What’s Your Quality of Work Life?

By Monica Cardenas

On Sunday night, just as you are turning off the bedside lamp, you set your alarm two and a half hours earlier than your scheduled arrival time at the office. When the buzzer goes off, you get up, get ready, then get the kids up and ready and off to day care and school. Inevitably, one of them needs to be peeled from your arms, and for a moment you consider staying home today and playing with your children, who you see less and less these days.

Instead, you pull yourself together and hit the road. Another thirty-five minutes and you should be at your desk, barring any highway catastrophes.

Unfortunately, there is a catastrophe today, as there is at least once a week, and instead it takes more than an hour to reach the office. By now you’ve called the daycare to check on the kids three times and the office twice, informing your boss of the traffic situation. You’ve been cut-off twice by the same driver.

Meanwhile, the list of things you could be doing runs a mile-a-minute through your head. Making dinner, going to the gym, homework with the kids, finishing that project at work, preparing for a meeting, cleaning, sleeping, or maybe relaxing. The list goes on. You mentally add the hours, minutes, and seconds you spend going to and from work, and your frustration mounts. You watch the gas needle and add the increasing dollars that you must dump into your car each week just to get to work. If you had the time to take a vacation, could you even afford it?

You pull into the parking garage a half-hour late with frazzled nerves and an empty coffee mug.

How productive will you be today?

Recent studies have shown that work productivity, dedication and satisfaction is largely based on a quality work life. Quality of work life is a term used to describe the balance between work demands and personal interests, provided by the employer. In the past, this term was applied mainly to working mothers. However, in recent years, employers have begun to realize production improves considerably when employees are offered the benefit of a high quality work-life.

Two recent studies, among many others, prove that outside influences have profound effects on on-the-job performance. The first, conducted by Money magazine and Salary.com, revealed that employee stress is most closely related to long commutes, lack of schedule flexibility and more hours worked. The most satisfied workers had the highest percentage of low-stress jobs and were seemingly the most dedicated, putting in an average of 56 hours per week—11 hours more than the least satisfied workers (61 percent of which are stressed). Satisfaction resulted from easier unscheduled time off, schedule flexibility and better telecommuting options.

In addition, an article released from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania reveals that a recent study has proven that an employee’s mood before work has a stronger effect on the mood, and performance, of the day than events that occur at work. Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard and Steffanie Wilk, professor at the Fisher School of Business at Ohio State University, conducted the study.

They studied customer service representatives and found that reps in bad moods handled fewer calls (undesirable) and were less engaged in their work.

Researchers also found that “start-of-day positive mood spills over and affects positive employee mood during the day. Likewise, start-of-day negative mood spills over and affects negative employee mood during the day, even accounting for work-related contextual influences like customer interactions.”

There are more societies and organizations in the United Kingdom allied in the fight against worker burnout than there are in the United States. Europe in general is recognized as more lackadaisical than the U.S., with a “work to live” mantra, as opposed to America’s “live to work.” Americans appear to be more focused on earning and spending, while Europeans tend to take long (paid) vacations. In fact, according to Expedia.com’s annual vacation deprivation survey, France leads globally with 39 vacation days, compared to America’s average of 14 days. Not only do Europeans receive more vacation days, but they use them as well. Thirty-three percent of Americans do not use all of their vacation days.

Vacations may seem unimportant, but 52 percent of Americans report feeling rested and rejuvenated upon return from vacation, a fact which may result in improved productivity at work. While the U.S. is far from accepting the frequent “holiday,” there are several organizations in the States that are working toward an improved balance of work and family or personal life.

Groups such as Working Families, National Work Life Alliance, Employers and Work Life Balance, and the National Partnership for Women and Families began seeking benefits for mothers and fathers. While benefits are beginning to shift to include single workers - a movement well-supported by surveys and studies - the core value appears to be better lives for families. In fact, Yummy Mummy Careers is a fairly new career and job site seeking to balance kids and careers. However, its welcome message suggests broader ambitions: “Yummy Mummy Careers is about maintaining a healthy balance in all areas your life.”

The goals of the quality of work life movement cover a broad spectrum of employee interests. Maternity leave for mothers was no longer enough. Fathers have been added to the lot of employees allowed leave for a new birth, and newly adoptive parents and working adults caring for elderly parents also receive leave for such occasions. Sabbaticals are now offered to more than just scholars and researchers, and sick and vacation days have now converged into “paid time off,” or PTO. “For employees, the flexible plans boost morale, address their work-life balance concerns, and give them a sense that the company is supportive of their needs,” reported Business for Social Responsibility. For employers, the plans increase productivity by reducing the number of last-minute, unscheduled employee absences, and help attract and retain top employees.”

Adding to the concentration of improving family life, childcare has been added to the list of perks in the workplace. By including childcare at the workplace, parents are less apprehensive about returning to work and thus having to find care for their children, and they are put at even more ease by knowing their children are nearby. They can be checked on at anytime.

Other on-the-job perks include fitness centers at the workplace, and an on-site concierge. These help employees work on personal projects during lunch or immediately before or after work. It alleviates stress on the employee, and the concierge can even help in planning big projects, such as a wedding. One report from Money online noted a concierge that waited in line for Kenny Chesney concert tickets for an employee of OhioHealth network.

As urban sprawl continues, well, sprawling, the commute to work becomes an ever-growing problem. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average commute to work for residents of New York City, the most time-consuming commute among the 70 published cities with 250,000 or more people, is 38.4 minutes. Employees arriving at work after a morning spent in rush-hour traffic are neither productive nor forward thinking. And more often than not, they are anxious to hit the road earlier in the hopes of beating the traffic. Many businesses have tried assuaging this problem with company-sponsored shuttles to and from common points, like housing developments and public transportation stops. In addition, flex-time and core hours allow for employees to both avoid the worst part of the traffic and schedule personal appointments around the “core” 10-4.

In order to initiate a quality work life program at your business, dedication is required of each person involved. The Business for Social Responsibility suggests the following steps:

• Identify work life as one of your business’ core corporate values and express this value in the company’s mission, both internally and externally.
• Identify employee needs through surveys and other outlets to evaluate the support desired by employees.
• Implement a range of work life initiatives, such as flexible work options or dependent care on premises.
• Hold supervisors accountable for employee turnover and morale, and create accountability measures to stress the importance of the new initiatives.
• Explain and communicate the company’s commitment to work life and its existing policies to current and prospective employees on an ongoing basis.
• Evaluate and redesign work processes to enhance employee productivity, well-being, and loyalty.
• Track and measure the results of your efforts.

Once a quality work life program has been implemented, be sure to brag a little. These steps will help attract quality, top-notch employees that will plan to be with you for the long-haul. By the same token, current employees will be more productive and dedicated; but most importantly, they will feel more appreciated.

http://www.vacationdeprivation.com
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
http://www.census.gov
http://money.cnn.com
http://www.bsr.org

Monica Cardenas is the assistant editor for CM: 703.525.0511; mcardenas@acmanet.org.