The report examines how social media (SM) activeness affects the work-life balance of Bangladeshi white collar work force and suggests measures to reduce their negative and reinforce their positive aspects. Primary research has been conducted using an online questionnaire-based survey using judgement sampling. The results suggest that more people in Bangladesh access social media through mobile internet; 25% respondents are heavy-users, people aged between 25-35 years use more SM per day than other respondents. Adaptive behaviour is observed in balancing work and family lives by limiting the use of public SM at work and the use of private workrelated SM at home. The effects of SM activeness on family life are both positive and negative. Half of the surveyed are satisfied with the way they divide their attention between work and other life activities. SM usage does not apparently create negative impact on leisure activities; most respondents go on vacation regularly and limit their use of SM during vacation. The negative impacts on social lives cover less social interactions, negative feelings and emotions, cyber-bullying, waste of productive time, and the like. Respondents feel positive emotions by using SM such as happiness, boost of self-esteem, and motivation; negative emotions cover rejection, jealousy, and lower self-esteem. The study recommends several measures including telecommute or work from home, flexible hours, community engagement activities, team-building exercises, more paid vacations, childcare services at work site, exercise facilities during work, monitoring public social media usage of employees and private work-related social media or intranets for office communications.

Social media usage, Social media activeness, Work-life balance, Work-family balance, Effects of social media

Mujeri N (2021) Social Media Activeness and Work-Life Balance in the Bangladesh Context: A Descriptive Study. Arch Palliat Care 4(1): 1017.

Although work-life balance might appear as a recent term that was coined in the 1970s and 1980s in the developed world, the underlying theme is probably as old as modern work culture. It is the potential conflict between work and other life roles, and a lack of harmony amongst them. The challenge is to ensure a life state in which demands of personal life, professional life, social life, and family life are consistent with and support each other.

More specifically, work–life balance is a term that is generally used to define the balance that a working individual must ensure between his/her working and other aspects of life in terms of allocations of time, attention, thinking and other aspects of life. These aspects of life other than work–life are likely to include a host of dimensions covering, for example, personal interests, family and social or leisure activities, religious activities etc. In the modern life, technological advances, especially social media, have made it possible for many work tasks to coincide and increasingly compete with other aspects of life due to the over use of smartphones, tabs, email, video-chat, and other technological software. Further, having the option of using social media at all times and everywhere increases the likelihood that individuals may spend their ‘free time’ outside of work, and family time doing work related tasks (1). Similarly, they may also get distracted during their work time by the use of social media. Therefore, the use of social media has both positive and negative impact on work-life balance of working professionals, managers and HR professionals; they must seek to find measures and develop strategies that enhances the positive impacts and lessen the negative impacts to harmonise the different spheres and aspects of their daily lives.

Objectives of the Report

The goal of this research is to showcase how social media activeness affects the life balance of individuals. More specifically, the research identifies what positive and/or negative effects that the social media may have on work-life balance and what measures could be taken to lessen their negative aspects and strengthen the positive aspects. The specific research objectives of the study are as follows:

1. To explore how online social media activeness influences work satisfaction and family satisfaction as components of work-family balance

2. To inspect whether social media activeness influences social involvement and leisure as components of workfamily balance.

3. To study whether social media activeness influences personal life as a component of work-family balance.

4. To identify which demographic/social characteristics of social media users might be involved in higher levels of satisfactory work-family balance.

Research Questions

The study is expected to provide answers to the following two specific social questions:

1. What are the effects of social media activeness on workfamily balance, social involvement, leisure and quality of personal lives?

2. Which demographic/social features of social media users relate to higher levels of satisfactory work-life balance?

Rationale

This study would benefit a wide range of stakeholders in the society. The findings will help the managers to reach an enhanced understanding of how social media activeness contributes to work-family balance among the employees. Several prior studies suggest that modern communication technologies affect workfamily balance in a number of ways, but there are conflicting findings as to whether the net impacts are positive or negative (2). While adding further evidence on the issue especially from the context of a rapidly developing country such as Bangladesh where the use of social media is undergoing exponential growth, the present study would also point to effective remedial measures by the management to address the negative impacts of social media in the workplace, and thereby enhance the positive ones, which may assist the managers in developing new and innovative strategies in the context of rapidly expanding role of the social media.

