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A new report created by career website Glassdoor has revealed the best jobs for work-life balance. The rankings have been aggregated based on over 60,000 company reviews written by employees on the job platform.
Researchers established a ranking of the 25 most satisfying professional activities, after analyzing job titles that had received at least 75 work-life balance ratings from a minimum of 75 companies, between January 10, 2014 and September 30, 2015.
The scores were awarded on 5-point scale, with 1.0 corresponding to high dissatisfaction and 5.0 to high satisfaction. The positions that were included had to have at least 200 active job openings, and their reviews had to contain terms such as “work life balance” or similar expressions at least 15% of the time.
The analysis was conducted because officials at the popular job marketplace had noticed that the average work-life balance of their customers had fallen in recent years. Back in 2009, it had been estimated at 3.5 out of 5, whereas by 2015 it had reached 3.2.
A possible explanation for this downward trend is the fact that technology has allowed work to transgress its usual boundaries, keeping professionals focused on their job even on holiday.
Researchers determined that the highest likelihood of achieving a satisfying balance between professional and personal life was encountered among data scientists, who rated their experience at 4.2 out of 5.
The second-best job when it comes to successfully managing career and family was that of a search engine optimization manager, respondents in this category rating their work-life balance satisfaction at 4.1.
Completing the trio were those who worked as talent acquisition specialists, who reported that their ability to juggle professional and family demands could be evaluated at 4.0 out of 5. The same score was also achieved by social media managers.
Also included in the top 10 as far as ability to mediate between career and personal constraints were the following job titles: substitute teacher, recruiting coordinator, UX designer, digital marketing manager, marketing assistant and web developer.
Overall, it appears that the jobs which allow people not to neglect their own personal life are usually those that are related to technical and scientific fields: civil engineering, web design, laboratory research, software and front-end development etc.
Also, those who conduct analytical work tend to maintain a healthy balance between family and career: data analysts, marketing analysts, risk analysts and program analysts likewise assess their satisfaction levels as higher than the average.
There are however job positions with a less technical background, where professional life doesn’t intrude on time spent with family and friends. Such examples include jobs in education (substitute teachers), marketing (marketing assistants) and HR (recruiting coordinators and headhunters).
As far as financial remuneration was concerned, no connection could be established between a bigger paycheck and superior work-life balance.
Half of the 10 most satisfying jobs from this point of view reported annual salaries of under $50,000, and substitute teachers, who only earn a measly $24,380 per year were actually ranked 5th in terms of creating the perfect routine.
The study does have some limitations however, such as the fact that more numerous reviews were submitted by analysts and other employees with a technical background, while manual, blue-collar workers were less likely to use the job platform.
Also, the study only analyzes the personal satisfaction that employees experience when organizing their professional and family life, not the exact ratio between work hours and family hours. For example, substitute teachers sometimes have to resort to second jobs for extra cash, while data scientists often spend at least 60 hours per week at work.
Image Source: Pixabay
