Challenges in the Modern-day Working Life

Challenges in the Modern-day Working Life

Working life is generally defined as the time a person spends at work or doing their job. Working life may vary based on a person’s career, workload, and work environment. Modern-day working life is influenced by various factors, including lifestyle changes, changes in gender roles and societal expectations, and technological advancements. For example, people are developing a preference for part-time jobs and work-from-home jobs so that they can create a work-life balance. Gender roles and societal expectations may influence the choice of jobs and working conditions. For example, some women in modern society focus more on getting money to support their families than the time they spend with their children due to the rise of single parenting. Women are also focusing on earning an income to support their families because modern society expects single parents to provide for their children without relying on child support. Technological advancements have impacted working life by forcing employees to familiarize themselves with the technology used in their workplaces. Events such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic have also reshaped the modern-day working environment, thus influencing people’s working lives. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic increased the use of flexible work arrangements such as working from home. Employees have also become more enlightened about their rights, leading to a higher demand for a quality work life, including good working conditions, training and development, and fair compensation and benefits. However, organizations still hold the role of creating a good working life for their employees, which leads to various challenges experienced by employees in organizations that do not prioritize employee welfare.

Challenges in the Modern-day Working Life

The modern business environment is characterized by stiff competition, forcing organizations to pressure employees to increase productivity and meet specific expectations. The main challenge arising from the stiff competition is job demands. Modern-day employees are experiencing pressure from job demands in their working lives as they strive to meet the organization’s expectations to retain their jobs. Unfortunately, some employees cannot adjust to the job demands, leading to dissatisfaction in their working life, especially if the job demands make it hard to balance personal and work life. According to Pennbrant & Dåderman (2021), job demands are among the factors that contribute to the lack of work-life balance. For instance, employees may be required to work extra shifts to meet the organization’s targets, thus sparing less time to spend at home with their families or rest. Job demands in the modern-day work environment may also pose the challenge of limited work-life balance because they may include attending training programs to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to complete assigned tasks effectively. Bencsik & Juhasz (2023) argue that the evolution of organizational information communication technology has led to the need for organizational staff to update and renew their digital skills. The authors state, “As organizational ICT systems evolve, their use requires staff constantly to renew and update their digital skills” ( Bencsik & Juhasz, 2023, p. 42). Mandatory training programs may impact employees’ work-life balance and put them under too much pressure to meet their personal and organizational needs, leading to an unhealthy working life. Training programs may also impact an employee’s financial status if the organization does not sponsor them. Job demands may also include unrealistic targets, particularly for entry-level employees willing to do whatever it takes to get promoted and increase their salaries. Unfortunately, employees have limited control over job demands, thus making working life difficult for those working under unrealistic job demands.

The modern business environment is influenced by various factors, including social-economic conditions. Social conditions include societal expectations, beliefs, and values, while economic conditions include the changes in the economic cycle that impact people’s monetary needs and financial obligations. Social-economic conditions challenge the modern-day work environment by setting the expectations that employees should meet to get and retain a job, thus impacting their working lives. According to Brough et al. (2020), there is a high demand for flexible employees in the modern job market. Organizations are more willing to pay higher salaries to flexible employees who can work both part-time and full-time because they reduce the likelihood of lacking someone to complete a job when the employee in charge of completing the job is unavailable. The rise of work-from-home programs in most organizations since the COVID-19 pandemic has also changed the factors organizations consider in awarding jobs, promotions, and benefits, thus impacting working life. For example, an organization may opt to promote an employee who does not have family commitments because they can work from home with limited interruptions due to the unpredictability of the changes in the business environment. An organization may also limit paid leave days for middle and low-level employees to discourage them from requesting unnecessary leaves. Such preferences make it hard for employees to be satisfied in their working lives, especially if they are not well compensated for their commitment to the organization. Some employees may also feel that working from home does not guarantee job security leading to poor morale and anxiety. Changes in socioeconomic status may continue impacting working life differently as societies and economic conditions change. Therefore, organizations should take appropriate measures to create a work-life balance for employees and ensure that the expectations they set for employees are realistic.

Many organizations in the modern business environment recognize the need for employee engagement in critical activities, including decision-making. However, employee involvement in decision-making, especially in large multinational organizations, is time-consuming, forcing organizations not to involve employees in decision-making. Therefore, employees in the modern work environment have limited control over decision-making in the workplace. Many employees are forced to accept the decisions made by their superiors to secure their jobs. Limited control over decision-making may make an employee feel enslaved in an organization leading to emotional and psychological issues. Some decisions may also make working life difficult for employees leading to stress and burnout. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare organizations, especially in areas with many patients, created tight schedules for healthcare workers and put strict restrictions on working hours and the conduct of healthcare workers within the healthcare setting. Some healthcare workers could not cope with the new working conditions, so they quit, but others persevered in the harsh working conditions to retain their jobs. In such instances, the working life may be too demanding to the extent that a person may have to choose between their welfare and their career, which is a hard decision for entry-level employees who do not have enough experience to compete in the job market.