S The research team used both qualitative and quantitative research design for conducting this descriptive study. For the exploratory part of the research, relevant literature review was conducted. Primary research was conducted using the survey method. The target population was white collar employees who use social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram etc.) at least once a month. A non-statistical sample was chosen using judgement sampling. The researchers used their judgement to include white-collar employees only: both males and females were included in the sample and members from different agegroups and occupations were also included in the sample. An online questionnaire was developed with questions based on work-life balance issues using Google forms. The sample was distributed over a sample size of 45. Potential respondents were invited through social media and emails. The respondents were then screened to ensure that they were in the target population: only people who work in offices and who have used social media at least once in the past month (March 2020). The quantitative data was supplemented by complementary qualitative information from secondary sources. Data analysis was completed using the Minitab software (similar to SPSS). Simple non-statistical techniques such as ratios, proportions and percentages were used to tabulate and graph the results meaningfully.

The scope of the study includes the social media users in Bangladesh only, particularly white-collar workers who have used social media at least once in the month of March 2020. More specifically, data was collected using a questionnaire inside Bangladesh relevant within this scope to analyze, conclude and recommend in this report (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Research Onion.

There were several limitations that the researchers faced during the investigation: due to time constraints data were collected through a web questionnaire using Google forms and a non-probability sampling technique was used. Additionally, qualitative research information was gathered from secondary sources on social media usage. The conduct of the study is limited on the availability of primary data from the survey and secondary literatures like reports, books, journals, websites, and company documents available publicly.

In recent years the term ‘work/life balance’ has replaced the term ‘work/family balance,’ which was in usage earlier. The term work/life now extends to incorporate other life activities related not only to work or family life but also to social, personal, religious lives and leisure activities etc. So the scope of work/life balance has expanded than that was recognised under the term ‘work/family balance’ (4).

Work-life balance includes two small but powerful words i.e. work and life. Work may have several meanings not only just employment but also travel time due to work, taking calls or attending meetings from home, official tours or visits etc. Likewise, life in a larger context is anything which is outside work including personal, family or social life. The concept work and life become complex when the word “balance” is attached to it (5, 6).

Since the 1990s, different researchers have analysed the effects of social media on work-life balance in various contexts. The effects have also been measured in multiple dimensions covering personal life spill-over in work, work spill-over in personal life, work/life behavioural constrainers and work/ life behavioural enhancers (4).

The first factor, Work spill-over in personal life is job interference in personal life, negligence of personal life/duties due to work related duties, personal/family time being invaded upon by work duties. The second factor, personal life spill-over in work occurs when demands of personal life interferes with work-related activities, such as to postpone things at work because of demands of duties of home, failure to do things at work because of the demands of one’s personal life and duties towards family members that affect job performance negatively.

Work/life balance enhancers incorporate the problemsolving approach when applied at job also is effective in solving problems at home, and vice versa. This problem-solving approach has been proved effective at work and also helps one be a better parent and spouse at home.

The fourth factor, work/life balance constrainers reason that contribute to work/life imbalance such as behavioural responses to interpersonal problems, behavioural ineffectiveness, and inability to behave in the same empathic manner at home as well as workplace (4).

The boundary theory propositions that individuals manage the boundaries between work and personal life through processes of segmenting and/or integrating the domains (7) developed his work-family border theory based on the boundary theory, according to the theory; work and life are evaluated like two neighbouring countries with dissimilar cultures and purposes and has a border between them. Individuals are border-crossers who frequently cross the border between work and life domains by adjusting their goals, emphasis, and interpersonal styles with the precise demands of each (8). Farivar further adopted both work-family border theory and boundary theory to inspect effects of social media activeness on work-life balance; and found that social media activeness acts as a precursor of work-family conflict (9).

