The Silent Struggle: When Work-Life Balance Is a Luxury

We often hear about the importance of work-life balance, a mantra repeated by life coaches, influencers, and well-meaning friends. It’s painted as the golden key to happiness—a perfect equilibrium where work and personal life coexist in harmony. But for many, this concept is nothing more than a distant dream, a luxury they simply cannot afford.

Meet Sarah, a single mother of two. Every day, she wakes up before the sun, her body aching from the few hours of sleep she managed to steal the night before. She works two jobs, neither of which offers benefits, let alone a livable wage. Her mornings are a whirlwind of packing lunches, getting the kids ready for school, and rushing out the door to catch the first bus that will take her to her cleaning job. There’s no time for breakfast; she needs those extra ten minutes to make sure her children have something to eat.

Sarah’s workday is long and grueling. She scrubs floors, cleans bathrooms, and empties trash cans in office buildings where she sees others living the life she dreams of—people who talk about their weekend getaways, yoga classes, and the latest self-help book on work-life balance. When the cleaning shift ends, she heads to her second job as a cashier at a grocery store. The hours stretch on, and by the time she gets home, it’s well past dinner time. She’s exhausted, her feet hurt, and her back feels like it might break, but she can’t rest yet. There are homework assignments to help with, laundry to fold, and bills to figure out how to pay.

For Sarah, the concept of work-life balance feels like a cruel joke. How can she balance anything when she’s constantly on the edge of breaking? The reality is that she doesn’t have the luxury of balance. Every waking moment is dedicated to survival, to keeping a roof over her children’s heads and food on the table. Her personal life—the part where she’s supposed to rest, recharge, and find joy—has been sacrificed at the altar of necessity.

And yet, Sarah keeps going. She keeps going because she has no other choice. Quitting isn’t an option when you’re the only one holding everything together. But the toll it takes is immense. The fatigue becomes chronic, the stress unrelenting. The rare moments of joy—her children’s laughter, a hug at the end of a long day—are fleeting and often overshadowed by the weight of everything she must carry.

There are millions of people like Sarah. People who work tirelessly, who sacrifice their health and happiness because the world demands it of them. They are the invisible ones, the ones who aren’t featured in wellness magazines or celebrated in corporate seminars. They don’t have the time or the means to pursue balance because they’re too busy just trying to survive.

So the next time we talk about work-life balance, let’s remember that for many, it’s not a matter of making better choices or prioritizing differently. It’s a matter of survival. Let’s not forget the Sarahs of the world who carry an unimaginable burden every day. Instead of offering advice on balance, maybe we should be asking how we can lighten their load, how we can create a world where no one has to choose between survival and happiness.

Because in the end, balance shouldn’t be a luxury—it should be a right.

And until it is, let’s show compassion and understanding to those who are doing everything they can just to make it through another day.