Working life is characterized by meeting personal and organizational expectations and goals. Working life also includes setting career expectations and plans on where a person would want to be in the organization. Unfortunately, many employees in the modern work environment experience a mismatch between personal expectations and the employer’s plan. For example, a junior-level employee may expect to be promoted to the senior level and take the necessary measures, such as meeting the organization’s performance and behavioral expectations and pursuing higher education. However, the decision on whether the employee will be promoted is made by senior officials or the employer. In some instances, employees may not get what they expect, leading to disappointment and stress, especially if a colleague is promoted under questionable grounds such as bribery and favoritism. The mismatch between personal expectations and the employer’s plan is common in the modern work environment because of corruption and discrimination. In some instances, an employee may be planning to work for a company for a specific time, but they are laid off before they can meet their expectations due to unexpected disruptions in the organization’s business environment, such as pandemics and economic downturns. Unfortunately, employees have limited control over the mismatch between their personal expectations and the employer’s plan forcing them to adapt so that they can retain their jobs.

Over the past decade, many people have invested in education and acquired unique knowledge and skills to secure a good job. This has created stiff competition in the job market, forcing employees to sacrifice their personal time for work to retain their jobs. Therefore, many employees in the modern work environment cannot create a clear boundary between personal and work life. Working life can be so demanding that a person cannot create a boundary between work and personal life. For example, healthcare providers such as doctors and emergency response teams may be unable to set a boundary between their personal and work life because they can be called to work anytime. Employees may also be unable to set a boundary between their work and personal life if they want a job promotion. For instance, in organizations where employees are rewarded based on specific targets, they may sacrifice their time to meet and exceed the targets to be promoted to a higher rank. Working life may also make it hard to set a clear boundary between work and personal life when there is competition among employees within the organization. For example, if many employees are assigned the same task, competition may arise because none of them may want to complete the task late. Therefore, it is important for organizations to set policies and procedures that facilitate the creation of work-life balance to help employees create a boundary between their work and personal lives.

Conclusion

Working life has transitioned over the past decade because of the changes in the work environment. The leading factors contributing to the evolution of working life are technological advancements, lifestyle changes, changes in gender roles, and societal expectations. These factors have led to various challenges in the working life, making it hard for employees to cope with their personal and work life. The main challenges in the modern-day work environment include job demands, disruptions from social-economic conditions, limited control over decision-making in the workplace, the mismatch between personal expectations and the employer’s plan, and being unable to create a clear boundary between personal and work life.

References

Bencsik, A., & Juhasz, T. (2023). Impact of technostress on work-life balance. Human Technology, 19(1), 41–61. https://doi.org/10.14254/1795-6889.2023.19-1.4

Brough, P., Timms, C., Chan, X. W., Hawkes, A., & Rasmussen, L. (2020). Work-life balance: Definitions, causes, and consequences. Handbook of Socioeconomic Determinants of Occupational Health, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05031-3_20-1

Pennbrant, S., & Dåderman, A. (2021). Job demands, work engagement and job turnover intentions among registered nurses: Explained by Work-Family Private Life Inference. Work, 68(4), 1157–1169. https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-213445

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BUSB 301 – ASSIGNMENT Analytical Essay 1
Assignment: Draft and revise a critical analysis of working life that makes meaningful and significant use of at least
(i) ONE of the required course texts on “working life” from Moodle and (ii) ONE source (scholarly, peer-reviewed)
discovered through research. Depending on your analysis, you may need to incorporate more than these two
sources.

A good critical analysis for this assignment:
 Demonstrates that you understand the arguments presented in the texts;
 Makes the “working life” text central to the analysis;
 Makes meaningful and significant use of a peer-reviewed, scholarly source;
 Includes any relevant research or data; and
 Successfully figure something out about the specific topic you’ve chosen and contribute to the existing
knowledge about your subject.
Due Dates: Complete Draft: Session 4 at 6:00 pm
Final Essay Session 5 at 6:00 pm
Evaluation: 15 points
Length: At least 5 full pages (excluding title & reference pages), double-spaced, 12-point font
Format: Correct APA formatting and documentation
Penalties: Late draft/no draft = 5-point deduction from total points possible.