Work/Life Balance: A Cadre/Gender-Wise Assessment of Commercial Bank Employees

Abstract

In Pakistan, where the competition is intense in almost all industries, professionals spend more time at work than official duty hours in order to survive the rapidly changing environment. This has resulted in numerous compromises on other important fronts like cutting off from family and friends. It is assumed that work/life imbalance prevails more in developing nations with immense work pressures. To keep up pace with the growing demands of organizations and increasing responsibilities, one often neglects any or all strands of socializing. This gives rise to an imbalance which erupts as work/life conflicts for an individual and affects one’s satisfaction in work and other activities. The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of work/life balance on employees of a commercial bank (in different branches) in Pakistan where men and women focus more on professional life and compromise on other dimensions of life which are: personal, family, and social. The survey included professionals working in public, private and foreign commercial bank branches. Five-point Likert scale was used to measure the three underlying constructs: ‘work/life balance’, ‘organizational support’ and ‘support from others’. Data was analyzed using basic and descriptive statistics, factor analysis, correlation and t-test. The results indicate that majority of professionals are not satisfied with the balance between their work and life since greater number of hours are spent at work than the official duty timings. Moreover, females reported to have greater ‘work/life balance’, ‘organizational support’ and ‘support from others’ as compared to males. Males showed a higher tendency of developing stress-related diseases which were a consequence of increasing workplace demands and responsibilities.