Exigency of Work-Life Balance in the Wake of Digitalised Workspace for Information Technology Staff in the Banking Sector

Abstract

Digitalisation has enabled ubiquity, transformed the conventional workspace, and reshaped how work is designed, performed and managed in organisations. Technology is increasingly infiltrating workspaces, with digitalisation catalysing employee work-life balance as it allows work to fit better around home and family responsibilities. Leveraging digitalisation in workspaces has enabled organisations to move towards working from home, embracing flexibility, employee productivity and autonomy. While this arrangement has been advocated for as 'accommodating', the risk of infringing on employees' personal lives and negatively affecting their work-life balance (WLB) and performance remains. This article examines the exigency of employee work-life balance and performance in digitalised workspaces in a Zimbabwean bank. The study employed qualitative methodology to obtain in-depth insights into the phenomenon. Using semi-structured interviews, data saturation was reached on the 10^th interview of purposively sampled participants. Data were thematically analysed using the software ATLAS.ti Version 8. The themes raised in the study indicated that digitalisation offered the flexibility of working from home, giving employees time to do their own things. Digitalisation also enabled flexibility and autonomy, multitasking, and working from home, which were convenient in balancing employee work and personal lives, thus ensuring performance. However, work-life balance was affected by the blurry boundaries between work and personal lives caused by connectivity, polychronicity, health threats and lack of task prioritisation brought about by working from home. The study concluded that digitalised workspaces in the Zimbabwean bank allowed for employee work-life balance despite some challenges. Therefore, employees need to establish boundaries and block time to eliminate the risks impeding work-life balance.