“If our confidence is found in Christ, we will not be swayed by our circumstances. True contentment is based on a Person, and not on what’s going on around us.” – Dr. Charles F. Stanley (In Touch Ministries) 

If you are physically active or exercise regularly, or treat yourself to a stroll in a serene setting, go to a movie, enjoy photography as a hobby, make time for afternoon tea, or simply retreat to read a favorite book, you are probably familiar with the benefits of self-care. Are Christians wise enough to engage in regular self-care? Where does work fit with this self-care model? Let’s consider the average American, including members of the Christian community.

How are we doing with work/life balance or management? Let’s examine some of the research on work/life balance:

  • According to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace 2017, 53 percent of employees say a role that allows them to have greater work-life balance and better personal well-being is “very important” to them.
  • According to the global 2017 Randstad Employer Brand Research report, after an attractive salary and long-term job security (58 percent and 46 percent, respectively), 45 percent of surveyed employees note good work-life balance as an important attribute in gauging the attractiveness of an organization.

How Employers Rate Themselves at Helping Employees Achieve Work-Life Balance:

  • Twenty-three percent of companies surveyed in the 2017 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trendsfeel that they are excellent in helping employees balance personal and professional life/work demands. That’s a 21 percent change from 2016, when 19 percent of companies surveyed felt like they were doing an excellent job.

The State of Work-Life in the Financial Services Industry, specifically:

  • In a survey commissioned by Kronos Incorporated, conducted by Future Workplace,employees reported what they had given up to work in the financial services industry. The top answers were work-life balance (36 percent) and flexibility (23 percent). Millennials and Gen Zers were especially sensitive to this loss with 83 percent feeling as through they’d given up work-life balance (as opposed to 29 percent of Baby Boomers).

How Critical Flexible Work Arrangements Are to the Work-Life Struggle  

  • While working parents consistently put high value in flexible working arrangements (80 percent of say work-life balance matters when considering a job), workers without children want it, too. A 2017 Flex Jobs Surveyof 2,200 employees without children found that the number one reason for a flexible work arrangement was better work-life balance (79 percent).
  • The same survey also found that work-life balance won out over both salary and flexible schedule as the most important factor when evaluating a job prospect. Work-life balance came in at 72 percent, with salary at 70 percent and flexible schedule at 65 percent.

How American Employees are Using (or not using) Their Vacation Time:

Project Time-Off’s 2017 Under-Vacationed America Report found that despite the improvement over the last two years, there are still 54 percent of Americans who did not use all their vacation time last year. These workers left a collective 662 million vacation days on the table—days that carry significant economic potential. If Americans were to use that vacation time, it would generate $128 billion in direct spending, and an overall economic impact of $236 billion for the U.S. economy.

Working Dads and Work-Life:

  • Regardless of how dads were classified (as “egalitarian, divided or traditional” in their parenting role) in the 2017 Boston College Center for Work & Family’s Study: The New Dad: The Career-Caregiving Conflict, researchers found that ALL working dads want more time with their children.  And that is across all generations, from Millennials to Gen X to Baby Boomers.
  • The same study found that approximately 30 to 45 percent of working dads agreed or strongly agreed that at their workplaces it is assumed that the most productive employees are those who put their work before family life.

Worry weighs a person down;
an encouraging word cheers a person up -Proverbs 12:25 (NLT)

So how are you really doing? The kids are back at school or college, you took a little vacation time during the long, hot summer months, and now you are beginning to see signs of the upcoming holidays. Fall festivals in October, Thanksgiving in November, Christmas in December, and of course the New Year…wherever did the time go? So, let’s pause for a moment and reflect on Godly principles that should be part of encouraging others and self-encouragement.

Jesus also experienced stress related to work/life balance, but He knew exactly how to handle it. For example, on one occasion after he fed a multitude of five thousand, Jesus sent His disciples away in the boat and went up on the mountain by Himself to pray (Matthew 14: 22-23). In fact, there are many examples in the Bible where Jesus actively sought solitude with His father after very dramatic situations or a long day. If we practice solitude with God, we will learn to prioritize demands on our time and critically reflect on what is necessary to achieve some level of work/life balance.

HimPower is pleased to continue its special series on mental health & well-being with an exclusive interview focused on work/life balance. Noted Life Coach, Kym Wiggins, shares her passion for empowering employees, encouraging employers, and supporting families in their efforts to make work/life balance an achievable goal—an essential part of spiritual, emotional, physical, social, vocational, and financial well-being. Praise God for the members of the body of Christ that share their spiritual gifts to help us grow spiritually and Glorify God in every aspect of our life.

The godly give good advice to their friends;
the wicked lead them astray. – Proverbs 12:26 (NLT)

 

Work/Life Balance Resources

https://www.biblegateway.com/ The Bible
https://www.worktolive.info.work-life-balance  Work-Life Balance Research
https://workplace.care.com  Workplace Care
https://bia.ca/a-report-on-the-importance-of-work-life-balance/  Importance of Work-Life Balance
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4749681/ Work-Life Balance: It is Not About, But Priorities