Preface

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This report is not an academic study. Instead, it is a compilation of the comments of Canadian workers regarding how they feel about the stress they are facing in their daily lives as they seek to balance work and family.

Stress levels have increased as the work environment has changed in the last decade in response to downsizing, globalization, competitive pressures and technological change. In addition, broader and fundamental changes in society and the family have contributed to the problems inherent in balancing competing responsibilities. The views of the individuals documented here underscore the degree to which all these changes have affected individuals at work, at home and in their personal life.

To highlight the immediacy of these issues, the comments have been left largely in people's own words. Consequently, they provide a window on how people experience and react to stress and the ways they find to try to deal with it.

These expressions of stress are drawn from the 10,000 comments provided by participants in Health Canada's 2001 National Work-Life Conflict Study. The survey covered workers in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors in a wide range of large organizations across Canada.

Almost two-thirds of the comments are about the difficulty of achieving work-life balance, especially problems at the organizational level (which account for over 40% of the comments overall). Somewhat fewer concerns, but still a significant number, were voiced about how work and family interrelate and the difficulty of balancing competing demands and expectations. A minority of the comments were positive. Some responses contained recommendations on how to reduce stress levels or achieve work-life balance.

By documenting people's responses in their own words, this report illustrates very clearly how people are experiencing often extreme levels of stress due to the conflict between work and home. This report is therefore a valuable record that provides first-hand insights into a burgeoning problem for individuals and organizations.