Abstract
Frontline workers have become society’s hope and pillar of strength through the pandemics, including Covid-19. It came to light that there is more to nurses’ lives than being known as mean and careless. Healthcare facilities face a critical issue that threatens the performance of employees and that is work-life balance. This study was motivated by the fact that people have limited time to perform various activities that are work related as well as non-work related, therefore it is important to ensure that workers are able to balance both to ensure good performance. The study took interest in seven female nurses at two public and private hospitals in Johannesburg, that is Charlotte Maxeke Academy Hospital and Netcare Garden City Hospital respectively. The study explored the concept of work-life balance and how emotional labour is used in service work to manage emotions. Qualitative methods were used to gather data through telephone interviews which made it difficult to observe the research sites and the participants. Goffman’s theory of self-presentation as well as Hochschild theory of emotional labour were used as a form of ideology to analyse the findings. Findings revealed that participants were mostly concerned about staff shortages which was a result of sickness, isolation, high volume of patients admitted daily and lack of resources. This led to participants working long hours and missing family time, making it difficult to maintain the work-life balance. Nurses who worked at the public hospital showed dissatisfaction with their working environment specifically with resources because they serve a larger population group that cannot afford services, while those at the private hospital were satisfied with their environment. However, the effect of Covid-19 changed all nurses’ working conditions to the extent that two of the participants mentioned that they were no longer happy with the profession. The conclusions made were that work-life balance is important for employee’s well-being and it produces work satisfaction which means good performance. The study recommends that the Department of Health should hire more nurses to ensure that nurse absenteeism or sickness does not affect the running of the daily routines of other nurses on duty. The intervention would reduce long hours, enable nurses to handle high admissions and afford them time to attend to life outside work without feeling anxious. Future qualitative studies should consider exploring male nurses’ experiences as they are under researched and use ethnographic methods that allow researchers to participate and observe nurses’ experiences.
M.A. (Sociology)