Related Terms: Child Care; Eldercare
Over the past several decades, American society has undergone significant changes in its attitudes toward balancing work and family life. These attitudes have been influenced by changing demographics; a dramatic increase in the percentage of women who choose to work in non-household related areas; rising costs in the realm of housing, transportation, clothing, and food; changing societal and personal priorities; and a host of other factors. Today, both employer and employee are grappling with the challenges of balancing career and family obligations and desires in a more visible way than ever before. American media outlets (television, radio, newspapers, etc.), for instance, simultaneously extol the virtues of those who excel in the business world and lament the impact that such ambition allegedly can have on the psychological health of the individual, his or her partner, and their children.
This concern with the issue of career/family balance is reflected in the barrage of media attention that accompanies any small trend in this area. Among the trends documented in numerous articles in newspapers and magazines are such things as an increase in the number of professional women leaving work to become full-time mothers. The general society-wide movement toward simplification of life is another such trend, typically characterized as symbolic of an increased emphasis on family happiness and growth at the expense of career development.
Indeed, the debate over what constitutes an appropriate balance between family and career is livelier than ever. For example, proponents of recent trends toward attitudes that are typically characterized as "family-friendly" laud the decisions of those who choose less time-consuming careers or institute flexible work rules to increase family time. Others, though, resent the assumption that is sometimes made that people who are ambitious and driven in their chosen profession, and thus spend significant amounts of time involved in such endeavors, must have their priorities screwed up. For example, Joseph Nocera wrote in Fortune that "without question, it's unhealthy to be so consumed by work that the kids feel abandoned. But there is also something unhealthy about so sanctifying family time that we diminish the importance of work. Yet that is precisely the judgment our culture now renders on a regular basis." Nocera went on to critique the widespread assumption that "no matter what's going on at the office, it can't be more important than coaching your kid's basketball team. Well, sometimes it isn't, and sometimes it is. Sometimes other people's jobs are at stake, or a crisis has to be averted. Sometimes you need to accomplish something in your work for the sheer satisfaction of it, and sometimes that means staying late or working on weekends. Why should it be such a sin to admit this out loud?"
For the small business owner, achieving a reasonable balance between work and family obligations can be a particularly daunting task. The challenge of striking this appropriate balance can be especially acute for women entrepreneurs, who, despite tremendous changes in societal acceptance of their right to make their mark in the business world, still face disapproval in some quarters for making such a choice.
For both men and women, the demands of establishing and maintaining a profitable business are numerous and time-consuming in most instances. After all, it is the entrepreneur who is ultimately responsible for realizing his or her vision of the business, and who has typically invested a great deal of time, thought, and energy into nourishing that vision. The entrepreneur or small business owner is often the chief decision maker within the business, and is frequently the primary producer of the company's goods and/or services as well. This latter element is particularly true of smaller businesses, whether the enterprise is concerned with silk screening, freelance writing, portrait photography, carpentry, or some other area of endeavor.
Life partners and children, of course, have needs as well. Successful entrepreneurs and family counselors alike warn that a person who establishes a profitable business is likely to find that his or her victory is a hollow one if his or her relationship with a spouse or child is irreparably damaged in the process. Balancing home and career can be a bit like a juggling act and just like a juggler, if you try to juggle too many balls at once, you're bound to drop one of them. Deciding what one's goals are and setting priorities is essential for all small business owners.
Finally, small business owners have to recognize that the career/family issue is one that impacts on employees as well. Indeed, "family-friendly" policies have proliferated in many industries in recent years, as various sectors respond to general societal perceptions that the work/family balance had become unevenly weighted toward work over the past few decades. In many cases, it has become essential for small business owners to recognize the changing expectations of their employees in this area.
FAMILY LEAVE LEGISLATION
In an attempt to address some of the difficulties that employees were having in balancing work and family, legislation was passed in 1993. The law, entitled Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), covers all employers with 50 employees or more. Those employers must grant an eligible employee up to a total of 12 workweeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for one or more of the following reasons:
- The birth and care of the newborn child of the employee
- Placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care
- The care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition
- Inability to work because of a serious health condition
The FMLA has had wide acceptance. According to a 2000 survey carried out by the U.S. Bureau of Labor, 84 percent of employers found that the benefits of providing family or medical leave offset or outweighed the costs.
HELPING EMPLOYEES ESTABLISH AN APPROPRIATE WORK/FAMILY BALANCE
Increasingly, small businesses have shown an interest in helping their work forces manage the challenges of addressing both work and family obligations. Their ability to do so is dictated somewhat by financial health, workload, competitive pressures, and a host of other factors, but many small business owners have come to the conclusion that workplaces that insist on long hours from their employees may be sacrificing long-term health for short-term gains. "Many experts in the field of management have argued that family-responsive policies and programs will be necessary to attract and retain needed employees and to build competitive advantages," wrote Teresa Joyce Covin and Christina C. Brush in Review of Business. "Research also suggests that conflicts between work and family are related to decreased productivity, lost work time, job dissatisfaction, increased health risks for employed parents, poorer performance of the parenting role, absenteeism, poor morale, reduced life satisfaction, and depression. While work-family conflict is commonly viewed as a woman's problem, more companies are beginning to recognize that both men and women feel the impact of work-family conflicts."
