The Barrier of Employee Engagement: Lack of Work-Life Balance

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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MANAGEMENT
While I was working at a retail store previously as a customer care executive, my shift
timings were from morning 8:30 A.M to 5:00 P.M. When I was working there, there were
different kinds of issues which was faced by me during the tenure which was regarding the
management of the company as I felt it was not effective in nature. The main issue which was
faced by me in the respective retail store was the lack of work-life balance and this affected
my morale in performing the different activities in the store.
In the respective organization, I was working under a supervisor who helped and
guided us in performing different kinds of activities related to the different floor activities
which are required to be performed in the retail store. The first few months went quite well
and I was happy with the working atmosphere as well which helped me in performing best in
the different activities. However, after a few months I felt that the work environment was
becoming hectic and this affected my work-life balance.
There was huge pressure of the work in the organization and this was inclusive of
overtime and this affected my health as well. Moreover, I noticed that there was lack of
employee engagement in the organization which led to decrease in the overall productivity of
the organization and the employees working in the organization. According to Alagaraja and
Shuck (2015), the employee engagement is the extent to which the different employees is
passionate about the jobs and they are the ones who are committed towards achieving the
different goals of the organization.
Due to the lack of work-life balance, I had to perform overtime and there was no extra
pay which was provided to the different employees working with me. Our supervisor was not
at all cooperative in nature and this led to staff turnover in the organization and this affected
the overall productivity of the organization in a negative manner as well. This was the main
barrier of employee engagement which was faced by me in the organization and this affected

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MANAGEMENT
my level of productivity in the organization as well. There was exhaustion due to the long
working hours on frequent basis and without any kind of extra pay or non-financial reward
system as well. This kind of exhaustive work pressure affected my personal and professional
life in a negative manner.
Due to the respective barrier in the employee engagement strategy, this created huge
disadvantages from the point of view of the different employees. On the other hand, Albrecht
et al. (2015) commented that this was a big advantage for the organization and the employer
as well who are working in the organization. From this respective scenario, I tried to learn
various kinds of aspects which are required to be followed and kept in mind while following
the different kinds of aspects in mind.
I feel that there is a direct relationship between the work life balance and the
employee engagement. The negative impact of the work life balance reduces the effort at
work, this lowers the performance of the different employees working in the organization
along with increased absenteeism as well. This was the same case which was taking place in
our organization and the main sufferers were the lower level employees.
When we noticed that there was so much pressure in the work, we tried to approach to
the higher authorities. However, there was no such action taken regarding this matter and the
same continued for few months. Due to the lack of work-life balance which is the main
barrier in the employee engagement, the employees felt exhausted and there was lack of
control and they faced from lower level of self-esteem as well. However, we noticed that the
higher management officials were benefitted from the same wherein they tried to make the
employees work overtime and their tasks were being completed on time as well.
I feel that from employee engagement, this will help the employees in performing
effectively and this will increase the overall productivity of the organization. On the other