The Elusive Dream - Work Life Balance

I don't recall my parents having stressed so much with issues of child minding, going to work and then shuttling us children to extra curricular classes. Matter of fact, I believe, back in the day our parents did not know much of what was happening in the lives of their children. And, dare I say, generations X and Y have turned out to be mostly model children and citizens. Lack of parental attention and all.

Lo and behold though,  what a load have we to deal with.  As a working mum in Malaysia, in recent years, life can be a misery on many levels.  You see, we are after-all Asian and the mentality of working your staff to the bone is ingrained even in this day and age.

I recall days of when my little ones were ill and it was a not so easy to obtain leave to tend to them. I recall yet another bitter experience of when my husband was hospitalized and the company had no compassion, asking me to take unpaid leave for just a few days.

Another eventful encounter I experienced was when we had what I consider  an important family event, my mother's seventieth birthday which incidentally was on a Saturday, the same day the company was doing a launch of their new property.  My presence was not really needed, however I was asked to be present to snap photographs, not exactly my forte. I had to stand in front like a school kid and explain I can not make it this time. The curt reply I got shocked me somewhat  I was told  " you are too involved with family,  you should be like me, just tell them off if you can't make it, think about yourself ".

Yes, this is the kind of ambition some women have, but not me. I am not driven to climb the corporate ladder at the expense of my family. And for this, many opportunities have by passed me by. In retrospect, I may have lost out on those promotions and bigger pay cheques, but seeing my children grow, not missing important family events and being available  when needed are priceless gifts that the corporate world cannot give me albeit the pay cheque at the end.

A lesson learnt in landscape of the Malaysian workforce, no matter how much effort is given by an individual  to enable the organization to reach its goal, rarely will it take the individual into consideration when needed the most.

Today more than ever, monetary earnings are of paramount importance. We have children aged parents, and other expenses that scream and stare us in the face daily. Sure, we need to work, but why is it so hard for large corporations to exercise compassion and better options for women and caregivers, the gender, born to be nurture and care.

The 'elusive dream' of work-life balance, three nouns, loosely used in the employment market  here in Malaysia is still all in all a façade. In reality for working mums and caregivers, trying to achieve this pursuit of work life balance is just an addition to the labour of life.

Corporations would actually be contributing towards saving the environment,  if only they were more flexible with work from home options as it would cut short on fuel emission and traffic congestion, office equipment and space, simply by leveraging on the use of modern technology like the internet.  

Sadly, the Asian culture warrants employees to work long hours to 'justify' their earnings. The longer the hours, the better it looks for both parties, never mind the low productivity.

As daunting as this looks, I would like to believe that all is not lost, as we see more women moving away from the corporate world and venturing into mobile businesses of their own.

We can only hope that corporations become kinder to their staff force, especially towards care givers and that 'work-life balance' will be a practice and not just the façade it is now.

As Abraham Lincoln so aptly stated even then, " The best way to predict the future is to create it"

Here's hoping the elusive dream will be created into a full force reality sooner than later.