Balancing Multiple Roles

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Balancing Multiple Roles
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• Analyze the negative effects of role conflicts.
• Explain the need for balance as you manage
  multiple roles.
• Analyze strategies for achieving balance in life.
• Describe support systems that help families
  manage multiple roles.
• Discuss family-friendly workplace policies.

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Quick Write

• List the various roles you have in your life.
• Which do you enjoy the most?
• Which do you enjoy the least?
• Why?

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• A role conflict occurs when one role has a
  significant negative impact on another role.
• Another way of describing this situation is
  spillover. One role spills over into another,
  affecting your ability to fulfill it as well as
  you would like.

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Ways role conflict can affect you

• Internal effects. When the demands of roles
  clash, stress usually builds. A person may feel
  distracted, exhausted, and unable to think
  clearly.
• Interpersonal effects. Relationships often carry
  the brunt of role conflicts. Spillover affects
  the person as well as the family, friends,
  coworkers, and others.

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• External effects. Role conflicts can sometimes
  keep you from participation in activities that
  are important to you. Disarray is another
  example. It results when a task is pushed aside
  in the effort to juggle many roles.

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• Role conflicts are an important issue in the
  workplace. Spillover from the family is a major
  cause of absenteeism, tardiness, inefficiency,
  and distraction at work.
• It also has an impact on family life People who
  are under stress at work tend to argue with their
  spouses more and participate in family activities
  less.

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• Learning to manage multiple roles is a key
  skill for both workplace success and family
  harmony.

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Difficult Factors

• Difficult situations contribute to stress. These
  might include erratic work schedules, multiple
  jobs, reliable child care, extended illness,
  older family members, and blended families.
• What are other examples?

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• Unrealistic expectations. These add to stress.
  Examples New parents with little sleep trying
  to keep a spotless house. A college student
  working long hours and trying to take extra
  classes.
• Sometimes, lowering expectations is a healthy
  thing to do.

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• Overcommitment. Making too many commitments
  often stems from a desire to please everyone and
  an inability to say no. Its also easy to
  underestimate the time and energy needed to
  fulfill certain roles.
• Examples Playing sports with a job and school.
  Extracurricular activities and school. Crafts.

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Management skills can help in balancing multiple
roles.

• Balancing multiple roles is really about
  maintaining a sense of balance within yourself.
  It helps steady you as you shift from role to
  role.
• A sense of balance wont eliminate role conflicts
  or make your life perfect.
• When you have balance, you feel in control and
  you can stay focused on your goals.

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Three Strategies to Achieve Balance

• Setting Priorities
• This involves setting prioritieschoosing where
  to focus your time and energy.
• Consider your valuesyour beliefs, feelings, and
  ideas about what is important.
• Then set your priorities based on your values and
  responsibilities.

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• Setting priorities may help in putting your roles
  in perspective.
• Give yourself the flexibility to adjust your
  roles as needed.
• Just make sure you are not neglecting important
  areas of your life.

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Changing Priorities

• Your priorities may change as you go through
  life. A single person may focus on his or her
  career and advancing in it until marriage. Then
  the focus is shifted to the family.

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Setting Priorities

• Establishing your priorities will help you set
  personal boundaries. These are limits you set
  for yourself based on your values and priorities.
  They enable you to control the number of roles
  you play and to focus on what matter most to you.

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• Whenever youre given the opportunity for a new
  activity or are asked to take on another role,
  ask yourself, Do I have room in my life for this
  right now? How will it affect my other roles?
  Does it fit with my values and priorities?

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• Careful consideration, rather than a quick
  response, can help you say yes to those
  opportunities that best fit and no to those that
  dont.

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Courage to Say No

• Its hard to say no to people who ask for your
  help, invite you out or include you in their
  plans. If you want to focus on your priorities,
  though, you have to learn to refuse. Be ready
  for others to try to change your mind.
• Focus on what is best for you.

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• When someone tries to persuade you in a different
  direction, stand firm. If you over commit,
  youll end up disappointing others as well as
  yourself.
• Think of three ways to politely, but honestly,
  decline an invitation or request.

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Managing Time

• The ability to manage your time effectively is a
  key skill in balancing multiple roles.
• Time management helps you focus on your
  priorities and use your time effectively.

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Tips for Best Use of Time

• Make a daily or weekly to-do list. Use a
  calendar to keep track of appointments and
  special events.
• Plan each day by checking your calendar and your
  to-do list.
• Be realistic about what you can accomplish in any
  given day. Plan for things to take longer than
  you predict.

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• Build flexibility into your schedule so that you
  can make changes.
• Learn to say no. Its better than letting
  someone down later.
• Plan for some free time. Dont schedule every
  hour of the day.

