YouGov-Firstpost survey shows lack of work-life balance is felt the most in Tier 1 cities where a larger percentage of women fear they would not be able to 'devote full attention to family due to hectic work life'

As the job market becomes increasingly crowded year after year, and opportunities seemingly dry up, the first thing to disappear for working professionals is a balance between their jobs and their personal lives. The impact of an unhealthy work-life balance makes itself felt on productivity in the workplace, personal relations, psychological and physical health, and a whole lot of other areas.

YouGov India, in consultation with Firstpost, recently conducted a pan-India survey of women — interviewing over 750 respondents — asking them a series of questions spanning the areas of sexual harassment in the work place, the pay gap and the work-life balance. The exercise was conducted between 26 September and 5 October and employed a 26-question-long survey that covered respondents across 100 Indian cities. Having serialised the findings of the survey relating to sexual harassment and examined how women view the gender pay gap, Firstpost will be examining how women view the work-life balance over a series of four infographics.

The second set of infographics depicts how women from different tier cities perceive the work life balance. The survey classified women on three groups based on the tier they belong to: 'Tier 1', 'Tier 2', and 'Tier 3'.

According to the findings, women in Tier 3 cities are likely to have better work-life balance as compared to their counterparts in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. Women in Tier 1 cities do marginally better than Tier 2 cities, which also comprises 9 percent, the highest percentage of women spending less than one hour with their family and partners, in all the three tiers. However, most women (60 percent) in Tier 1 cities spend 8-10 hours a day at work, while 18 percent spend 10 or more hours at work, also the highest.

Further, the impact of this lack of work-life balance, is felt the most in Tier 1 cities where a larger percentage of women fear they would not be able to "devote full attention to family due to hectic work life". The survey, also showed that lesser women (35 percent) in Tier 1 cities are secure about their jobs (36 percent in Tier 2 and 44 percent in Tier 3 were secure about their jobs), but more career oriented as compared to their peers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

Throughout the study, finance emerged as the major factor influencing the decision to work for most women in the three tiers. The only difference being that more women take up jobs in Tier 3 cities because they "need money to fulfil family responsibilities", followed by Tier 1 cities, while financial independence is the leading motivator among women in Tier 2 cities.

Building a career, however, emerged as the third most popular motivator across tiers with 21 to 25 percent respondents responding in positive; the highest being in tier 1 cities (25 percent) and the lowest being in tier 2 cities (21 percent).