? Social medias (SM) are computer-based technologies that facilitate the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through virtual networks and communities. By design, social media allows users fast electronic communication of content. Content may include personal information, documents, videos, and photos. Users engage with social media through their computers, tablets or smartphones via web-based software or web application, often utilising it for instant messaging (10).A social media service also provides with a representation of each user profile, his or her social links, and a variety of additional services like commenting, liking etc. (11). Social media is also the collective of online communications channels devoted to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration that allow people, companies and other organizations to communicate, market and create content (12). An active social media user, according to Facebook, is someone who logs in to the site and/ or completed some sort of action (liking, sharing, posting, etc.) within the previous 30 days (13).

This study collected data from Bangladesh regarding social media activeness and its effects on work-life balance, both online SM activeness and work-family balance appears to be persistent challenges in the Bangladeshi context. Hossen, Begum and Zhixia (2018) report that most of the organizations in Bangladesh didn’t have any formal policies to make their employees’ work-life balance better but they followed a number of informal approaches (flexibility in time, location, & schedule, leave provisions) to make their employees relaxed, confident, committed and motivated resulting in greater work satisfaction and attain optimal HR productivity (14). Bangladesh being a labour-intensive country with a significant level of highly educated unemployed people has resulted in, the employers or organizations having lots of alternative labour options which makes them indifferent about the greater interest of the employees including their work-life balance. Employees of some selected organizations reported facing problem with their work time including over-time (91.5%), issues related to work location (89%) and lack of childcare/support in their offices (81%) that negatively affected their work-life balance and they asked for some flexibility regarding these issues to their supervisors. The remedies that were offered to enhance their work-life balance were providing official vehicle (59.5%) to travel to work location especially for women, paid maternity and other leaves on valid grounds (78%), and to provide emotional support (58.5%) in crisis moments (14).

 

Access to Social Networking Sites

As of November 2018, there were 90.5 million active internet connections in Bangladesh, with about 80.4 million of them used mobile data (15). In total, 32 million Bangladeshis were active on social media in 2018 of which 27 million used social media through mobile internet and 5 million used social media through broadband internet (16). How people access Social Media in Bangladesh, Source (16) (Figure 2).

Figure 2 How people access Social Media in Bangladesh, Source.

Around 70 percent of the social media users in Bangladesh are heavy users. (17). Civic Science defines heavy social media users as people who spend 4+ hours a day on social media sites and apps (18). Social media usage in Bangladesh (17) (Figure 3)

Figure 3 Social media usage in Bangladesh.

 

Demographic Information

Demographic information that were collected during the survey includes age group, gender, marital status, employment status, number of children, geographic location and family income status. A total 45 responses were recorded through the survey where this survey drew a judgement sample (N=45) of males (n=33) and females (n=12) who were administered a questionnaire on how social media affects their work-life balance. The findings are shown below:

Demographic profiles of respondents (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Demographic profiles of respondents.

So roughly three-fourths of the participants are male and one-fourth are females. 64.4 % of the total respondents are between 25-35 years. 28.9% are between 35-60 years. Only three of them are over 60 years. There were none below 18 years and ages between 18-25 years. All the respondents are employed in offices as white-collar workers. Almost equal numbers of the participants (48.9%) are single and married. Very few of them are divorced or separated, only 1 respondent. Geographic location of respondents (Figure 5).

Figure 5 Geographic location of respondents

The majority of the respondents are from Dhaka (91.1%), 4.4% from Rajshahi, 2.2% from Barishal and Mymensingh divisions.

Dependent and Family Income Status (Figure 6). Furthermore 64.4% of the respondents have children out of which 75% have two children, 18% have one child and 1 respondent have more than three children. 35.6% of total respondents have no children. Respondents with children usually have more household work and duties towards family members resulting in more work-life conflicts.

