'60% professionals rate work-life balance as terrible'

Mumbai: More than half of Indian working professionals rate their current work-life balance average to terrible, according to a report. About 78 percent would like to be 'segmentors', employees who create rigid boundaries between their personal and work lives, and not 'blenders', according to the 'Understanding Work Life Balance' report by Monster.com.

"While 60 percent of respondents feel that they balance their work and life, as high as about 78 percent would like to be 'segmentors' and not 'blenders', that is clearly defined boundaries between their personal and work lives and not blurring the line," Monster.com CEO,AC and Gulf, Abhijeet Mukherjee said.

The survey was done with over 2,000 working professionals in the age group 18-55 years across sectors including IT (hardware and software), BPO or ITES, BFSI, engineering and construction, production and manufacturing, automotive, health care and pharma, telecom, education.

The survey further revealed that 45 percent of the respondents were from non-metros cities where work life balance (WLB) is supposedly a lesser issue. It said, 67 percent of working professionals either sometimes, often or always think about work when not at work.

Meanwhile, about half of the respondents in relationships currently, confessed that the lack of work life balance (WLB) makes them or their partners irritable ill-tempered, it added. Lack of sleep (17 percent), depression (16 per cent), anxiety and irritability (9 percent), hypertension (4.5 percent) were some other top work-related illnesses.

Back pain (15 percent), frequent headaches and fatigue (14 percent) and

obesity (5 percent) came up as other stress related

physical illnesses, it added. Even as technology is believed to be a facilitator, one-third

of the young professionals find laptops and mobile phones a hindrance in managing family with work commitments, it said.