Creating Balance between Your Work and Your Life
In one of the recent interviews I conducted, an interviewee asked me about my thoughts on work-life balance. I do not recall anymore what my exact answer is, but it is along the lines of it being a personal choice that you need to manage.
For millenials and post millenials, work-life balance has become an important factor in their choice of work. Many companies, including ours, have amped up their efforts on improving their employees’ work-life balance, and have even expanded the focus to what we call work-life effectiveness. On one hand, some people think that you cannot really balance work and life equally. On the other hand, many companies are realizing that there are other things which makes more sense than just giving people balance: flexible working arrangements, making people more connected with their colleagues, etc. Regardless of which term, I would still say that it is a personal choice that you need to manage.
But first, you need to understand two things:
- Things will go on without you.
I used to think that bad things will happen if I am not around, that everything needs to be reviewed by me. Then, my sisters organized some prolonged family trips. It was then when I realized that even without me, things will go on. I also realized that before I came in, there were some other people who were doing the things I was doing, and I could delegate the critical ones to my back-up. At the same time, I recognized the importance of setting up systems, building capability and driving the right culture in the organization. How well your group performs during your absence is a reflection of how well you set these up. - There are some things that are not really important.
I have quite a laundry list of items to do. There seems to be no end to work, and, from time to time, I think that if I go on vacation, work will just pile up. However, if there’s one thing I realized about my long list through the years, it is that there are some things on the list that are long overdue, I haven’t completed them, and they are no longer relevant at this point in time. They just go away. What matters is that you are able to learn to prioritize and know what can be dropped.
A Personal Choice
Work-life balance is a personal choice. This is something that we ourselves need to internalize, and this is important because until we recognize this, we cannot move beyond our current state of work-life balance.
We need to define what balance means for us. For some, it means coming to work on time and leaving work on time. For others, it means being present in their children’s milestones. Still for others, it means not getting any after-hours calls or e-mails. Work-life balance means different things to different people, so we need to be very clear what work-life balance is for us. At the same time, we need to recognize that balance and career are related, and we need to understand what choices we can make.
For those seeking jobs, you can start by asking the interviewers, or people you know in the company you are applying for, how work-life effectiveness is promoted in the company. This should then factor in deciding whether to accept the job offer or not.
For those already working, there are several triggers when you need to make the choice: when you are are offered or moved to a different role (with or without promotion), when you have your alignments, performance reviews or connects with your manager, and when you start feeling that you can take more work or need to take less work.
When you encounter these triggers, you need to look at the options you have, and understand their implications. Although there are efforts in some organizations to ensure that people seeking work-life balance will not be penalized in their career, we also cannot deny the fact that people who spend more time for work, all else being equal, get to deliver more or better work, and can, consequently, be recognized earlier.
You Need to Manage
Once you are clear with your choices, you also need to manage your work-life balance.
When I started working, I had more than a score of leave entitlements a year and I was managing operations. I failed to use most of my vacation leaves when I started working. In some cases, I cannot find a good day to take a leave because of meetings or activities already scheduled on those days. In other cases, I waited for important events to happen to file for vacation leaves only to realize near the end of the year that I have more expiring leaves than work days left.
Even when I take leaves, I’m not intentionally taking my mind off work, and this is not helping. I realized later on that vacation leaves need to be managed. I started planning my leaves. I plan my leaves at the start of the year and I align these leaves with my manager. I do change the plan throughout the year as events arise, but I make sure to have a working plan early on. This has helped me plan my back-ups, meetings and activities ahead. Planning and aligning ahead also ensures that my leaves request won’t get rejected so that I can also use up my leaves allocation.
The same would go for the other aspects of work-life balance. You need to make sure that you align your needs and expectations with your manager, colleagues and subordinates. You also need to make sure that they understand and respect your career choices vis-a-vis your work-life choices. Provide feedback when you notice that your choices are not respected.
You also need to get your families and friends engaged. You do not (and should not) share the details of your work with them, but you should let them know what your choices mean to your participation in your household chores, in child rearing, and in the social activities that they may organize.
And you need to plan. Plan the same way as I did for leaves. Reject meetings or activities on days when you plan to go on leave early on. Set back-up systems. Train people. More importantly, also recognize others’ needs for balance and support their plans as well.
With this, you should be able to define what work life balance means for you, and make it work the way you want it to without giving up more than what you are willing to do so in your career.
