WORK LIFE BALANCE 1 Essay Example

Work life balance

Accounting Industry- Work Life Balance and its Importance

Specific issues that impact on Work Life Balance

In the life of a professional accountant, there are several issues that have impacts on their life and the general working conditions. In most cases it is seen as a field of work where the desires and needs of the clients are given the upper hand (Ghanbari, Ramazani, & Jalilinia, 2013). For this reason, the accountants fail to have a good Work Life Balance because:

1. They fail to create enough time for themselves

It is not easy to work for specific hours. Some clients can come in at very odd hours and claim to be on the 11^th hour of their projects. For the sake of avoiding piling work one has to spend more hours working using the time that was supposed to be theirs. This is also the category of the clients who come in a predetermined outcome of the work they tell you to do so they pile pressure on you to satisfy their desired outcome instead of taking what you tell them to do as a professional. These counter motions of the accountant against the client leads to a time consuming procedure to a level that the accountant has to work like a robot that is remote controlled by the client (Smith, Smith, & Brower, 2011).

1. Business growth is made a number 1 priority and personal growth comes in after

In most seminars and conferences held by the accountants, you will rarely find them talking about themselves and their self-growth. The common terminologies that come out frequently in their discussions are: super marketing strategies, more revenue, more sales and more profits. This should not be confused with selflessness and passion for work (Isaacs, 2016).

Research Findings on how to eradicate these issues

The main goal is to achieve a fair Work Life Balance in the accounting profession living the client and the professional accountant satisfied and agreed.

In order for an accountant to create time for them it requires that a difficult sacrificing decision is made. The entire bookkeeping practice has to be redesigned. This redesigning specifies the number of clients a professional accountant can handle in a day. They can as well work for more hours in a day but for fewer days in a week. This has to be clearly communicated to the existing and potential clients (Figueroa, 2016). This will enhance proper scheduling so that there is free time for the accountants. Efficiency and high quality of work will be delivered by the accountants who would be working under minimum pressure. There will no fall out of clients because they will be enjoying quality work and higher level of satisfaction.

The shift from the growth of the business to self-growth is more of a personal decision because different people in this industry have different goals in their life. It is found that 51% of the Accountants are satisfied with their income and they only intend to make their service delivery better. 32% of them do not know what to do beyond where they are (Ghanbari, Ramazani, & Jalilinia, 2013). To counter this issue, the themes for the conferences have to capture the Accountants’ personal affairs so that they can develop an attitude aiming to have personal growth and practice management.

Summary of Findings

Accountants are a group of professionals who easily forget that they have a life to live. The success of their clients and business occupies a larger part of their minds and hearts than their own lives (Isaacs, 2016).

Recommendation

For a successful Work Life Balance to materialize, it is required that the professional Accountants develop a flexible state of thinking so that their practice is not done as a norm but work has to be done to satisfy all the parties at a time.

References

Figueroa, M. (2016). Work–Life Balance Does Not Mean an Equal Balance. Frontiers In Pediatrics, 4. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2016.00018

Ghanbari, A., Ramazani, M., & Jalilinia, M. (2013). Analysis of work-life balance from the viewpoint of Iranian accountants. Management Science Letters, 2315-2322. http://dx.doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2013.07.011

Isaacs, D. (2016). Work-life balance. Journal Of Paediatrics And Child Health, 52(1), 5-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jpc.13110

Smith, K., Smith, L., & Brower, T. (2011). An examination of work-life balance perspectives of accountants. International Journal Of Critical Accounting, 3(4), 367. http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijca.2011.042929