Figure 6 Dependent and Family Income Status.

There have been tremendous changes in perceived gender roles in Bangladeshi society in the past few decades. More and more women are working in the work force resulting in dual career families where both spouses work for a living. 57.8% of the respondents are single career couples where only one spouse works, whereas 42.2% of the respondents are dual career couples where both spouses work. It is evident from the survey that, today there are many women who do not want to be home makers and do household work without having careers. While women are increasingly joining the workforce, they still face significant challenges balancing work and home life. Both domestic work and office work compete for the working women’s time and energy which brings a new dimension to their work-life balance (1).

Social Media Most Used

Figure 7 Social Media Sites most used.

To investigate the nature of social media usage of whitecollar employees a short questionnaire was developed by the investigator. The results and findings of the survey are discussed as follows. Social Media Sites most used (Figure 7). The most popular social networking site among the white-collar employees are: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat. All of the respondents use Facebook, followed by YouTube (90%), Instagram (67%), LinkedIn (54%) and Twitter (25%).

Figure 8 Active Social Media User

Time Spend on Social Networking Sites

All of the respondents have used social media at least once in the past month, March 2020. This question was used to prescreen respondents, so that they match the characteristics of the target population.

The results of the survey show that 35.6% of white-collar employees use social media for 1-2 hours per day, 33.3% use them 3-4 hours, only 6.7% use them for less than an hour. Almost 25% of the white-collar employees are heavy social media users who use them for more than 4 hours daily. Usage of Social Media (Figure 9).

Figure 9 Usage of Social Media.

More than half of the respondents report that they check their social media more than 6 times per day. 20% check their accounts 4-5 times a day, around 15% check them 2-3 times a day, 1 respondent check them once a day and two of them don’t check their accounts every day. Number of time users checks their accounts (Figure 10)

Figure 10 Number of time users checks their accounts

Reasons for Using Social Media

The results of the survey given below, show that around 87% of the respondents uses SM to contact and connect with their family and friends. Around 75% of the users use them to keep up with news, gossips and trends. 26.7% use them to meet and interact with new people. 17.8% use them to organize events, 24.4% use them to raise awareness, and 2.2% use them to sell products. 40% shares or likes post regularly and 17.8% use them to feel a sense of belonging with the community. Why people use SM (Figure 11).

Figure 11 Why people use SM.

Aspects of Work Life Balances Affected by Social Media Activeness

This section analyses the effects of SM particularly on the four aspects of daily lives of working people, particularly white-collar employees: work/professional life, family life, social life/leisure and personal life.

Effects of Social Media on Professional/Work Life

Figure 12 Private SM network at work

This section evaluates the effects of SM on work or professional lives of white-collar workers. Private SM network at work (Figure 12).

The results of the survey show that more than half of the respondents have private online social networks in their offices that connect them to their co-workers while 46.7% do not have such networks. Usage of work-related SM at home (Figure 13)

Figure 13 Usage of work-related SM at home.

The survey results show that 45.5% of those surveyed use work-related social media for less than 30 minutes per day, a quarter use them for 30 minutes to an hour, 20.5% use them for 1-2 hours, 3 respondents use them for 2-3 hours and only 1 uses them for more than 3 hours.

Two-thirds of the offices allow access to SM in their office computers, tablets and smart phones while one-third of the offices restrict access to such services. Usage of public SM at work (Figure 14).

Figure 14 Usage of public SM at work.

The survey shows that 57.8% of the white-collar workers use public social media at work less than 30 minutes a day, 26.7% use them 30 minutes to up to an hour, around 11% use them for 1-2 hours and the rest 4.4% use them for more than an hour.

In summary, it is evident from the survey that almost equal numbers of people use and do not use social media while at work. Most try to limit the use of public SM at work to less than 30 minutes per day. Spending less than 30 minutes on private work related communication at home is also very popular. More respondents, presumably, have been apt at balancing their work and family lives. Therefore, more people are seem to be well adapted in balancing SM use and balancing there work life.

