Reflective Journal: Work-Life Balance, Career Values, and Ethics

This reflective journal explores the multifaceted aspects of work and career, encompassing work-life balance, personal career values, and ethical considerations within a business context. The student examines the impact of work on personal life, emphasizing the importance of work-life integration and the challenges in achieving it. The journal also delves into the student's career aspirations, identifying key values such as hard work and interpersonal skills, and how these align with professional goals in the media industry. Furthermore, it addresses the significance of ethical practices in business, illustrating the potential consequences of unethical behavior and highlighting the long-term benefits of maintaining a strong ethical foundation for business success. The journal includes personal experiences to illustrate the concepts discussed and references to support the arguments.

Running head: Reflective Journal: Work 0
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL: WORK
STUDENTS NAME:
12/18/2018

Reflective Journal 1
We work too much these days
(Svendsen et al. 2016)
Any activity that requires physical or mental effort up to any extent and provides necessary
results afterwards is called work. Work can be both physical and mental or any of these. The
sort of work we will be discussing about in this journal is any work that is associated with
career and will provide career or professional outcomes afterwards (Wrzesniewskic, Rossoa
& Dekasb 2010).
In the contemporary society work associated with career is considered to have huge
importance and everyone is expected to be associated with some sort of work throughout
their life. The priority of working comes from the fact that it provides people with money.
Other influences that work enables us to acquire is the fact that it shapes our overall
personality , it defines oneself, shapes a person’s influence and determines a person’s
satisfaction from own life. Work ethics originated in both Protestant and Confucian
philosophies.
With the increase in technological advancements, industries started to establish and with that
increased job opportunities which eventually gave rise to the exceeding population of
working adults. Every adult is bound to work in present times, even college students start to
work from a very young age in order to obtain desired job, money and job satisfaction.
Work and leisure go hand in hand in present times (Berg, Grant & Johnson 2010). With the
increase in work load leisure has gradually started to diminish as well. It is no mystery to
anyone that leisure time is extremely essential to be added into ones schedule along with
work. In the absence of leisure it is not possible for anybody to attain both physical and
mental wellbeing which directly or indirectly affects their work as well.
People from the working population often fail to provide adequate amount of time to family
or to personal activities which is not healthy in a long run. This is where the statement work-
life balance comes into consideration. It can be defined as the process of mutual influence
between work and life domains (Kalliath & Brough 2008). Work -life interaction is essential
in order to maintain personal relationships, which is the foundation of human existence as
humans have been made for co-survival. An individual’s perceptive that work as well as non-

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work activities are compatible and encourage growth in according to an individual’s existing
life priorities.
With advancement in time both women and men have started to participate more in
professional fields and the work pressure has engrossed them in itself too which makes it
extremely hard for them to take care of their children when both parents are equally busy it is
thus essential to adjust work and not let it take over a person’s life entirely. Increasing work
load has also led to ignorance of taking care of elderly members of a person’s family. A good
work life relationship includes more positive connections such as skill development and
overall wellbeing and less negative connections such as time strain, exhaustion and stress
(mental and physical) (up 2018). 3 major components of work-life balance are time balance,
satisfaction balance and involvement balance. Some challenges that threaten the
establishment of proper work life balance are increasing demand of work and lack of support
from organisation.
Imbalance of work-life association has led to an alarming rise in depletion of the quality of
life due to higher amount of dissatisfaction with jobs. What organisations fail to understand is
that in absence of support to enable employees to establish proper work life association their
work outcome also decreases as it does not enable an employee to provide according to
his/her full potential. Businesses can get many benefits if they provide employees with
adequate support to maintain work-life balance which includes reduced turnover, better
mental and physical health of employees, reduced absentees, earlier return after maternity
leave, improved overall performance etc. In order to provide support some steps that can be
taken include work time flexibility, weekly fun activities, work from home programs, part
time job opportunities, paternity leave etc. As evident, organisational culture is the key for
establishment of proper work-life balance (Christensen 2011).
Personal experience: My elder sister just had a baby and the company she works for failed to
provide her a maternity leave of over 6 months. On further appeal for at least an unpaid
maternity leave of 6 additional months the company she works for refused to even secure her
job post. This scenario led her to finally having no option other than a resignation. With an
additional family member coming soon financial requirements increase as well and the
company she works for showcased absolutely no support about the same. This incident
showcases the negative organisational culture it failed to support an individual to ensure
proper work-life balance. This incident influenced her health and overall wellbeing and made

