When it comes to striking the perfect work-life balance middle-aged women have hit the nail on the head, new research suggests.
New Zealand Work Research Institute at AUT surveyed more than 1500 working New Zealanders about their life satisfaction, job satisfaction and their work-life balance in The Wellbeing @ Work Study.
Research found that women aged 55 and over were consistent across all three areas.
"The women in our sample start to flourish with women aged 56 years and above clearly being the 'winning' age group," research author Professor Jarrod Haar says.
"They are soaring! This likely represents having a good job and careers, a comfortable home life, and generally enjoying life."
The results show that women aged 20-25 years begin their working lives with low life and job satisfaction, and no work-life balance, which likely represented young women getting to grips with life and starting out, possibly with less money and limited assets.
"As women progress these things get better, but are still negative, until the 36-45 age group when they start reporting positive satisfaction and work-life balance," Mr Haar says.
The male group showed similar results. Young men between 20 and 25 reported the lowest life satisfaction but things looked rosy for the next cohort of men those in their mid-to-late 20s who thought their work-life balance was great, Mr Haar says.
By 31-35 years males reported low life satisfaction and negative job satisfaction until the 56 year and above age group, where all three factors life and job satisfaction and work-life balance all spike strongly.
Newshub.