Effects of Social Media on Family Life

Figure 15 Time spent with family per day

This section evaluates the effects of SM on work or family lives of white-collar workers in Bangladesh. Time spent with family per day (Figure 15).

Almost half of the respondent state that they spend more than three hours per day with their family. 20% report that they spend 2-3 hours per day, 15.6% spend 1-2 hours and 13.3% spend 30 minutes to 1 hour per day with their families. Only 1 respondent spends less than 30 minutes per day with his/her family. Satisfaction towards dividing attention between work and family time (Figure 16)

Figure 16 Satisfaction towards dividing attention between work and family time

Next, the survey finds that 46.7% of those surveyed are satisfied with the way they divide their attention between work and family time at home. Around 38% are neutral on the issue, while 11.1% are dissatisfied and only 2. Work and Family life Fit (Figure 17)

Figure 17 Work and Family life Fit.

The survey also reports that more than half of the respondents are satisfied with how well their work life and family life fit together. 22.2% are neutral on the matter,20% are dissatisfied and only 6.7% are very satisfied. Do you have enough time for family? (Figure 18)

Figure 18 Do you have enough time for family?

Next, the survey finds that 31.1% disagree that they do not have enough time for family and important people in their lives. 24.4% strongly disagree, while 13.3% are neutral on the matter. In contrast, 28.9% do agree that they do not have enough time to spend with their families.

Overall, almost half of those surveyed spend a satisfactory amount of time with their families every day. More than half are satisfied with the way they divide their attention between work and other life activities. Again, more than half are satisfied with their work-life fit. However, the response is mixed regarding if they have enough time for family or other important people in their lives. Hence, the effect of SM activeness on family life is both positive and negative.

Figure 19 Frequency of vacation or leisure

Effects of Social Media on Social Life/Leisure

This section analyses the effects of SM on respondents’ social life and leisure activities. 57.8% respondents answer that they go to vacation regularly while 42.2% answer they do not go to vacation regularly.

The survey reports that 35.6% go to vacation/leisure trips once a year, 17.8% go to vacation once every six months, 20% go every three months, 11.1% go once a month and 8.9% go on weekly vacation/leisure trips. Only 3.7% do not go to any vacation trips at all.

In addition, the survey finds that 80% respondents do use social media while on vacation/leisure activities while 20% do not access their SM accounts on such trips. Average time spent on SM while on vacation/leisure (Figure 20)

Figure 20 Average time spent on SM while on vacation/leisure.

The survey shows that 40% use SM less than 30 minutes a day while on vacation/leisure, while 31.1% use them for 30 minutes to an hour, 17.8% use them for 1-2 hours, 4.4% use them for 2-3 hours and finally, 6.7% use them for 3+ hours. Disadvantages of SM affecting Society (Figure 21).

Figure 21 Disadvantages of SM affecting Society

The negative consequences of SM usage upon society reported by the respondents include: 49% report cyber-bullying, 49% report increased headaches and eye problems, 42.2% mention less social interactions. The overall majority agree that SM use is time consuming. 37.8% report SM use increased unrealistic expectations, while 46.7% report increased negative feeling/ emotions. Digital reputation (13.3%) and sexting (4.4%) are other reported disadvantages of SM usage.

In summary, SM use does not seem to have a negative impact during leisure activities, most respondents go on vacation regularly and they limit their use of SM during those trips. However, SM seems to have a number of negative impacts on social sphere of lives including: less direct social interactions between people, negative feelings and emotions, cyber-bullying, waste of productive time and unrealistic expectations among heavy users.

Figure 22 SM usage and stress.

Effects of Social Media on Personal Life

The section investigates the effects of SM on personal lives of white-collar workers that are surveyed.

