No one can deny the significance attributed to the issue of reconciling work and private life by contemporary society, the EU and other international organisations. Its relevance is evident in the multifaceted nature of this topic and the need for each party to the employment contract to strike a proper balance between professional and personal responsibilities, based on the assumption that people can successfully harmonise their work with life. Following on from these considerations, this volume provides a detailed analysis of work-life balance and its regulation in a number of EU countries, emphasizing the consequences that the current economic crisis has brought about in this field.

No one can deny the significance attributed to the issue of reconciling work and private life by contemporary society, the EU and other international organisations. Its relevance is evident in the multifaceted nature of this topic and the need for each party to the employment contract to strike a proper balance between professional and personal responsibilities, based on the assumption that people can successfully harmonise their work with life. Following on from these considerations, this volume provides a detailed analysis of work-life balance and its regulation in a number of EU countries, emphasizing the consequences that the current economic crisis has brought about in this field.

This book reflects the enormous interest in work-life balance and current pressing concerns about the impacts of austerity more broadly. It draws on contemporary research and practitioner experiences to explore how work-life balance and related workplace and social policy fare in turbulent economic times and the implications for employees, employers and wider societies. Authors consider workplace trends, practices and employment relations and the impacts on work, care and well-being of diverse workers. A guiding theme throughout the book is a triple agenda of supporting employee work-life balance, workplace effectiveness and social justice. The final chapters present case studies of innovative processes and organizational practices for addressing the triple agenda, note the important role of social policy context and discuss the challenge of extending debates on work-life balance to include a social justice dimension. This book will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students of organisational psychology, sociology, human resource management, management and business studies, law and social policy, as well as employers, managers, HR managers, trade unions, and policy makers.

The term ‘work-life balance’ refers to the relationship between paid work in all of its various forms and personal life, which includes family but is not limited to it. In addition, gender permeates every aspect of this relationship. This volume brings together a wide range of perspectives from a number of different disciplines, presenting research ndings and their implications for policy at all levels (national, sectoral, enterprise, workplace). Collectively, the contributors seek to close the gap between research and policy with the intent of building a better work-life balance regime for workers across a variety of personal circumstances, needs, and preferences. Among the issues and topics covered are the following: – differences and similarities between men and women and particularly between mothers and fathers in their work choices; – ‘third shift’ work (work at home at night or during weekends); – effect of the extent to which employers perceive management of this process to be a ‘burden’; – employers’ exploitation of the psychological interconnection between masculinity and breadwinning; – organisational culture that is more available for supervisors than for rank and le workers; – weak enforcement mechanisms and token penalties for non-compliance by employers; – trade unions as the best hope for precarious workers to improve work-life balance; – crowd-work (on-demand performance of tasks by persons selected remotely through online platforms from a large pool of potential and generic workers); – an example of how to use work-life balance insights to evaluate the law; – collective self-scheduling; – employers’ duty to accommodate; and – nancial hardship as a serious threat to work-life balance. As it has been shown clearly that work-life con ict is associated with negative health outcomes, exacerbates gender inequalities, and many other concerns, this unusually rich collection of essays will resonate particularly with concerned lawyers and legal academics who ask what work-life balance literature has to offer and how law should respond.

Since the 2008 economic crisis, each year has brought new challenges to welfare states. This important annual volume with contributions from an exciting mix of internationally renowned experts within the social policy community examines the economic and political challenges that have confronted governments, and highlights the diverse ways in which nations have responded. Part One explores the most pressing questions confronting British social policy, from the school-leaving age, employment, in-work benefits to taxation. Part Two examines the political and professional dilemmas involved in the delivery and financing of social policy. Part Three identifies the challenges in integrating social policy with other areas of the welfare state, including social care, health policy and labour market policy. This comprehensive discussion of the most challenging issues arising during the past year provides academics and students with an invaluable up-to-date analysis of the current state of social policy.

This innovative and thought-provoking Research Handbook explores the theoretical debate surrounding work–life balance, and provides a reflection on the opportunity to adopt multilevel research approaches and perspectives, along gender and temporal axes. The Research Handbook is an international overview of current research on work-life balance, considered in macro, meso and micro perspectives.

This book provides a comparative analysis of the impact of the economic crisis on the quality of work and work-life balance.

øThe global economic crisis of 2008 caused the collapse of the world�s financial institutions, large-scale unemployment, the devaluing of housing stocks leading to mortgage defaults and left many countries in debt, unable to meet their financial obliga

Work-Life Advantage analyses how employer-provision of ‘family-friendly’ working arrangements - designed to help workers better reconcile work, home and family - can also enhance firms’ capacities for learning and innovation, in pursuit of long-term competitive advantage and socially inclusive growth. Brings together major debates in labour geography, feminist geography, and regional learning in novel ways, through a focus on the shifting boundaries between work, home, and family Addresses a major gap in the scholarly research surrounding the narrow ‘business case’ for work-life balance by developing a more socially progressive, workerist ‘dual agenda’ Challenges and disrupts masculinist assumptions of the “ideal worker” and the associated labour market marginalization of workers with significant home and family commitments Based on 10 years of research with over 300 IT workers and 150 IT firms in the UK and Ireland, with important insights for professional workers and knowledge-intensive companies around the world