ABSTRACT
Work–life balance is a persistent issue in the UK Armed Forces, which have been overstretched for 15 years. Guest (2001) highlights five models of the relationship between work and life: (1) “segmentation,” in which the two are distinct spheres with no influence between them; (2) “spillover” – either positive or negative – from one sphere to the other; (3) “compensation,” in which people may find rewards in one area to make up for being unfulfilled in the other; (4) “instrumental” – that is, using one sphere as a means of making gains in the other, for example using work as a means to an end outside work; and (5) “conflict,” which proposes that, with high levels of demand in all spheres of life, some conflicts and possibly some significant overload of an individual occur. This latter model can be linked to the concept of “greedy institutions” (Coser, 1974).
