How Do We Fare On The Work-Life Balance Front?

Key findings

• Most people rate their work-life balance positively on average
• They are less positive about how easy it is to get the work-life balance they want.
• People's rating of their work-life balance may have improved since 2005. (Indicative finding only due to survey differences.)
• They may also be finding it easier than they did in 2005 to get the work-life balance they want. (Indicative finding only due to survey differences.)

How do employees rate their work-life balance?

The employee survey asked people to rate their current work-life balance and their ability to 'get the balance right' on a scale of 1 to 6 (with 1 being very poor/very difficult and 6 being excellent/very easy).

Overall, the survey findings were positive, in that people rated their work-life balance on average as being x¯=4.25 out of 6, which is well above the mid-point of x¯=3.50.

There were no significant gender, age or ethnic differences in the way people rated their current work-life balance.

How easy do employees find it to get work-life balance?

Employees were less positive about how easy it was to get the balance they want. At x¯=3.89 out of 6, the respondents' ratings for 'getting the balance right', while still being above the mid-point, were significantly lower on average than those given for their work-life balance.

Again there were no significant gender, age or ethnic differences, except that those aged 60 years or older, and those without caring responsibilities, found it easier to get the balance they wanted.

Figure 1: Work-life balance and ease of getting the balance right (n=1004)

Data Table for Figure 1

Are work-life balance ratings changing?

How does this compare to the findings of the 2005 survey? In 2005, 52% of people had good, very good or excellent work-life balance, with 16% finding their work-life balance poor or very poor. When these descriptors are converted to ratings, the average is x¯=3.63 out of 6, compared with the 2008 survey result of x¯=4.25. Only indicative conclusions can be drawn given the differences in the surveys, but this suggests that people's satisfaction with their work-life balance has increased since 2005. It is not possible to determine how much these differences can be attributed to methodological differences between the two studies.

In the 2005 survey, unlike the current one, women were more likely to report better work-life balance than men.

In 2005, 40% of respondents had some or a lot of difficulty achieving work-life balance. When the descriptors were converted to ratings, people scored their ease in getting the work-life balance they wanted as x¯=2.22, compared with the 2008 survey result of x¯=3.89. This suggests that employees are finding work-life balance easier to achieve in 2008 than in 2005.