WORK-FAMILY BALANCE OR GREEDY ORGANISATIONS?

Can work-family balance exist in greedy organisations? Greedy organisations provide the minimum to workers. On the other hand, they sap as much as they can from workers; they make extraordinary demands on workers which workers meet with personal material resources; personal family and social resources, and personal non-material resources. Greedy institutions seek exclusive and undivided loyalty and they attempt to reduce the claims of competing role and status positions on those they wish to encompass within their boundaries. This paper examines qualitative data from interviews conducted with senior female managers at a major Australian bank. The paper critically examines the concept of work-family balance. Rather than work-family balance, the paper finds evidence that work is in conflict with life and that there is no balance for workers who must make many personal sacrifices in order to meet the expectations of the workplace, such as working long hours and leaning heavily on the social support of family and friends