Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Innovative Research in Social, Human and Administrative Sciences, Serap SARIBAŞ,Turgay AKKUŞ, Editör, Duvar Publishing, İzmir, ss.33-47, 2023
Work and family (or, more generally, private life outside of work) are two key
areas in people's lives and prioritizing one can make it difficult to meet the
demands of the other. This is understandable, as people's resources (time, energy,
etc.) are limited. Work-family balance is expressed as a concept that integrates
different living areas by successfully fulfilling the requirements of every area of
life without neglecting the needs of different areas of life.
Flexible working is used as a general definition expressing practices that allow
employees to decide where and when to work. Of course, flexible working
practices do not mean that employees deviate from getting the job done
efficiently. Employees see flexible working practices as an advantage that
enables them to manage their work and personal responsibilities, thus making it
easier for them to establish a work-family balance. Maintaining a healthy worklife balance is not only important for the private lives of employees, but also
positively contributes to business goals as it positively impacts their productivity
and ultimately their performance.
In the 21st century, everything started to change very quickly; demographic
change (decreasing household size and aging population), technological
advances, and finally the pandemic. Working from home has become the new
normal for many employees, especially after the pandemic, and it has become
increasingly difficult to separate work and private life. Checking e-mail
constantly, having business meetings at the dinner table, and working on our
laptops on the weekends has become commonplace. In this new era, instead of
defining work-life balance as the balance between personal and professional
pursuits, a kind of work-life integration approach, which accepts that the two are
inextricably intertwined and tries to make the relationship between the two, has
begun to be accepted. In this study, besides a general evaluation of the issue of
work-family balance, new approaches that emerged as a result of the
developments in the social, demographic and technological environment, will be
mentioned.