Work-life balance: YouGov-Firstpost survey shows 50% of women want flexible hours, those aged 30-39 work longest days

As the job market becomes increasingly crowded year after year, and opportunities seemingly dry up, the first thing to disappear for working professionals is a balance between their jobs and their personal lives. The impact of an unhealthy work-life balance makes itself felt on productivity in the workplace, personal relations, psychological and physical health, and a whole lot of other areas. [caption id=“attachment_5360441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] YouGov India, in consultation with Firstpost, recently conducted a pan-India survey of women — interviewing over 750 respondents — asking them a series of questions spanning the areas of sexual harassment in the work place, the pay gap and the work-life balance. The exercise was conducted between 26 September and 5 October and employed a 26-question-long survey that covered respondents across 100 Indian cities. Having serialised the  findings of the survey relating to sexual harassment  and examined how women view the gender pay gap , Firstpost will be examining how women view the work-life balance over a series of four infographics. The first set of infographics depicts how women from different age groups perceive the work life balance. The survey classified women under three age groups: ‘20 to 29 years of age’, ‘30 to 39 years of age’ and ‘40 years and above’. According to the findings, over half the women surveyed stated that in order to improve the work-life balance, they wanted their organisation to provide flexible work-days/hours. Elsewhere, it was noted that across age groups, more than two of every five women wished they had more time before or after work to exercise. And while a majority of 20- to 40-year-olds stated that they worked in order to be financial independent, over 40 percent of women aged 40 and above said they worked in order to share the responsibility of contributing their family needs. In terms of work hours, it was observed that 30- to 39-year-olds appear to work the longest working days (with 20 percent stating that they worked over 10 hours a day on average), while the group aged 40 and above claimed to get the most time with their friends and family, with nearly half of the total number of respondents stating that they get over four hours a day to spend with their nears and dears. On average, under five percent of women stated unhappiness with their work-life balance.