单项选择题

Work and Life The pursuit of a better work-life balance is at the root of calls for flexible hours, affordable childcare and paid paternity (父亲身份) leave. More than ever before are we demanding choice in our working lives. Gemma Lavender of the TUC explores the pressures and challenges. The issue If you’’re not careful, work can take over your life. People in Britain work longer hours than anywhere else in Europe. Too many workplaces are gripped by a long hours culture where everyone is expected to do hours of unpaid overtime every week. Astonishingly, people in Britain do ￡23 billion worth of unpaid overtime every year—that would be a ￡4,000 wages boost for the average long-hours worker. Hardly surprising, then, that there’’s an epidemic of workplace stress. Contrary to some expectations, according to a recent TUC poll, Brits do actually enjoy their jobs. 85 per cent told us that they found their work enjoyable and fulfilling, yet slightly more than half said they also found it hard to cope with the pressure. Eight million people complain that pressure of work gives them headaches or migraines (偏头痛), 12 million say they get bad tempered and irritable (易怒的) at home, nearly three million need to take time off work and more than two-and-a-half million say they drink too much. That is why work-life balance is the slogan of the moment. Unions, good employers and the government are all concerned — but much more needs to be done. The pressures The core agenda with work-life balance issues is still the family. And despite all the improvements in equality between the sexes, this is still largely perceived as an issue for women rather than men. But times are changing. Mothers still take the greater responsibility for childcare but are also more likely to have paid jobs than ever before. Seven out of ten women of working age now have jobs, and half of mothers with children aged under five are in work. Today’’s women are breadwinners. Men and women are both taking on multiple roles. Men are doing more of the care responsibilities (according to the Equal Opportunities Commission, a surprising 36% of couples say that the man is the main carer) and women are working more. Polls show that fathers feel they are missing out on time with their children. With people living longer, more workers are experiencing care demands on elderly relatives as well as children. The fact that women are now having children later in life means that they may end up facing caring responsibilities for both ends of the age spectrum. The attitude of female workers has also changed. Women are growing more ambitious as they become key players in the world of work, contributing to major company successes. Whether you’’re a Martha Lane Fox or a Marjorie Scardino, the impact of the female boss is considerably more powerful than ever before. The pressure for women to achieve drives them to work harder and for longer, especially when wanting to prove themselves against their male counterparts (对等的人). Technology both helps and hinders. Email and the Internet give people the potential to work flexibly. Some now work for themselves or for their employer entirely from home. This doesn’’t suit everyone — some find it far too isolating to be cut off from office networks, but working from home for part of the week can be a real help. However, technology can also increase work pressure. The overflowing email inbox and the constantly ringing phone can really step up the stress levels. Progress on work-life balance is likely to give individual employees much more choice about how and when they work. Research shows that the more control you have over your own work, the less stress you’’re likely to get. But organisations, as a whole, need to tackle the issue — it can’’t just be the sum of individual responses. And work-life balance issues are not just for carers. Everyone needs their personal space, and policies that only benefit parents or carers might cause antagonism (敌意) with other colleagues. The challenges Flexitime, working at home, and creches (托儿所) are available only to a minority, but they are on the increase. Falling unemployment in most parts of the country means that employers are having to put a bit more effort into retaining staff and providing good conditions designed to attract particular staff with skills and experience. While flexitime and home-working options are not appropriate for every type of job, there is still room for imaginative approaches to choosing working hours. The main obstacle is employer resistance. Too many think that progressive policies will cost them. Small companies, in particular, say it may be all right for big organisations but we don’’t have the same options to be flexible. But the independent Institute of Employment Studies shows that some small and medium-sized businesses have saved up to ￡250,000 on their budget simply by using family-friendly work policies. This is mainly because people take less time off sick when they have a better balance in their life. The benefits Businesses benefit if they make the best use of their most valuable resource: their staff. The main advantage of balancing personal and professional life is that the workers are happier. If they are happy, they work better; if they work better, the company profits. And if staff are happy they will stay. In a tight labour market, employers need to retain and recruit good, hard-working, loyal staff, especially and increasingly women. Offering good working conditions cements (加强) the company’’s reputation as an employer of choice and will attract the best candidates for the job. Workers are also holding companies more and more accountable for bad working conditions and inflexible practices. The pressure is growing on employers. Society demands choice in the 21st century. The choice to take the kids to school and then go to work, the choice to leave early to attend a language course or visit granny, the choice to return to work on a basis you want, the choice to take unpaid leave to travel somewhere new, to train, or to have more time to visit friends. The employer will also benefit if some measures are taken to achieve a work-life balance.