining balance is an essential component of a harmonious existence; if you're too heavily weighted by work responsibility, both your personal and professional lives stand to suffer the consequences. Overcompensating in either direction creates internal struggle to appease the demands that work and life impose, leaving you distressed and without the fortitude to effectively sustain either one.


Symptoms
The throes of work/life disproportion manifest themselves in a number of recognizable ways: tardiness, excessive absenteeism and disability claims are but a few indicators that point toward imbalance. Other signs not always recognized as fallout from this disparity, according to the American Psychological Association, include headaches, lack of concentration and irritability. The University of Warwick says Americans are especially plagued by work and life imbalance, a reality that often segues into stress and safety issues.

Loss of Personal Time
Research proves that people consistently work more and recreate less: Time spent in the office has increased 15 percent over the past 20 years as leisure has declined 33 percent, according to the Productivity Institute.

Angst and Burnout
Sometimes staff is cut to little more than a skeleton crew while workloads remain heavy, creating stress, anxiety and pressure for those expected to carry the burden. Job satisfaction becomes a considerable issue as the remaining workers fall further and further behind in their ability to foster work-life balance. The University of Warwick notes a 40-year downward trend of job dissatisfaction in American workers, a reality that continues to compromise efforts toward achieving work and life harmony.

Absenteeism
The ebb and flow of prioritizing work tasks with familial responsibilities can become overwhelming when one or the other consistently demands greater preference; juggling these obligations requires sacrifice and compromise. Employees who fall into the absenteeism trap as a way to find balance are, according to the Work Life Balance Centre and Coventry University, experiencing weakening organizational commitment by skipping work. Respondents of the 2008-2009 Worklife Balance Survey reported being absent an average of 9 days during that period, five days more than just the previous year.

Originally written for and published by Demand Media.