Preview

Work-Life Balance: The Relationship Between Stress and Health

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1199 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Work-Life Balance: The Relationship Between Stress and Health
Work-Life Balance: The Relationship Between Stress and Health

March 10th 2012

The relationship between employment related stress and workplace uncertainty directly impacts health today. Studies have identified employment strains caused by uncertainty of work that may be measured by scheduling and earning uncertainty (Tompa et al, 2009). The effort required in commuting to the workplace and effort required to handle multiple jobs are also strains that will be addressed in relation to this theme while drawing on my own experience. With the significant rise of working hours among Canadians in past years have caused conflict among family and individuals and has increased workplace accidents while reduced productivity and quality (Tompa et al 2009). Jackson (2009) emphasizes the link between stress and health; the strains related to the workplace may include work-life conflict, job insecurity, and physical demand. I would also like to add the strain employment demands could cause for full-time students and in particular university life. Furthermore, work-life conflict can arise when an individual plays more than one role such as of a student, employee, caregiver, and volunteer (Smith & Polanyi, 2009). Each role has its own demands and balancing time for multiple roles at the same time may impact individual health directly. I have constructed a time-use diary method to investigate the relationship between work and the conflict it may cause to a full-time students education and family life and its effect on health. The time-use diary method of compiling data for research purposes is one that requires the continuous log or record of activity for a particular observation period (Gershuny, 2011). For this study, I have used a 24-hour period with one-hour fixed intervals on an average weekday. The time-use data pertains to only myself and have constructed the data based on my own activities. As shown in the appendix, the diary registers the location,



References: Gershuny, J. (2011). Time-use surveys and the measurement of national well-being. London: Office of National Statistics. Jackson, A.. "The Unhealthy Canadian Workplace." Social determinants of health. 2nd ed. Toronto [Ont.: Canadian Scholars Press Inc, 2009. 99-113. Print. Smith, P., and M. Polanyi. "Understand and Improving the Health of Work." Social determinants of health. 2nd ed. Toronto: Canadian Scholars ' Press Inc, 2009. 114-127. Print. Tompa, E., M. Polanyi, and J. Foley. "Labour Market Flexibility and Worker Insecurity." Social determinants of health. 2nd ed. Toronto: Canadian Scholars ' Press Inc, 2009. 88-98. Print. "Work-Life Balance: Make It Your Business | Canadian Mental Health Association." Canadian Mental Health Association | Mental Health for All. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. .

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Hadden WC, Muntaner C, Benach J, Gimeno D, Benavides FG. 2007. A glossary for the social epidemiology of work organisation: Part 3, Terms from the sociology of labour markets. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 61(1): 6-8.…

    • 12784 Words
    • 52 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “When it comes to their health, workers always know best.” (Workers Health International Newsletter No. 42).” Analyse the different research methods that unions and workers use to identify ill health caused by work.…

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ottawa Charter

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Changing patterns of life, work and leisure have a significant impact on health. Work and leisure should be a source of health for people. The way society organizes work should help create a healthy society. Health promotion generates living and working conditions that are safe, stimulating, satisfying and enjoyable.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A strong solution to address these issues for optimal change that ensures good health and promotes opportunity is to start acknowledging that health is more than medicine and lifestyle but the barriers that are created on the systematic level. Dennis Raphael and Ann Curry-Stevens suggest, creating policies that decrease that amount of low income Canadians by raising minimum wage and improve pay equity (2016). As well as, implementing policies that social exclusion by protecting the right of the most vulnerable through legislation and reducing income and wealth inequalities for more opportunities (2016). Also, creating policies that restore and enhance social infrastructure in Canada, in proving national daycare and pharma care programs and…

    • 239 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The beauty of life is that it's filled with wonderful experiences and surprises. However it can be, shall we say, challenging? Juggling family, personal and work responsibilities can sometimes take its toll. We may even sacrifice our own needs to the detriment of our health, which can severely impact our work performance. We understand these struggles first hand, and we became motivated to do something about it. At Wellocity, we've designed workplace wellness programs as the perfect tool to help create a better work/life balance amongst your employees.…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Davis, K., Collins, S., Doty, M., Ho, A. and Holmgren, A. (2005). Health and Productivity Among U.S. Workers. The Commonwealth Fund Issue Brief, 5.…

