Work-life Balance: the Case of Sweden in the 1990s

Abstract

This article presents an overview of Swedish conditions with regard to work-life balance in the 1990s. This decade was characterized by high unemployment, increasing frequency of insecure employment contracts and downsizing, but also by increasing productivity. National statistics and scientific surveys indicate that large groups of the Swedish labour force experienced increasing work-load and intensification of work routines. At the end of the decade national costs of long-term sick leave doubled in two years. Two empirical studies performed with a stress and health approach are reported. Results show that a majority of workers experienced work-nonwork imbalance, rather than balance. Work tended to interfere with nonwork activities rather than impact in the opposite direction, and individuals reporting work-nonwork balance reported better health and well-being than those reporting imbalance.