Juggling Work-Life Balance
What is it?
Work life balance is the relationship between your career and everything else. Balance, in my opinion, is a misleading word implying that your work and personal life will be a 50/50 relationship. This has never been true in my experience. Just as time, values, and priorities can differ from person to person, the same is true for work life balance. What works for one may not work for another. However, the goal for everyone should be to seek fulfillment in both the work you do and the life you live outside of it.
Why should I care?
Anyone who works, whether for yourself or for someone else, has a work life balance. Simply by devoting a portion of your waking hours to a job, career, or entrepreneurial pursuit you have signed up for work life balance. But the quality of relationship between work and life will differ depending on your level of attention and intention to each.
The next reason why you should care is because employers are using work-life balance as a selling point when trying to attract talent, particularly millennials. Millennial are said to be a generation that values their time spent away from work perhaps more than previous generations. When I am job hunting, I make it a point to ask every interviewer questions that give me an idea of the work-life balance expectations of the company. For example “How would you describe the company culture?”, “What are the typical hours for associates in this role?”, “How often do associates work from home or take work home?”, “Is it expected that I work on weekends and/or holidays?”
The last reason you should care is because there is a such thing as working too hard!! A poor work life balance can have detrimental effects on your health and happiness. The obvious consequences are exhaustion (mentally, emotionally, and physically), resentment, anger, stress and burnout. In Ariana Huffington’s book “Thrive” she speaks about her battle with “civilizations disease” otherwise known as “burnout”. In her pursuit of success she stretched herself too thin and collapsed….. literally.
How do I maintain a healthy work life balance?
Tip 1: Never rely solely on your employer to dictate your work life balance. It is said that happiness is an inside job well I believe the same is true for work life balance. At the end of the day, your employer’s objective is to be as profitable as possible by getting the most amount of work done with the minimal amount of resources necessary. This applies to headcount as well. That being said, your employer may influence your work life balance but you ultimately have to be responsible for your own work-life balance.
Tip 2: Leave work at work. As much as you can, leave your laptop at the office, turn your work email notifications off when you’re on vacation, refrain from checking your work email when you first wake up in the morning, and limit your post work “venting” time. Compartmentalize so that you can truly recharge.
Tip 3: Get a Life! Create a life outside of work that motivates you to leave work at a decent hour such as sports, book clubs, church/bible study, fitness classes, adult education courses, even a favorite tv show!!