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Articles - Publication Date 4.19.1999
Work Vs Life Vs The World
Each country has different work/life issues to balance.
By Michael A. Verespej
It all depends on your perspective. In the U.S. the biggest work/life anxiety for an employee with flexible work arrangements might be arranging his or her schedule to finish a work assignment and still see his or her son's music recital and daughter's basketball game in the same day.
Elsewhere in the world, work/life concerns can be quite different -- and much more basic. Indeed, the biggest work/life issue that Mhpo E. Letlape, human-resources director, IBM-South Africa, faces is simply the anxiety that sets in, she says, while "waiting for the gates to open at my home when I have to leave work after dark" -- even though her home is only six kilometers from her office.
"Crime and violence are becoming a greater problem because the same work/life imbalances -- workload problems, skills shortages, and business pressures -- that exist around the world are surfacing in South Africa for the first time, creating [social] problems," says Letlape, one of the speakers at a recent seminar on international work/life issues cosponsored by the Conference Board and the Families & Work Institute. Indeed, she worries about her teenage children going to shopping malls where she says "drugs and rape are rampant."
By contrast, the most important work/life issues in Japan have been gender issues because there is little equity for women in the workplace. But even that equity issue has temporarily been pushed into the background by the economy. Now the key work/life issue in Japan -- because of the unprecedented layoffs in firms that once boasted lifetime employment -- is "simply survival as opposed to the perks and benefits" people in the U.S. often believe they are entitled to have, says Susan Seitel, president of Work & Family Connection Inc., Minneapolis.
Venezuela has similar gender issues. Women need a mentor -- and their husbands' approval -- to get a job, and it is taboo for women to be invited out for drinks, even for after-work business get-togethers, says Patricia Márquez Otero, associate professor of organizational behavior at the Institute of Higher Studies in Administration, Caracas. "How can we talk about work/life [issues], when we are not even willing to talk about gender differences?"
But unlike other countries where balancing work and life has become quite difficult, that's not an issue in Venezuela because in that culture work is secondary to or part of the social, personal, and family lives of people. "We work as part of our social life, not as a competitive thing," says Otero.
In Chile the quality-of-life issues are similar to those in Venezuela. "Women have conquered new places of work," says Aníbal Oyarzún-Lobo of Serviceo Medico Camara, Chilena de la Construccion, Chile, "but there is still discrimination in [the kinds of jobs they can hold] and in compensation. And because government policies mandate 18 weeks of full pay for maternity leave, free medical care for newborns, and paid time off to take care of sick children under age one, "companies don't like to hire married women," he says.
"Chilean companies don't see that they have a . . . role to play in the worker's quality of life," says Oyarzún-Lobo. "They don't see the business reason, and they don't gamble. They only invest in known things, so they want you to demonstrate the results and the exact return."
Surprisingly, not even countries with strong social policies with regard to maternity and paternity leave, job-sharing, and time off for both vacations and holidays are immune from the escalating demands of work and long hours attributed to emerging global competitive pressures. "Many European countries are far beyond the U.S. in terms of family leave, but [employees] are still suffering from too much work and not enough time" for all of their work and family commitments, says Seitel.
It is clear that the work/life issues of time, balance, and flexibility aren't just U.S. issues. "They are cutting across most countries, but they are jus
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"How can we talk about work/life [issues], when we are not even willing to talk about gender differences?"
Patricia Márquez Otero, associate professor of organizational behavior, Institute of Higher Studies in Adm., Caracas
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