Work-Life Balance: How Life Coaching Can Help

Abstract

The growing dissatisfaction by the UK Government with the way that work increasingly dominates the lives of employees, particularly managers, at the expense of their family life, led to “Work-Life Balance Week”, part of the Government’s drive to encourage the idea of flexible working arrangements, family-friendly policies and the enhancement of employees’ lives. The Work-Life Balance campaign, launched in March 2000, aims is to convince employers of the economic benefits of work-life balance and of the need for the introduction of flexible working arrangements in the form of: flexitime; staggered hours; time off in lieu; compressed working hours and similar measures. The need for work-life balance has been clearly shown by the results of employee surveys, conducted by bodies such as The Work Foundation (formerly the Industrial Society), which revealed that UK men now strive to be different from their fathers in their approach to home and family (over 60 per cent stating that they are more likely to feel guilty about neglecting domestic duties than their fathers did). The author, who is a life coach specializing in advising people on their work-life balance and career development, sets out the business case for work-life balance and explains how life coaches can play a vital role in helping individuals to restore the balance between their lives and the work of organizations. Sets out the ways in which life coaching can help people to balance their work, home, leisure and personal development. Concludes that the success of life coaching rests on the ability to lay bare the individual’s underlying values and so reveal the factors causing balance or imbalance.