Work-life balance has become a buzz phrase in organizations for the past 20 years. Although the phrase was first introduced in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, it gained traction and momentum in the United States in the mid-1980s. It’s all about achieving that balance between a person’s time at work and time not at work.
If you are not enjoying your work life or your personal life, you will likely spend more time in one area over the other. In an ideal situation, most of us would like to enjoy and be engaged with our work environment as much as we enjoy our personal time with our families, friends, churches and others. According to a June 2014 survey by Forbes magazine, 52 percent of Americans are unhappy at work. In fact, employee job satisfaction has continued to slide over the past 30 years. As employees face layoffs and job security issues, loyalty spirals downward.
For most people, managing the demands of a career and a personal life is a daily challenge. A lot of people and organizations ask for our time on a daily basis. Thus, achieving work-life balance can seem like an impossible objective to attain.
If your personal life is not going the way you would like, or if you are having issues at home, you tend to compensate by spending more time engaged at your workplace, especially if you enjoy the work and your coworkers. On the flip side, if you do not enjoy work or are unhappy there, you will look to do the minimum required in order to keep your job.
The key to achieving a good work-life balance may very well be having a job you enjoy. It should be one you look forward to going to every day — because of the contributions you make and the impact it will have on the lives of others. But life really isn’t balanced without family and friends and personal activities that you also look forward to every day. We need to strike a good balance between both areas of our lives.
Most of us spend at least one-third of our weekly time commuting to/from and being at work. When that rises to 50 percent, your work-life balance gets off track. We must also balance our mental and physical health by not becoming overly stressed with increasing responsibilities brought on by the complexities of work. For many of us, our religion and spirituality have a major influence on work-life balance. For others, it may be exercising or sporting activities that help us to relieve the stressful situations in our lives. Either way, spending time on personal activities outside the workplace allows us to achieve the work-life balance we desire and need for our own mental and physical health and well-being.
There are eight simple steps to achieve better work-life balance, according to Jacquelyn Smith of Forbes magazine:
1
Learn your employer’s policies. Inquire about your company’s policies on flextime and working from home. If you’re a strong performer, you have a better chance of negotiating an arrangement that works for both you and your employer.
2
Communicate. If you won’t be available for certain hours during the day or weekend because you’re dealing with personal issues, let your manager and colleagues know, and get their full support.
3
Use technology to your advantage. Technology should help make your life easier, not control it. Ban technology at certain times so you can focus on your family or friends.
4
Telecommute. Telecommuting a few times a week could help free up valuable hours. You’ll be able to focus on work for longer stretches and use the extra hours to meet personal responsibilities.
5
Learn to say “no.” Remember that you can respectfully decline offers to run the PTA or serve on an extra committee at work. When you stop doing things out of guilt, you’ll find more time to focus on the activities that truly bring you joy.
6
Fight the guilt. Superwoman and Superman are fictional characters. Real people can’t devote 100 percent to everything they do. Stop feeling guilty if you miss an occasional soccer game or bail on a colleague’s going-away party.
7
Rethink your idea of “clean.” Unmade beds or dusty moldings are not signs of failure. Try to live with a little messiness and spend more time enjoying your life. If you can afford to outsource help, pay someone else to clean your house.
8
Protect your private time. Allow yourself to daydream or appreciate good weather on your walk to work. If you don’t allow yourself pockets of personal time, you’ll become too burned out to fully appreciate any part of your life.
Finally, consider everything that competes for your time. Decide what you can do and what you cannot do. After all, only you can achieve your own work-life balance.
Darrell Brown, Ph.D., is a clinical associate professor of management and director of diversity at Indiana University Kelley School of Business Indianapolis.