An equal number of respondents (24.4%) agree and disagree that SM is stressful on personal lives. Another 37.8% remain neutral on the question, while 8.9% strongly agree that SM can cause stress in personal lives. Only 2 respondents strongly disagree. Impact of SM on personal lives (Figure 23)

Figure 23 Impact of SM on personal lives.

Out of the total respondents, more than half (53.3%) report that SM such as Facebook has both positive and negative impacts in their lives. Another 26.7% opine that it has no impacts on their personal lives. Around 11% feel that it has only positive impacts on their lives while 8.9% feel that it has only negative impacts on their lives. Emotions faced during SM use (Figure 24)

Figure 24 Emotions faced during SM use

Of the total respondents, more than 60% report experiencing happiness while using SM, 50% report experiencing feeling inspired, 26.2% feel a sense of belonging and 45.2% feel motivated, 23.8% feel a boost of their esteem. Out of the negative emotions felt: 14.3% feel rejected, 23.8% jealous, 28.6% feel they are missing out, and 7.1% feel SM use is lowering their selfesteem. Effects of SM on overall well-being (Figure 25)

Figure 25 Effects of SM on overall well-being.

These resultant emotions of social media have the following effects on the respondents’ overall wellbeing: 40% report that SM use affects their ability to relate well with others, 54.8% report that SM use gives them a positive outlook, 26.2% report SM use gives them a confidence boost, around 40% report SM inspires and motivates them. Negative impacts of these emotions include: 31% report they feel that SM use heightens their anxiety, 31% report experiencing feelings of social and emotional isolation, and 26.2% report experiencing feelings that their emotions are controlling their thoughts. Finally, 21.4% are fearful that excessive SM use may lead to other mental health issues. Only 1 respondent expresses that SM use have no impact on their overall wellbeing.

In summary, most respondents agree that SM activeness has both positive and negative impact in their personal lives. Respondents are divided on whether SM creates more stress in their personal lives. More respondents feel positive emotions by using SM such as happiness, boost of self-esteem, motivation etc. than negative emotions such as rejection, jealousy, lower selfesteem etc.

Impact of Social Media on Religious Life

The link between social media use and religion has been analysed by many scholars in the past decade including (19). Lim and Putnam in their article ‘Religion, social networks, and life satisfaction’, opine that social media offer strong evidence of social and participatory mechanisms impacting religion’s impact on work-life satisfaction (20). While the rise of online social media appears to signify a new challenge to religious individuals and institutions, (21) states that it is incorrect to assume that the interaction between religion and networking technology is always antagonistic. Commonly, technology can augment religious practices through the expansion and creation of closer ties amongst religious communities impacting the religious lives of their members. People through SM use can contact new members in their religious community, stay in touch with existing members, share their feelings and opinions on social media. But it can also increase conflict when rumours are spread, people’s religious beliefs are hurt causing social conflict.

This investigation of the social media activeness and its effect on work-life balance in the Bangladesh context reports the following findings:

Demographic information

a) More people in Bangladesh access social media through mobile internet than broadband internet.

b) People aged between 25-35 years use more SM per day than older or younger respondents, people aged under 18 are not included in the survey.

c) Dual career couples where both spouses work may face more work-life conflict than single career couples.

d) Families with more children may face more work-life conflicts than families with one or no children.

Social media usage

a) Facebook (used by100% respondents) is the most popular Social Media site, followed by YouTube (90%), Instagram (67%), LinkedIn (54%) and Twitter (25%).

b) Around 25% of the social media users in the survey are heavy users spending more than four hours on SM per day. More than 50% use SM between 1-3 hours a day indicating substantial usage of SM.

c) More than 50% respondents report that they check their social media more than 6 times per day. 20% check their accounts 4-5 times a day, around 15% check them 2-3 times a day. d) 87% of the respondents use SM to contact and connect with their family and friends. Around 75% of the users use them to keep up with news, gossips and trends. 26.7% use them to meet and interact with new people.

