Mehan discusses how the profound use of smartphones has caused work-life conflict. Read on to find out more about the turnout of today’s cyber era!

A latest report by think tank Onward has shown that people in Britain are increasingly experiencing work life conflict as they feel exhausted and busy. There is a common wave of burnout among people and they avoid leisure activities like volunteering for social work, or hanging out with friends.

The study suggests that technology and smartphones are blurring the boundaries between work and personal life. This contributes to the rising work life conflict.  70% of UAE respondents agreed in a recent survey that it is becoming difficult to separate work and personal life because of smartphone usage. Individuals earning in the bracket of (AED 20000 – AED 40000 per month) felt this burnout the most. Also according to a YouGov survey, Males felt this comparatively stronger than females.

The Out-Turn of Today’s Tech Era

One of the severely-hit areas is volunteer work, which has reduced since the past 40 years. This is because people are constantly switching between activities. For instance, taking work calls during workout, or attending official meetings online while driving, etc, brews a sense of time slipping away. As a result, people subconsciously perceive that they are running out of time and tend to oversee volunteer opportunities.

Supporting Stats and Related Critique

The study report introduces the concept of “time confetti,” where official interruptions and fragmented recreations compress leisure time and it doesn’t feel fulfilling. The findings show that in 1974, the average individual would shift from activities 18 times a day. However, by 2014, the figure nearly doubled to 31 times for males and 37 times for females. This constant juggling of activities, combined with multitasking, contributes to feelings of burnout and surging work-life conflict.

Contrary to common beliefs, the findings challenge mainly three myths:

• People are sleep deprived
• Work burden has increased
• There is a prevalent feeling of rushing

The study claims that people have actually increased their sleep duration by almost 30 minutes per day since 1974. However, the work hours have remained unchanged or seen a limited rise. In spite of that, there has been a rise in ‘’shift’’ and ‘’weekend’’ work operations, with roughly 25% of employees engaging in paid work on weekends.

Cellular devices, blurring the borders between work and personal life is marked as the main cause of work life conflict and general burnout. Using smartphones while performing house chores, or socializing while listening to music has disrupted the normal pace of human functioning.

People can’t prioritize their time slots effectively and end up fusing their routine tasks without clear distinction. As a result, free time becomes divided and spread out, and people struggle to strike a work life balance.

Winding it up!

Mehan suggests that addressing work life conflict and related exhaustion, requires new policies, especially for weekend and shift workers. Hence, it questions the notion that whether executing a four-day work week in isolation can properly address work-life balance concerns.

This is how corporations cater to work life conflict. However, the study suggests that considering just the amount of work is not enough. Other factors like efficient methodology, work timing, and qualification of professionals, etc. should also be prioritized to the same extent. 

Mehan expands on the detrimental effect of such a fast-paced, technological, and multitasking culture on people’s well-being and leisure time. It calls for a re-evaluation of official and personal life boundaries.