Work-life balance:

Implications for employees at UNAM Rundu Campus during COVID-19

Abstract

The focus of this study was to explore the impacts of the COVID-19 on the work-life balance of employees at the Univerity of Namibia Rundu Campus. The study was conducted by choosing 10.participants who  were purposively selected according to the departments where they work. The study used a qualitative research in which a case study approach was adopted. The data generation.processes was obtained through semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and narratives to get insight and quality data. During interviews, open ended questions were used and other questions arose naturally. The semi-structured interviews were used to enable us to get deep information by probing participants’ responses. This has assisted to elaborate on incomplete answers by being flexible and getting clarification on the perceptions of workers during the challenging times of COVID-19. Participants were grouped in 2 groups comprised of teaching and non-teaching staffs. The particpants were given questions in advance ahead of group discussions to be aware of the topic concerned and to make them feel comfortable during discussions. The narrative approach also called ‘story telling’ was used by the researchers to give voice to the participants to elaborate on their own experiences. Thus asking the respondents questions about their understanding of work-life balance and how the COVID-19 has impacted their lives added valuable data to the research. The overall findings of the research show that the COVID-19 pandemic has actually added more pressure to the already strained situation of the employees and has some how compromised on the work quality.The findings also reveal that dealing with pandemics especially those that restrict movements of people is a complex task because each organization is unique and different. Therefore, workers experiences of coping with the situation differ from one another because every organization experiences the daily challenges differently in various contexts.