Many couples today find financial demands put a crimp on their family time.
But rural families find it more difficult than their city counterparts to strike a balance between work and home life, Noreen Johns, a farmer from Zelma, Sask., told a conference in Saskatoon last week.
Johns, executive director of Saskatchewan Women’s Agricultural Network, said a major problem for many farm families is having one or both parents taking on an extra job to keep the family financially comfortable.
“Until farming is a viable occupation … we are going to continue having these problems in declining communities and people having to work off the farm to supplement the farm income,” she said.
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For many couples, this means a spouse, usually the wife, takes a full or part-time job in a nearby town or city.
While the second income loosens the financial grip, the added workload, time constraint and stress level throttle the couple’s personal life.
“I believe as more and more women are working off the farm and then try to come home and do the work on the farm, that opportunity for relationships with our husbands is at risk. I think we are stretching ourselves too thin and straining ourselves.”
As a solution, Johns jokingly suggested giving farm women an eighth day in the work week.
She said balancing work and family time is likely to grow more difficult as more farmers, especially young ones, move to major centres and farm families shrink while farms become bigger and more diversified.
As well, because farm families have no child-care or health facilities readily available, the home and workplace become the day care and that creates more potential for danger.
“When we are talking about concentrating on a job that is already dangerous, and then we have to divide our time also looking after the children and making sure that they are safe beside us, both the children and parents are at risk,” Johns said.
One solution is co-operation. Johns said if farmers work together as she and her neighbors do, and go back to traditional co-operative farming, the stress and workload can be manageable and a balance found between work and family.
Worker Survey
A 1998 survey of 5,426 Saskatchewan workers found:
- The number of workers reporting stress has risen from 30 percent in 1992 to 50 percent this year.
- The average Saskatchewan worker misses 7.4 days of work a year, compared to 5.5 in 1992.
- One in five Saskatchewan employees stayed home from work on a “mental health day” in the past three months.
- A third of those who find balancing work and family stressful say they are looking for another job that allows more flexibility.
- Companies losing professional workers pay $100,000 to recruit and train a new employee. Replacing a non-professional worker cost $10,000.