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Reducing Stress

• Stress often results from role conflicts.
• Too much stress can knock you off balance.
• It can also pull you into a downward spiral the
  more stress you feel, the more difficult is it to
  manage multiple roles.
• That can lead to more role conflicts and still
  more stress.

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Developing Support Systems

• Managing multiple roles is easer with a good
  support systemall the people ad organizations a
  person can turn to for help.
• A typical support system might include family,
  friends, and coworkers, as well as professional
  and community services.

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• Think of the roles you have and the people who
  interact with in those roles. How do they
  support you?
• Talk with those people to see how you can help
  one another.

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At Home

• Many families call on their extended family for
  support.
• Example Support from grandparents in
  transporting children to and from home or for
  child care.
• These arrangements are often more convenient and
  less expensive than other options.

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• They also give family members the chance to spend
  time with one another and grow closer.
• Good communication helps family members
  understand each others roles and the demands of
  those roles.
• If you want your family to support you, be
• open about the role conflicts you experience.

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• Talk about your various roles. Let your family
  know when you are having problems.
• Help them understand the demands you face in
  balancing your life.
• Sharing these concerns not only enhances
  understanding but may give you a new perspective
  and lead to new solutions.

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• In return, be willing to listen to the concerns
  of family members and offer your support.

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At Work

• Like at home, it helps to have a support system
  at work.
• Having support can make the difference between
  enjoying a job and feeling constant stress due to
  role conflicts.
• Examples lunch with coworkers after work
  activities.

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Family-Friendly Policies

• Employers know that their employees have personal
  lives and family obligations.
• Although employers cant let employees have
  unlimited time off to deal with problems, some
  have introduced family-friendly policies that
  make it easer for employees to balance their
  lives.

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Family-Friendly Policies

• Flexible work hours.
• Some companies have introduced flextime, a system
  that allows workers to choose when they will
  begin and end their working day.
• This allows parents to build their workday around
  their childrens schedules.

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• Compressed schedules.
• An employee who works a compressed workweek might
  work four ten-hour days and have three days off.
  This is often used in hospitals and in schools
  and universities during the summer months.

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• On-site child care.
• Companies that provide on-site child care
  facilities make it possible for employees to stay
  close to their children while they work. Parents
  can visit their children during their lunch
  break, and they are on hand if there is any kind
  of emergency.

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• Job sharing.
• Under this system, two part-time employees share
  one full-time job. They split the hours and the
  pay. One might work in the morning and the other
  in the afternoons, or might work two day one week
  and three the next.
• The offers flexibility to people who dont need
  or want to work full time.

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• Telecommuting.
• Technology makes it possible for some employees
  to telecommute or work from home using
  communication links to their job.
• These links include the telephone, fax, email or
  computers.

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• It is ideal for people who dont need daily
  face-to-face contact with coworkers. It offers
  flexible work hours and saves travel time. It
  also saves gas expenses.

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• Family and medical leave.
• Companies with more than 50 employees are
  required by law to allow workers to take time off
  to deal with family and medical emergencies.
  These include up to 12 weeks of leave for sick
  workers, a birth or the adoption of a child, or
  to care for a sick family member.

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• Employers are not required to pay employees
  during this time off.
• The employees have the assurance that they will
  have a job when they return to work.

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In the Community

• Friends and neighbors often join together for
  mutual support and assistance. Ex one parent
  who waits with small children for the bus.
• Many communities offer programs and support to
  help families balance their multiple roles.

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• Some schools and places of worship offer
  after-school programs for children as well as
  family activities that encourage family members
  to draw closer.
• Some community service organizations also arrange
  for supervised after-school programs.

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• Help with caring for older family members may
  also be available from the community.
• Some communities have day care centers for
  seniors, offering lunches and a range of
  activities and outings .

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• For older people who cant get out, Meals on
  Wheels provides daily hot lunches.
• Social service agencies can arrange for other
  needed care.

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Regaining Lost Balance

• Everyone experience role conflicts and loses
  balance from time to time.
• If you find that one of your roles is taking too
  much time and energy and is spilling over into
  other important roles, try to keep things in
  perspective.

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• Remember that you dont have to be perfect.
• Use your support system.
• Reexamine your priorities and look fro ways to
  regain the balance in your life
• The more you practice maintaining balance, the
  easier you will find it becomes.

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Summary

• Role conflicts occur when one role spills over
  into another.
• Difficult situations, unrealistic expectations
  and overcommitment increase role conflicts.

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• An internal sense of balance helps you to manage
  multiple roles.
• To achieve balance, try to set priorities, manage
  your time, and reduce stress.
• Support systems are available to help people
  manage multiple roles.

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• In the workplace, family-friendly policies help
  employees balance work and family life.