‘Work-life balance’ refers to how well a person feels they are able to manage the demands of their job alongside the rest of their life – caring responsibilities, recreation, exercise, sleep and housework. Work life balance can be examined by looking at objective measures (time spent working), or subjective measures (how a person feels they are managing their work life balance). Subjective measures are often important as work hours alone are not always a good guide to whether a person is able to ‘switch off’ from work when not at the workplace. This is particularly the case for those who do not have formal set work hours, and for whom their home is also their workplace.

In general, there is consensus that having a good work-life balance is important to a person’s wellbeing. Good work life balance ensures a person has time to maintain their own personal health, through achieving enough physical activity, sleep, and spending time with family. Working long hours for extended periods of time is often aossciated with poorer sleep, poor diet, stress and burnout.

Advantages: A large body of evidence shows that achieving work life balance is important to wellbeing.

Disadvantages: Identifying the threshold at which working long hours becomes harmful to wellbeing can sometimes be difficult, and may vary depending on the type of work a person does, and how much exposure to stress or physical risk they have in their workplace.

Work-life balance is measured via surveys. It can be measured in two ways:

• Work hours: Measuring how many hours a person has been working over a defined period of time, such as the last month. This type of measure is included in the ABS Census of Population and Housing, with data available for small regions across Australia. However, there are some limitations to using work hours as a measure of work life balance. The Census is conducted in August, and some people will be working unusually long hours and others short hours at this time of year, particularly those working in agriculture. Many people working in their own business will have high variation in work hours between busy and quiet times of year – and working long hours for a short period of time is not necessarily an indication of poor work-life balance, if at other times of year the person has time for rest and relaxation.
• Perceived work-life balance: Measuring whether a person is satisfied with their work hours, and their work-life balance. The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey measures perceived work life balance using a number of measures, including the extent to which people experience time pressures. The Regional Wellbeing Survey also includes some measures of work-life balance, including whether living in a rural community is enabling a person to have a good work-life balance. Other examples of questions you can ask are provided in the ACT Wellbeing Framework, which examines work-life balance as part of their Quality of time indicator.