Most of us spend a large number of our waking hours at work, so the idea that we would let our careers take over any more of our lives than those normal daylight hours can be frustrating. Therefore, a strong work-life balance is always a going concern in the modern workplace. But not all work-life balances are made equal, and not every company offers the same level of concern for its employees’ private concerns. We asked employees, “Are you satisfied with your work-life balance?”
This information comes from the latest reading of an ongoing survey by Comparably. Over 10,000 employees responded to the question.
Male employees are more satisfied than their female peers. Men voted “yes” to the question 5% more often. This may be a result of long-standing social standards for both sexes, especially in households with children – systematically, men may simply be more encouraged to commit totally to their work.
Answering “yes” less frequently than overall women are African-American employees, when we segment respondents into their various ethnicities. African-Americans are another group who can claim longtime imbalances in the American workplace that do not tilt in their favor. The Hispanic/Latino respondents were most positive, and Asian/Pacific Islanders were as satisfied with work-life balance as overall male employees above. Also answering “yes” as often as overall males were the Caucasian respondents. The “Other” designation, which tracks responses from those who chose not to identify with any single ethnic group, were also relatively low on this question, at just 61% positive.
Employees from HR and the Executive departments are notably more positive about their level of work-like balance than workers in Operations, Admin, and IT. This is following a general pattern where employees most involved with employee brand tend to be more approving of the status quo than workers “in the trenches” filling positions that often require late nights and weekends.
There isn’t much in terms of variety of responses the the work-life balance question when respondents are broken down by age group. There is a slight elevation, in fact, during what would be considered the traditional early parenting years – a time when work-life balance is of most urgent concern.
Those who secured elevated higher education degrees tend to have notably higher satisfaction regarding their work-life balance. This implies that skilled workers and specialists are either more comfortable with less time away from work, or are afforded more time to see to their personal concerns thanks to their presumed higher levels of status and income.
In most cases, males in each department are more pleased with their work-life balance than women, as is true of overall scores along gender lines. Only in the Admin department are the female employees more enthusiastic about their work-life balance than their male counterparts.
Latest reading as of January 13..
