Homeworkers Struggle To Find Balance

Work and family time out of kilter for British home-based businesses.

By News Desk
19th February 2008 at 12:08

Although 56% of people set up a business from home in an attempt to secure a better work-life balance, the reality is somewhat different, according to research from BT.

It appears that nearly half of all homeworkers (45%) find it difficult to separate work from family life, perhaps unsurprising bearing in mind their proximity.  The flexibility sought by nearly two thirds of home-based business owners (63%) could actually be a source of conflict when it comes to delineating work time and family time.

Bill Murphy, managing director at BT Business, suggests that:

There are now more than two million home-based businesses in the UK, yet almost half are struggling to separate their work and home lives – the very reason why many of them decided to work from home in the first place.

It seems to me, however, that building a business from home, throws the question of work-life balance into much starker relief than working from an office. 

For some the blurring of work and home life may actually be a good thing.  For others, like for many entrepreneurs before them, work will become life (at least for a period of time) and the proximity of family will become irrelevant.

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