Work-Life Balance Key for Both Sexes, But Women Weigh It Differently
There's no shortage of surveys showing that work-life balance is key to office morale. A survey conducted by Monster last month found that "only 29 percent of workers view their employer's work/life balance initiatives as good or excellent." It's a pretty low percentage and troubling as a survey out last Wednesday from Sirota Survey Intelligence found that:
Among those who are positive about their work-life balance, 89% rate their satisfaction with their companies favorably (vs. only 58% of those who are negative about their work-life balance)There's nothing too surprising about findings that suggest workers need to weigh and balance the rewards of family life with the rewards are working. What might be more intriguing, is the differences between the sexes in what constitutes the rewards of work and how heavily home life weighs in the scales. Writing for the Harvard Business Review Conversation Starter blog last week, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, the author of "Off Ramps and On Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success," notes that what women want out of their work is quite different from what men desire.
When it comes to aspirations and goals, men are relatively simple creatures. Power and money is what they crave. According to a 2004 study by International Survey Research, career advancement and financial rewards rank #1 and #2 on men's wish list. Women are much more complicated. Compensation packages and titles figure on their priority list, but... six other goals -- high quality colleagues, "bringing myself" to work, flexibility, collaboration and teamwork, recognition, and giving back to society -- trump money and power for women.And if the work side of the scale is different for women, so is the life side--it can be far heavier. as a London based female executive explained to Hewlett:
"When I walk out the door in the morning, leaving my two-year-old with the nanny, there's usually a bit of a scene. Tommy clings and whips up the guilt... it sure makes me think about why I go to work â€" and whether or not I want to put in a 10-hour-day. It's as though every day I do the cost benefit analysis and recalibrate at the margin: Do the satisfactions I derive from my job (recognition, great colleagues, a sense of using my skills and stretching my mind) justify leaving Tommy?"Managers might do well to bear this in mind to get the best from their female employees.
(Image of balance by Bethany L King, CC 2.0)