Your test score may have opened your eyes to some areas of your life that are out of balance. More probably, it reconfirmed what you already knew. It should, at the very least, give you one or two areas for improvement. Finding work/life balance involves tradeoffs and setbacks. But the potential rewards are so great that you owe it to yourself to try.

Balance Is Good for Your Health

With balance in your personal life and work, you can be more creative, productive, healthy, and satisfied. Studies have shown that working parents who spend time with their family report feeling happier and more relaxed, as well as feeling more engaged when they're at work.

When your work and personal life are out of balance, you are apt to be forced to use much of your energy — consciously or otherwise — in an effort to regain balance. That sense of imbalance can negatively impact your level of satisfaction, sense of well-being, mental health, physical health, and job performance. Research has found that stressed-out employees are more depressed and make more mistakes. High stress has been proven to contribute to heart disease, high blood pressure, eczema, migraines, sleep disorders, increased anger levels, and fatigue. Plus One Fitness in New York found that workers who make the time to exercise 100 days per year or more use 30 percent fewer sick days than those who exercise less.

Excessive commuting is associated with raised blood pressure, muscu-loskeletal disorders, increased hostility, lateness, absenteeism, and adverse effects on cognitive performance. Robert D. Putnam, the author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, (Simon and Schuster) says that for every ten minutes of commuting time, one's social connections get cut by 10 percent. Let's see. That means a commute of two hours would equate to no social life whatsoever.

Balance Is Good for Business

The U.S. workplace is shifting away from the old military model of top-down chain of command to more of a partnership between boss and staff. Organizations may come to resemble jigsaw puzzles instead of pyramids as they learn to piece together and accommodate a mélange of work arrangements. This collaborative atmosphere has great potential for helping workers find their work/life balance.

When businesses fail to recognize their employees' need for work/life balance, it can lead to poor performance, increased absenteeism, sick leave, higher turnover, and higher costs. Companies have a vested interest in keeping valuable employees. The average cost of losing an employee is one and one-half times the employee's annual salary, when you take into account lost productivity while the position is open and the cost of recruiting, training, and hiring a replacement. The consensus among those who study these issues is that employees who have options are more satisfied and willing to put in extra effort. When employees are happy, business thrives. Martin Baily, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton Administration, noted that, “There is probably not a productivity penalty to shortening hours in the U.S., and there may even be a benefit.” He was right. A 2003 study by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute found that executives who worked five fewer hours per week were more productive than others who worked longer hours.

Joe Robinson, author of Work to Live (Perigee Trade) and founder of a group by the same name, advocates passing a law for a three-week paid minimum leave in this country and making Election Day a holiday. While other countries add weeks to their vacation policies, Americans ratchet up the overtime.

Not every option is going to be right for every business, but there are probably some that will work in your situation. If flexibility leads to happier workers who are more committed to their jobs, how could that be bad for business?