Balancing Family & Work Life Essay Example for Free

Balancing Family & Work Life Essay A. Thesis Statement Attending school as an adult, and maintaining a source of employment can be a daunting task, as many adults who had to delay their college education must know. One of the most challenging aspects of adult life consists of learning how to adjust accordingly to the rigors of life at home as well as the workplace. Failure to do so can lead to a life of complete disarray, stress, illness and exhaustion. II. Body Paragraph #1 – Topic Sentence #1 Traditionally the typical age group for freshmen in college was between 18 to 19 years of age. That reality has slowly changed as more young adults are finding their way back in the classroom, while holding down a job. The information I found in P.14 of the ebrary book: Families and Work: New Directions in the Twenty-First Century, by Fredriksen-Goldsen, Karen I. states: â€Å"Of the more than 69 million American parents with children under the age of 18 (Famighetti, 1998), almost 90 percent are employed (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998).† At the same time, there are working professionals attempting to achieve a college education in order to refine their skills, or to gain new ones. Among those working adults, young couples typically tend to have a harder time with managing the broad aspects of life, especially those who are in the early stages of their relationship, which has the potential to result in a lot of growing pains. The information found in an article from the following website; http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2421/T-2233web.pdf states: â€Å"Family and work settings have a built-in potential for conflict. Adults may get overwhelmed with the excessive demands that are required of them from either end of the spectrum, leaving them with the feeling of having very little time to accomplish those tasks.† Finding a balance between work and home involves finding ways of accomplishing the tasks at home as well as duties at work. Those responsibilities are often shared among couples in a healthy relationship. The equality of the shared house  chores, however, is up or debate. It has long been stated that the task of maintaining the home primarily fell on the woman’s shoulders, while the man focuses mainly on duties in the workplace. For some married couples, trying to get their husband to help with the housework typically led to domestic disputes. In recent years however, men have been getting more involved with parenting than ever before. A passage from (Giraffe 2011) states: â€Å"The recession of 2008 contributed to this arrangement because increased unemployment left more fathers available to care for their children and the reduced family income made outside childcare services unaffordable.† The traditional view of the American household should change because of an increase in the number of two-parent families entering the labor force. One of the primary services built around that change in society is the daycare system. Many of those two-parent families, as well as single parents may not have direct support from their families to take care of the children while they’re away at work. While some of the household work, such as childcare and housekeeping, has transitioned to outside providers, many working mothers cannot afford to employ these services (Giraffe, 2011). Unfortunately a big portion of their income goes to high daycare fees. III. Body Paragraph #2 – Topic Sentence #2 When the constants demands of life are far too much to bear, employees tend to feel the need to escape, and seek an alternate reality. We must look at the adverse effects that those long work hours have on the human body. Overworked individuals can suffer from work related illnesses as a result of excessive stress. Work related stress can result from extended hours due to mandatory overtime in some case. An employer’s rigid work hours which can prevent employees from tending to occasional issues at home can also be blamed for stress on the job. Employees suffering the effects of stress in the workplace tend to have bouts of absenteeism. Absenteeism in the workplace is a major issue, with tangible and intangible costs. Although the absentee loses wages in the process, the major loss is at the expense of the employer. The ebrary book by Lynn  Tylczak, (Attacking absenteeism 1990), describes the intangible costs of absenteeism as follows: â€Å"Absentee costs are difficult to quantify. Experts estimate direct wage loses of more than $30 billion per year, and that’s just the beginning. Employers also need to consider the costs of supplementary or replacement workers. These costs include: Regular wages, overtime wages, and company benefits Supplementary benefits, such as Social Security, worker’s compensation, and unemployment compensation Administration of recruitment, selection orientation, and training Penalty costs resulting from delays.† The author (Lynn T. 1990) also gives the following explanation from the tangible cost of absenteeism: â€Å"It forces managers to deal with problems of morale, discipline, job dissatisfaction, job stress, team spirit, productivity, turnover, production quality, additional administration and overhead.† Many employers have become more cognizant of the disastrous effects of having stressful employees in the workplace. This is not only calculated in monetary losses based on productivity, but also in the valuable asset (the employee) which could potentially offset those losses. IV. Body Paragraph #3 Topic sentence # 3 Those who value their time with their families certainly appreciate the value of being away from work. This is particularly why a lot of us look forward to our vacation time. It us the opportunity to recharge our batteries and gives us the courage to return to our regular lives. Many employers have adapted to the changes in society by implementing new ways for employees to earn vacation time from work. While some of us are comfortable being â€Å"working stiffs†, most people would rather look forward to their time away from work. An ebrary book by ANDERSON, NELS titled Work and Leisure states: â€Å"Although leisure reflects and supplements work, it is also used as a release from work. Some are of the view that unless a man has worked he cannot really enjoy leisure. They hold that while a man is working to earn a wage or salary, he also ‘earns’ leisure.† It is absolutely true that in order to fully enjoy our vacation time, we must work hard for it. That time of leisure can then be considered our reward for achieving the demands required of us in the workplace. Those who properly plan their vacation can benefit from sights  rarely seen in everyday life. Most people find it more beneficial to take their vacation in some exotic location. The topic on how to enjoy a proper vacation will vary from one employee to the next. V. Body Paragraph #4 Topic sentence # 4 Employers have devised lots of ways to keep valuable talent within their workforce, while allowing them time to accomplish their house work. Those arrangements can be profitable to the employer as well as the employee in some cases. Some of the sensible ways employers provide to employees are flextime, teleworking, and employee incentive just to name a few. Flextime is highly valuable to employees because it allows them to have more control over the balancing act of work and home life. It also provides them the option of choosing when to complete their work. Flextime allows employees to handle personal business such as doctor appointments or school functions without having to take sick leave or vacation time. Employers’ personnel needs are met and they get employees at their best. In highly skilled positions where competition for employees is fierce and employee turnover costly, flexible schedules can also reduce attrition by making employees more content with their jobs (Giraffe, 2011). Teleworking provides some lucky employees the opportunity to work remotely. With this system employees can either work from home or in some shared work spaces. In most cases employees would prefer to work from home because it is the ideal place to work from. This reduces the work commute, and the amount stress to the employee. It takes an especially disciplined employee to work from home, because of the constant distractions from home can cause the employee’s work performance to suffer. Employers must be careful when considering the type of employees they provide that opportunity to. Through teleworking, some employees do get to achieve balance between family and work life. Balancing Family & Work Life. (2016, Oct 18). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