More respondents, as evidenced through the survey, have been pertinent in balancing their work and family lives by limiting the use of public SM at work and the use of private workrelated SM at home to less than 30 minutes a day.

The effect of SM activeness on family life is both positive and negative. Almost 50% surveyed spend a satisfactory amount of time with their families every day and are satisfied with the way they divide their attention between work and other life activities. Again, they are satisfied with their work-life fit. However, the response is mixed regarding if they have enough time for family every day.

Social Media usage does not seem to have a negative impact during leisure activities; most respondents go on vacation regularly and limit their use of SM during vacation. However, a number of negative impacts on social lives occur such as: less social interactions between people, negative feelings and emotions, cyber-bullying, waste of productive time etc.

SM activeness has both positive and negative impacts on personal lives. Responds are divided on if SM creates more stress in the personal lives of users. On the one hand, respondents feel positive emotions by using SM such as happiness, boost of selfesteem, motivation etc.; on the other, they face negative emotions such as rejection, jealousy, lower self-esteem etc.

Social media activeness affects people’s religious life in negative ways as presumed by many religious institutions but several positive impacts do appear such as expansion and creation of closer ties amongst religious communities.

In conclusion, with increased use of social media and communication technologies in the modern society, the distinction between time spent on work and time spent on family, social and personal time is rapidly blurring; thereby creating conflicts amongst these spheres of human lives.

More and more people are increasingly using social media, particularly the younger generations. Heavy users of social media spend a significant amount of time per day on these media, apparently wasting much of their productive times. While many of the respondents show significant self-control in minimizing the negative effects of SM on their work/professional lives, the same cannot be said about their family, social and personal lives. Many of the respondents agree that they do not have the amount of time they would like to spend with their families.

Overuse of SM would only aggravate this situation. Less social interactions between people, negative feelings and emotions, cyber-bullying etc. are having detrimental effects on people’s social lives. In personal lives, overuse of SM, feelings of rejection, jealousy, lower self-esteem etc. are causing further stress. Contrarily, SM is also causing positive emotions in people such as happiness, boost of self-esteem, motivation etc. Organizations and managers must re-assess their policies regarding SM use so the positive influences are re-enforced and the negative influences are lessened thereby effecting an optimal level of work-life balance in the lives of their employees.

 

The study suggests the following recommendations to lessen the negative consequences of social media and re-enforce the positive ones on work-life balance of white-collar employees:

a) Allow employees to telecommute or work from home in feasible instances.

b) Offer flexible hours to employees, complemented with working remotely offering flexible scheduling would increase productivity.

c) Promote meaningful and beneficial community engagement activities which are great ways to integrate between work time and out-of-work time and help workers balance their lives.

d) Engage in team-building exercises in the workplace to help foster a sense of team work in the office and enhance the team dynamics and social cohesion.

e) Encourage vacations for employees to improve work-life balance, 11 days of paid vacation per year in Bangladesh, is not enough to achieve a work-life balance.

f) Encourage short breaks during the working hours to improve workers’ mental and physical health thereby improving their work-life balance.

g) Provide childcare services on work site to create a family-friendly work environment especially for working women who leave their children at home when they leave for work.

h) Provide employees with exercise facilities during work hours to alleviate mental stress for improving their worklife balance.

i) Finally, companies must monitor the social media usage of their employees ensuring that overuse of social media does not negatively impact the workers job performance.

j) In addition, private social networks or intranets should be in place so that employees can keep in touch with each other socially with their co-workers outside of office hours, the company should also monitor the personal usage of these private networks.

First, I would like to thank Almighty Allah who blessed me to complete this report. I am also very grateful to our parents and families who supported us during this period of our lives. I would like to express my profound gratitude to my instructor Dr. Sheikh Mohammed Rafiul Huque for his continual guidance, enthusiastic interest, and constant encouragement. Lastly, I am utmost grateful to Dr. Mustafa K Mujeri for giving me research ideas and for helping me all the way from writing the manuscript to its final submission.

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