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Achieving Work/Life Balance

Thanks to ever-increasing wireless connectivity, the boundary between work and personal life is constantly thinning. A new term, weisure, describes the increasing tendency to continue to work during leisure time (Patterson, 2009). Examples include reading work e-mail while spending time with the family and answering work-related cell phone calls during a leisure outing. This trend, according to Patterson (2009), is partly due to the increasing enjoyment of work, but also due to the difficulty faced in establishing clear boundaries between work and leisure time. That difficulty is magnified by the increase in the average number of hours in the work week for many in the workforce, as well as multiple roles. Many are parents, spouses, partners, employees, caregivers to elderly parents, and also engaged in continued education.

Whether you decide to enter the workforce directly upon graduation or attend graduate school, you will be faced with the challenge of juggling multiple roles and maintaining a balance. You will also be attempting to prove yourself as a new employee or as a new graduate student. The temptation to overwork will be great. However, it can have ethical implications, especially if you work in the psychology field. The stress you face may impair your effectiveness, leading to ethical ramifications (Barnett, Baker, Elman, & Schoener, 2007).
research work-life balance. You may want to use some or all of the following search terms: work-life balance, job satisfaction, burnout, leisure, overworked, and self-care.

Select at least one authoritative article from the library and provide a summary. Focus on the effects of work-life imbalance and the benefits of work-life balance.
Describe your own experience with attempting to achieve work-life balance.
What have you done that has improved this balance?
What have you done that has worsened it?
How do you think your situation will change upon graduation from college?
Will you experience more or less difficulty achieving this balance? How and why?
Discuss any ethical ramifications of failure to take proper care of yourself while working in the field of psychology.