Work-Life Balance – Why Seniors Struggle

Work-life balance isn’t a new thing, although it’s much more talked about than it once was. The daily struggle of fitting ‘life’ around work (or work around life, depending on how you view your priorities), has impacted individuals and families for almost ever. In the 60s, it wasn’t uncommon for working-class dads to take on a second job in the summer holidays, catching up with their family (often camping at the beach), at the weekends. All in an effort to pay off the mortgage. Mums (feeling slightly ashamed they weren’t at home full time), sometimes slipped off for a few hours, while the kids were at school, to work as secretaries or cleaners.

Nowadays, work-life balance is more likely to affect those who already have 2 (or more) part time jobs, just to pay the bills, or white collar staff juggling little ones while they work remotely from home. However, there is another, less-often talked about group, for whom work-life balance can be seriously tricky seniors in the pre-retirement bracket.

These are men and women in their sixties (and older) who may never have experienced work as an obstacle to enjoying and engaging in life. But, slowly, as energy levels wane, and age-related health issues take their toll, they find themselves so exhausted at the end of the working day (or week), there is no stamina left over for their usual pleasures or commitments.

Instead of waking up on a Saturday morning to the enjoyable thought of taking the grandies to the park, or playing a game of tennis with friends, any remaining energy must be directed into survival basics. Mowing the lawn or doing the weekly grocery shop takes precedence over meeting friends for a coffee, gravelling the drive or ironing clothes ready for Monday morning at the office, cuts out visits to family.

In many ways, seniors’ loss of work-life balance can be even more serious than it is for younger workers. This is because, when energy flags, the first thing to be struck off the to-do list, is daily exercise. While a younger person can recover from this with relative ease when they begin exercising again, it can spell serious health issues for someone in their sixties and seventies. Weight piles on, muscle-loss is more difficult to recover from, and balance suffers. Just as serious, social connections (which are so important for seniors after retirement), can be lost at the very time they should be being nurtured.

With seniors often being the backbone of their communities, others suffer from an older worker’s difficulties in maintaining a work-life balance. When life is all work and no play, volunteers are hard to find. Kids’ sports coaches disappear off the radar, committees can’t find officers, and service clubs falter. Even the very elderly can dip out as seniors find it increasingly difficult to fit in caring for surviving parents.

Most seniors are well aware their work-life balance is not what it should be. However, what is particularly cruel, is when it comes to tipping the balance in favour of ‘life,’ a senior employee is vulnerable. While most employers will be understanding of a young parent’s need to take a day off to look after a sick toddler, some may find difficulty accepting a senior staff member needs a few hours leave to take an elderly parent to a doctor’s appointment. Even if employers are understanding, seniors (many of whom have been raised with a different work ethic) may feel they can’t ask for time off. While some seniors are happy to retire at 65, others want to appear as available as possible in order to keep on the promotion ladder for a few more years. As well as this, seniors working alongside younger staff, want to ‘keep up appearances,’ and often exhaust themselves in the process.

Maintaining a healthy grip on both work and life is difficult for anyone, but when it comes to achieving it, seniors are in a category all of their own. Look out for our next article where we check out ways for senior workers to get the balance right.