Impact of Work-Life Balance on Employee's Physical Wellness: A Study on VFX Employees, India

Abstract

Indian Visual Effects industry has experienced a booming business that has been spearheaded by international companies, outsourcing and growth in technological innovations, yet it has come with the concern that employees physical well-being is at risk as they work under strict deadlines, long working hours and random working schedules. This thesis has checked how physical wellness of employees in the VFX industry in India depends on work-life balance, where creativity and technical excellence matter a lot but are often realized to the expense of employee health. This study aimed at investigating the effects of work-life balance on physical wellness and to examine the moderating effects of the work environment and workload management in the determination of such a relationship.
The research was a mixed-method study, which is a qualitative and quantitative study. The respondents provided with a well-developed questionnaire comprised 375 VFX professionals who were employed at different companies in India and were asked to provide information related to work-life balance, working environment, workload fitness, and nutrition. Descriptive statistics, pattern identification, and SmartPLS-SEM were used to study the data in order to understand the relationship and the trend.
The results indicated that there was a significant interdependence between work-life balance and physical wellness that most 51% of the respondents indicated that a healthy work-life balance allowed them to eat well, engage in sleep routine and exercise routines, and lack of it led to fatigue, stress and sickness. Workplace conditions emerged as a two-fold: the work-from-home conditions offered flexibility and reduced travelling stress, whereas the work-from-office conditions offered form and working as a team but involved travelling stress. The workload management was considered to be a significant aspect and 65.9% of the respondents related the excessive work hours and the unequal allocation of tasks to waning health. To this end, 80% of them cited the need to exercise, and 82 percent of them emphasized nutrition as a key to energy and creativity maintenance, but exercise and nutrition were regularly undermined by hectic work schedules.
The study found that work life balance was significant towards ensuring that VFX professionals in India were physically well, and effectiveness of work life balance was dependent on workplace supporting practices, balance in distribution of work and flexible work patterns. The research had an impact on the academic literature by extending the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to include the physical wellness outcomes in creative industries. In practice, it predetermined the necessity of hybrid working models, systematic resource distribution, and wellness-based policies to contribute to long-term sustainability of the health of the employees and organizational performance in the VFX industry.