A complex web of demographic, economic, and pandemic-related factors has made the act of balancing and integrating work and life a little challenging for a majority of people.

A complex web of demographic, economic, and pandemic-related factors has made the act of balancing and integrating work and life a little challenging for a majority of people. Demographically, even before the pandemic hit, more women were in the workplace than ever before; more dual-income family units existed, and there were more single working parents. Further, workplaces are increasingly becoming more diverse and inclusive. 

 However, from an organizational perspective, cost-cutting measures, corporate downsizing activities, among other measures, have given these same workers more workloads. A long-term study conducted over 25 years on values in the United States documented a trend that casts doubts about whether working hard makes one a better person, and employees were less convinced that work is an important part of one’s life (Wey Smola & Sutton, 2002). This conflict continues to persist more so in light of the pandemic and pandemic-related economic impacts. When an individual’s life values balance with work-related values, there is value congruence that will likely minimize work-life integration conflicts.

As such, employers have a role and responsibility to make the work-life integration process a success by communicating a family-supportive philosophy or values to employees and backing that up with family-supportive programs and culture. Further, mentoring can be significantly helpful in making work-life integration easy and effective. Mentoring provides a social support system to reduce employee stress caused by a conflict in any of the four domains. How about a redesign of jobs such that people are given more autonomy on what they do? I think work-life integration is a feasible vision.

(Discussion Two KD)

I always thought that it was important to instill a sense of urgency in one’s employees.  Establishing clear goals and deadlines for completing tasks was always a major discussion among management personnel.  How else are tasks going to be completed if employees do not have a specific deadline for completion?  I never imagined that my boss would hand me a project and tell me to complete it at my discretion.  Things have certainly changed in the past year.  Covid-19 came along and put the brakes on just about every industry.  In doing so, the sense of urgency seemed to be less of an issue.  So is it really necessary to have a sense of urgency about everything?  Will my company come to a complete stop if I am not at work for a few days?  The short answer to this would be NO. 

Losing the sense of urgency in our daily life activities will obviously not cause the end of civilization as we know it.  Covid-19 showed us that nothing is urgent anymore (except for a vaccine).  All plans were put on hold, schools were closed forcing students to learn from home, and everyone was told that they are no longer required to come to work.  We can wake up when we want to, projects will get done when they get done, all meetings are canceled, and life goes on.  Now that we know that we can still get the work done without racing from one thing to another, will this become the new normal (Gilmore, 2020). 

It will be interesting to see if companies that employ thousands of people will realize that everything doesn’t have to be done yesterday.  That no matter what, the work will get done if the right people are in place.  If the job can get done with the employee working from home, I say to let them.  If it was able to be done during a pandemic, it can be done today.