A literature review of brand loyalty from marketing aspect

A of brand loyalty from marketing aspect - Literature review Example Having loyal customers reduces the firm’s marketing cost by approximately thirty percent, according to Rosenberg and Czepiel (1983), mostly because the cost of retaining old consumers is reduced. In addition, brand loyal clients are less price sensitive thus the are willing to pay more for the products as long as they are from their favourite brand, this is a strategy that Apple Inc has used for many years and is still profiting from their loyal consumers who flood to the Apple stores to get new products (Bennett and Thiele 2005). Generally, a sturdy brand name is the number one tool to control the market and to posses a competitive advantage which is essential for any business growth and thus brand loyalty offers a strategic asset that is identified as the leading source of brand equity (Fullerton 2005). This literature review will solemnly study brand loyalty which refers to maintaining old consumers due to their love, trust and faith in the firm’s products. The objectives of this review are to review the dimensions and measures of brand loyalty, the causes of brand loyalty decline, the root of decline in brand loyalty, the remedies and analyze both the merits and demerits of brand loyalty by bringing together thoughts and experiences from a variety of literature and pragmatic studies conducted in the area of brand loyalty. Brand loyalty can be defined either conceptually (abstract descriptions) or operationally (measurement methods). Based on research journals and several literatures worldwide, Jacoby and Chestnut (1978), presented the most elaborate conceptual definition of brand loyalty since it covers the most significant features of brand loyalty. â€Å"The biased, behavioural response expressed over time by some decision making unit with respect to one or more alternative brands out of a set of such brands and is a function of psychological

Features of smart phone Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Features of smart phone - Research Paper Example Furthermore, a majority of the contemporary smart phones exhibit 3G capabilities (Albright, 25). To this end, 3G is an acronym of third generation which implies new communication standards, procedures and devices that will enhance the quality and speed of services available on the go. In this regard, 4G technology is soon being incorporated within smartphone devices. This is projected to increase the benefits of smart phones. To this end, the popularity of smart phones has increased significantly over the years to the extent that it is viewed as a lifestyle trend to own one. Its popularity stems from the multiple benefits that have made the life of modern human beings much better. One of the benefits of a smartphone is that it keeps the user organised. Evidently, the smartphone handsets have inbuilt features such as contact lists, electronic diaries, calendar, note pad, voice recorder and automatic reminders that basically act as personal organisers. To this end, the smartphone is ve ry convenient among professionals in white collar jobs since they can easily organize their daily schedules pertaining to issues such as meetings, appointments, conferences, among others. The benefits of a Smartphone also extend to its similarity in functions to that of a desktop computer. Foremost, the smartphone has a QWERTY keypad that is similar to the computer keyboard. Moreover, the keypad comes in hardware version with physical keys that can be easily be typed as well as a software version that is evident on touch screens such as I-phones. Moreover, the smartphone exhibits capability of browsing entire websites that contain high amount of data. In addition, there are also smart phones applications similar to Microsoft office which allows the creation and editing of documents. To this end, persons owning smart phones do not necessarily need to own a desktop computer. The smart phones also have GPS capability (Ga?rtner, William, and Michael, 526). Evidently, the GPS is suitable whenever a person needs to locate an area that is unfamiliar or new to a person. To this end, whenever a person is travelling to places that are unknown, it is highly convenient for him or her to activate the GPS and find the place (Karimi, 19). The smartphone hence assists in making the tour navigable. Furthermore, the GPS capability saves the user the inconvenience of carrying a map whenever travelling. In organizations smart phones enable organizational investment in the employee. According to Mohammad and Syed the solutions offered by smart phones enable work responsibilities to be more desirable (9). This is through the reduction of time spent by an individual on repetitive or menial tasks. Furthermore, the user can also reference flash presentations, eBooks, audiovisual training material, as well as carrying instructional manuals on storage cards with high capacity (Ilyas and Syed, 10). The smart phone also exhibits the benefit of customer relationship management (CRM) in org anizations (Ilyas and Syed, 10). This is through CRM applications that assist in the streamlining of supply chain operation. Evidently, the applications enable workers in an organization to track inventory levels and features, automate schedules and features. These consequently minimize customer visits and reduce downtime. Hospitality applications incorporated in smart phones have been beneficial to people working in the hotel and hospitality industry. These are through applications for curb side check-in