WORK LIFE BALANCE FULL

They then move on to issues of self-esteem, cognitive needs, and aesthetic needs, and finally, at the top of the pyramid, there is self-actualisation, or achieving your full potential as a human being. After that, people need to feel safe, and then to be loved and belong to a group. Before anything else can be considered, basic physiological needs such as food, water, and shelter must be provided. Our page on Personal Development explains the work of Maslow, and his Hierarchy of Needs.īroadly, Maslow says that people have needs, which had to be met in order. Smart phones, remote working technology and the like have meant that, even on holiday, people find it hard to ‘switch off’ and genuinely rest, and the complaint is often that people are expected to be ‘on-call’ at all times, without being allowed to have a life outside work.

It has, however, taken on a new meaning with the recent technological changes that have made it possible for workers to stay in touch 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It was probably first used in the UK in the late 1970s, and in the US in the mid-1980s. The phrase ‘work-life balance’ is rather more recent in origin. They were genuinely able to rest, away from work, without having to think about it or worry about what might be going on in their absence. But in those days, ‘work’ was mostly manual, and once workers left the site, they also left their work behind. In the 1800s, during and following the industrial revolution, industrialists and unions alike agreed that workers needed a day off. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Work life balance