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her a victim of some physical and mental health disturbances. The biggest concern in the
scenario is the financial crisis establish due to the negative attitude of the organisation.
What two career values are extremely important to you and what type of work area or
organisations you will work for, will help you to express your work values
The two most important career values in my opinion are hard work and to be able to establish
a positive relationship with every person associated with your work with power of kind and
confident speech.
Hard work undoubtedly is the most essential trait any person requires to exhibit irrespective
of the field of work they are associated to. No matter what only hard work can make a person
achieve even the most challenging goals associated to their job and provide even beyond
targets in order to achieve even higher level of success (Molinsky 2012).
In any profession it is extremely important to establish positive relationship with co-workers
to be able to work in that particular atmosphere. The key to enabling this to happen is by
being soft spoken and confident in your speech these are the attributes of a person’s
personality that attracts other human beings and influences them in a positive manner
(Bazerman 2014).
I want to work as a news reporter for a reputed news channel such as Sky News Australia.
The job requires a lot of physical as well as mental exertions and thus demands a lot of hard
work. The field of media is a field where personal relationships play a very major role in
order to survive or obtain higher positions so it is extremely important to be soft spoken and
friendly in speech while talking to co-workers (Skinner & Pocock 2008). Confidence and
fluency in speech determines security of present job and opens gates for possible promotions
as well. This value also helps in the creation of a harmonious work environment for mental
peace of employees which will lead to better work outcomes. The main work in this job is to
address news which demands prophecy in speaking abilities which can be achieved with the
help of regular practice with the help of this value (Pocock, Skinner & Williams 2012).
Personal experience: I have worked as a sales man in a clothing store where I have once dealt
with an extremely rude customer who has an issue regarding the sizing of a particular item of
clothing he was purchasing. Being rude as a counter was not a solution in that situation so
instead I chose to keep my calm and interact kindly to the customer to resolve his issues. My

Reflective Journal 4
hardworking values enabled me to work efficiently in this stressful situation and my well-
spoken value was a benefit for me as it allowed a proper negotiation with the customer.
The third reflective entry requires you to reflect on: Can I be financially successful in
business and still be ethical?
It is extremely important to be ethical in a business as it is vital for the establishment of
strong roots of a company. It is obviously possible to be ethical and still achieve financial
success. Some unethical deals associated with business might look and sound appealing but it
is always harmful in the longer run as unethical befits do not last forever (Belak & Milfelner
2011). This is the scenario when these unethical practices do not come into the spotlight but
when it does it not only leads to legal actions but also threatens the established reputation of
the organisation leading to losses in the longer run because as soon as the news of the offence
comes out no company will want to participate in making deals with you and your present
clients will withdraw the already present deals as well which will entirely shatter the business
(Mackey & Sisodia 2013). Following ethical practices in a business in a long run results in
the elevation of profits because it establishes a positive reputation of the business in the
market and attracts potential clients to make deals with your company.
Personal experience: A small business in the locality that I live in was caught to be engaged
in unethical practices. It was a small boutique and the owner of the boutique personally
designed the cloths that she sold on the basis of the requirements of her clients. One of her
client went to her to get a custom gown made for her. On trying on her product she found a
tag attached to her gown which had a name of some small Korean manufacturer which
indicated that the designer used someone else’s work and sold them under her brand name.
The Korean manufacturer did not have a copy right of the design which is why the boutique
owner did not encounter any legal actions but the news spread all over the neighbourhood
and caused her to witness huge loss of her business as she lost her older customers and
repelled any new potential customer.

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References
Bazerman, M 2014, The Power of Noticing: What the Best Leaders See, Simon and Schuster
Paperbacks, New York.
Belak, J & Milfelner , 2011, 'Informal and Formal Institutional Measures ofBusiness Ethics
Implementation at Different', Acta Polytechnica Hungarica , vol 8, no. 1, pp. 105-122.
Berg, JM, Grant, M & Johnson, 2010, 'When Callings Are Calling: Crafting Work and
Leisure in Pursuit of Unanswered Occupational Callings', Organisation Science, vol 21, no.
5.
Christensen, CM 2011, 'How will you measure your life?', Harvard Business Review, vol 88,
no. 7/8, pp. 46-51.
Kalliath, T & Brough , P 2008, 'Work-life balance: A review of the meaning of the balance
construct', Journal of Management and Organization , vol 14, pp. 323-327.
Mackey, & Sisodia, R 2013, Conscious Capitalism, With a New Preface by the Authors:
Liberating the herioc spirit of Buisness, Harward Buisness Review Press, Boston.
Molinsky, AL 2012, 'Code switching between cultures', Harvard business review, vol 90, no.
1, pp. 139-143.
Pocock, B, Skinner, N & Williams, P 2012, Time Bomb’ Work, Life and Play in Australia
Today, New South Press, Sydney.
Skinner, N & Pocock, P 2008, Work, life and workplace culture: The Australian Work and
Life Index 2008, Centre for Work + Life, University of South Australia, Adelaide.
Svendsen, H, Bansler, P, Havn, EC, Schmidt, K, Mønsted, T & Petersen, HH 2016,
'Cooperative Epistemic Work in Medical Practice: An Analysis of Physicians’ Clinical
Notes', Computer Supported Cooperative Work, vol 25, no. 6, pp. 503–546.
up, H 2018, Workplace stress, viewed 18 December 2018,
<https://www.headsup.org.au/healthy-workplaces/workplace-stressors>.
Wrzesniewskic, A, Rossoa, BD & Dekasb, KH 2010, 'On the meaning of work: A theoretical
integration and review', Research in Organizational Behavior, vol 30, pp. 91-127.

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