    • 2615 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Social Determinants

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The aim of this assignment is to discuss the evidence of the impacts that work can have on an individual's health. Health has been defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (World Health Organisation - WHO, 1946). Therefore, health is viewed as a much broader concept in that it includes social wellbeing. It has long been recognised that social determinants can influence health. There are many social determinants of health, for example food, stress, early life, transport, social gradient, unemployment, social support, addiction and social exclusion. However, the intention of this assignment is to discuss the evidence of the impact of work, as a social determinant, on health. Secondly, this assignment will explore the work of Babbage, Taylorism and Fordism in relation to the influence on the development of work. The discussion will also include how work within the UK has changed over the last 20 to the 30 years and a description and evidence of the effects of paid and unpaid work as well as the boundaries between the two will also be illustrated. Lastly, the implications of work as a social determinant of health for nursing practice will be outlined.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The reason for this report is due to the amount of health care costs that have increased in the last three years. ABC Corporation has had an increase of more than 200% within the past three years in insurance premiums being paid. Although ABC Corporation has provided its employees with great healthcare plans, the cost, as you will see, has increased exponentially. My findings will reveal potential trends in and outside of the work environment that have contributed to this increase. There are many factors that contribute to our health status. Just like school is a big part of a child’s day, the work force for adults is the same. In school, teachers offer us the tools we need to be successful and we will see that our work environment can also provide our employees with tools to begin or maintain a healthy lifestyle and prevent many chronic diseases.…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Multifactorial Model

    • 2409 Words
    • 10 Pages

    With regards work-related psychological factor, the job-strain health psychology model helps understand how highly demanding jobs and jobs that gives workers little control lead to increased risk of heart-related illnesses (Nevid & Rathus, p. 136). The multifactorial health psychology perspective has also led to the understanding of how sudden life stressors, chronic fatigue/emotional strain and a physically inactive lifestyle figure in the development of heart disease and occurrence of heart…

    • 2409 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Canada's Mental Health

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Policies in a range of areas from income security to reducing stress in the workplace or programs such as suicide prevention or youth counselling all constitute health promoting initiatives. The following example related to health in the workplace could serve as a template for the development of mentally healthy policy in many areas of activity. Acting on the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion’s call for “putting health on the agenda of policymakers in all sectors and at all levels” the authors of a recent report prepared for the Institute for Work and Health looked at the impact of information about the health consequences of unemployment and job insecurity. They evaluated the influence and potential of such information, and analysed barriers to utilizing it in employment policy-making. The authors conclude with three recommendations aimed at combining greater awareness of employment-related health consequences with traditional employment policy-making: • health policy-makers must act as the intellectual leaders in rephrasing health information in terms meaningful to employment policy-makers; • both health and employment policy-makers must work toward an increase in cross-departmental and cross-governmental initiatives as well as toward greater awareness of and accountability for the health consequences of employment…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Non Precarious Work Essay

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Another problem that is related to precarious work and poorer health is the lack of appropriate income for the working class. An individual working in a precarious workplace often work long hours with low-income, they often face more health problems compare to people in non-precarious work. The level of income a person makes can more likely determine an individual’s health. Generally and individual in the top 1% are healthier and have better opportunities than the bottom 99%. “ Level of income shapes overall living conditions, affects psychological functioning, and influences health-related behaviours such as quality of diet, extent of physical activity, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol use” (Mikkonen & Raphael, 2010). Income level determines…

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    peer- review article

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Van der Klink JJ, Blonk RW, Schene AH, van Dijk FJ. The benefits of interventions for work-related stress. Am J Public Health 2001;91:270-6.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Single Working Mom

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Many conflicts can arise between work and family when family members find themselves trying to balance all of the responsibilities of taking care of their family and the various responsibilities that employers place on them at the same time. Often times stress is one of the largest conflicts as it affects the family member 's and the worker 's well being (Walen, 2002, p. 31). Take for example a work stress that produces marital conflict or a parent that does not have child care and therefore have higher rates of absenteeism. These are examples of the conflict that can arise when trying to balance both work and family.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The topic that I have selected to research is work-related stress. Many people wish that they could relax more and forget about the troubles and responsibilities that they experience which are related to work or their work environment. Additionally, work related-stress poses many significant health risks such as high blood pressure, digestive problems, sleep deprivation and depression.(1) This topic is particularly interesting to me because I, as well as many of my co-workers, tend to have a lot of work-related stress and stress-related symptoms resulting from my job.…

    • 842 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Wellness Program

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Baun, William B., Berry, Leonard L., & Mirabito, Ann M. (2011). What’s the Hard Return on…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics