Finding a suitable balance between work and life (odpowiednia równowaga między pracą a życiem) is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. Some couples would like to have more children, but do not see how they could afford to stop working. Other parents are happy with the number of children in their family, but would like to work more. This is a challenge to governments because if parents cannot achieve their desired work/life balance, not only is their welfare (opieka społeczna) lowered but so is development in the country.
People spend one-tenth to one-fifth of their time on unpaid work . The distribution of tasks within the family is still influenced by gender roles: men are more likely to spend more hours in paid work, while women spend longer on unpaid domestic work (praca w domu). Men in Poland, spend 157 minutes per day cooking, cleaning or caring. It is still considerably less than Polish women who spend 296 minutes per day on average on domestic work .
Another important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardize safety and increase stress. People in Poland work 1 939 hours a year. In Poland, some 7% of employees work very long hours. Overall, men spend more hours in paid work: in Poland 11% of men work very long hours, compared with 3% for women.
The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others or leisure. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people’s overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits (fizyczne i psychiczne korzyści zdrowotne). People in Poland devote 66% of their day, or 14.2 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure(socializing with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.). Fewer hours in paid work for women do not necessarily result in greater leisure time. In Poland, both men and women devote approximately 14 hours per day to personal care and leisure.
Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)
