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In our last post about loneliness in isolation, we touched upon keeping yourself busy in order to prevent you from ruminating on your feelings of loneliness, or any other negative feelings that may be seeping into your new 'normal'. Expert's advice of 'staying busy' does come with its caveats; with an increased amount of take-home technology, people are finding that they spend more and more time working, even at home (Harmer, Pauleen & Schroeder, 2008) [1]. As many are currently redirected to 'Work from Home,' our boundaries between work-life and home-life are now more blurred than ever.
There are many names that fall under the general idea of 'work-life balance' (WLB) (i.e. work-home balance, work-family spill over, work-family balance, etc.). The general gist of all these technical terms is to identify how much of your work is spilling into your home / family life, or vice versa, and to make sure you aren't doing too much of one at the expense of the other.
Ensuring that you have a healthy work-life balance is imperative for staying healthy, preventing burnout, chronic stress, hypertension and cardiac health [2]. Not only does poor WLB take a negative toll on your personal health, it has also shown financial impacts for organizations. In the U.S. alone, physical and psychological consequences of poor WLB cost approximately $1.25-1.90 billion annually [3].
There are various culprits that may be preventing us from having good WLB. Some include, but are not limited to:
With mobile devices, we are expected to keep track of our emails and calls all the time. Your work phone is often brought into your home and for some, it is also for personal use.
Possible Solution: If you use one phone for both personal and work purposes, try to find some ways that allow you to 'turn-off' or disconnect in order for you to get some true time off. For example, there are some apps that are specifically made to allow users to lock selected apps for a specific time frame in order to keep yourself from using the app on your phone, iPad, etc.
Given the agility of mobile devices (phones, iPads, laptops, etc.) the expectations at the organizational level are for you to always be reachable. Making it harder for you to turn off work, especially when employees bring their work tools into their homes. There are also unspoken societal expectations of acceptable response times. Most people expect instantaneous or at least responses within 12-24 hours to messages, calls and/or emails. This expectation makes it harder for you to step away from work if you are always on-call to answer instantaneously.
Possible Solution: Try to get clarity on these expectations. This can be as easy as asking your employer specifically what is expected of you. You may also approach the conversation by sharing your own expectations in how you can maintain a healthy work-life balance in order to take care of yourself and your well-being.
Many of us feel guilty if we aren't working, or perceived to be working as much as others. The reality is that it's true, some people are working around the clock, but also keep in mind that many are not. This ties in closely to expectations. The expectation of 'good employees' is that they are reachable, working around the clock, and putting in the most hours. By taking time for ourselves, this often triggers a guilt response of 'I should be working'.
Possible Solution: Rather than focusing on what you are not doing, remember to focus on what you are accomplishing. If you are always focused on what you aren't doing, you will never find the gratitude and empowerment in all the things you are accomplishing. (See our WFH Series Post No. 2 for a refresher on reframing your thoughts).
We slightly touched on this in our first WFH blog post. When you have a room, or a spot where you exclusively work, this will help you leave your work at that allocated space only, and not protrude throughout your entire house. Do the same with checking work-related emails or messages. Don't open them unless you are 'in work mode'.
Plan times in the day when you are 'on' or 'reachable' as well as times where you are 'off' or 'unreachable'. Communicating these 'off' times to your colleagues will reduce the chance of any miscommunication or violation of expectations.
Whatever you do to recharge or find important in your personal life, like working out, making time for your children, reading, cooking, make sure you allocate time for it in your day. Similarly, if working a certain amount of hours or completing certain deliverables is important in your work-life, schedule time in your calendar to be devoted in completing those projects and goals. Not only does it hold you accountable, but it ensures you that are giving yourself time in a day to do what is most important to you.
These are just a few of many components of establishing and maintaining a healthy WLB. Remember, your career is a marathon, not a sprint. As cliché as it sounds, it's true! If you work yourself down to the bone and forget to take care of yourself outside of work, your body will force you to slow down. Plenty of people take leaves of absence for burnouts, stress leave and stress related conditions. Do what you can to make sure you don't fall into those situations. In order to make the most of your hours in the day (whether that be for personal or professional purposes) and not get off kilter, keep an eye out for our next post, which touches on the positive effects of having hobbies and how they can benefit your health.
References:
[1] Cause or Cure: Technologies and Work-Life Balance
[2] The Evolving Definition of Work-Life Balance
[3] Employee Burnout Is a Problem with the Company, Not the Person
