The Importance of Work-Life Balance During COVID19
Life has undoubtedly changed over the past few weeks, with the majority of office-based employees now confined to working from home. In times like these, it’s easy to zone out and miss your break, push back plans you had for the day or even cancel them altogether — just so you can stay connected online where there are things actually going on.
Yes, it’s okay to admit that aside from happily doing our bit to protect our communities by staying indoors, we are all bored. The walls are closing in and nobody has any idea what day of the week it is anyway. But even still, it’s important that you — whether you are an employer or an employee — are actively embracing a tangible work-life balance during these unusual times. With the average worker checking their email and IM every 6 minutes, taking time to unwind, relax and switch off can help guarantee that we all make it through the next few months mentally healthy, not burnt out and feeling as though we did something other than eat, sleep and work during the pandemic.
Achieving Balance as an Employer
We have all undoubtedly read about organisations offering the holy grail of adulthood before: an optimal work-life balance. But now that we are all working from home, what does this actually mean in a tangible way that improves the life of the employee AND maintains the output of the business? Many companies talk the talk but fall far short of walking the walk when it comes to managing employee work-life balance. However, the topic is one that should be actively discussed because, when handled correctly, this balance only enhances staff productivity and their commitment to work.
Don’t Be a Stickler For 9–5
If your people start their day earlier than usual (or work later in the evening), it stands to reason that this should be acceptable — so long as their output sees no dip in performance. With childcare, caregiving and social distancing issues pushing everyone’s organisational skills to the limit, sometimes a 9 am start isn’t feasible. Providing an understanding environment where employees can work when they feel it is optimal to do so for their personal circumstances — and are trusted to decide these themselves — will result in much more positive outputs and dedication for those varied hours that your people are plugged in and working hard. Additionally, those long-standing multiple hour-long meetings (that, let’s be honest, usually resulted in more meetings about meetings) are likely to now be optimised for time and staff availability, giving your people a better chance to get down to the important work, quicker.
Remember to Switch Off
It is also important to actively allow staff to switch off for healthy amounts of time; everyone is undoubtedly experiencing increased anxiety and worries of late that can be exacerbated by our “always on, always accessible” society of social networking gurus. So, when employees clock out for weekends and bank holidays, let them mentally turn off. Don’t expect replies, or answers to calls, late at night simply because their chat icon appears available. Sometimes interrupting an employee’s free time is done unintentionally by managers, who send emails late in the evening not realising that their employees feel the need to reply if they have received the mail. You can always preface out-of-hours emails with ‘This isn’t urgent — reply to me tomorrow’. Be lenient and avoid becoming an employer that measures productivity by time spent at the screen. As Hillary Clinton once said, “don’t confuse having a career with having a life.”
Achieving the Balance as an Employee
Change. One word, six little letters — but it has a potentially huge impact. Whether you’re a work-life balance aficionado or you’ve never considered the term before, these strange times are allowing you to work differently and change your approach to your daily tasks — so why not try them? Sometimes, it’s not until you experience true harmony between your ‘work’ self and your ‘home’ self that you realise how important separating the two is, particularly now that both sets of ‘you’ are likely under one roof. How much would it impact your mental health to have no more Sunday night blues, dreading Monday morning? With proper balance achieved, you can view the week — and each day — with renewed vigour and a fresh approach. Given the restricted movements and activities to choose from, it is important to embrace a healthy work-life balance now more than ever before.
No Two People Are Experiencing This Pandemic in the Same Way
What exactly work-life balance means will vary for each of us. Those with children or pets will likely see the day designed around their routine, whilst those without might have more free hours to choose from to be productive and get stuck into projects. You might have no office and be working from the sofa, bed, garden or balcony, and for you, this balance could mean a change of scenery or taking a break from the screen every few hours. Others, I’ve witnessed, find comfort in adding new hobbies to their day to break up the monotony; who says baking in between two meetings isn’t relaxing?!
Shifting Tides
Whatever harmony looks like for you during these trying times, you should work with your employer to make sure that your new habits benefit both of you equally. Shifting tides in work can mean a reinvigorated approach to daily tasks, more ability to get exposure to new learnings and a wider scope to accomplish new things across new spaces. And, whilst employers are trusting, it’s important not to exploit their kindness and still put in your allotted hours per week; it’s a time where companies risk a lot of lost revenue and man-hours due to the sheer inability to measure output. Equally, no matter what position you’re in, it’s important to feel that the work you’re doing is worthwhile, has meaning and makes a difference to someone, somewhere. However, this impact is not always easy to spot when working remotely, and employees often get disheartened and disconnected when they feel that they are replaceable and not important. To combat this, ensure that no matter what hours or days you’re working that you check in with your line manager to set some refreshed goals and clarify the expectations of the time that you are working from home. With the right KPIs in place, you won’t need to continually evidence that you are delivering valuable work or reassure them that you are as committed as ever.
It is fair to say that, with the economy as unstable as it is, we all want to guarantee our spot at the ‘welcome back’ celebrations that will undoubtedly happen in a few months. It is likely, though, that not everyone will make it through these times unscathed, and I’ve heard talk of people forfeiting their work-life balance in order to guarantee their job after this crisis. While this is admirable, I would hope that this is not expected, nor the norm. Whilst we can all now probably see time in our calendars to address projects that we have been putting on the back burner for months, I would suggest only biting off what you can chew — and what your employer can measure — during these times. There are no medals for most hours over-worked, so use this time to benefit yourself as much as you benefit your employer.
Embrace the Change
Some ideas I’ve collated for ways to embrace work-life balance as an employee during these strange times include:
- Take up exercise as a daily activity. There are plenty of online examples to choose from to blow away the cobwebs.
- Start a new online course. Whether you want to learn a new skill to benefit your job or yourself, plenty of places online offer free classes to upskill during your free time. I’ve used Alison myself recently.
- Gardening can be relaxing and rewarding if you have seeds/plants/pots available. Enjoy herbs directly from your garden or balcony!
- Listen to a podcast. Whether you like learning new things, being scared stiff or want a good laugh there are hundreds to choose from online.
- Get creative and colour in pictures online. It’s not just for kids you know!
- Gather your fellow housemates (where safe to do so!) and enjoy some classic board games online for fun.
- Update your scrapbooks, diaries or photo albums. You’re living through a historical event — so you may as well document it.
- Cook something you’ve never tried before. Bonus points if you don’t burn it!
- If you’ve always fancied yourself as the next JK Rowling now is your chance. Get writing or blogging online in minutes.
- Put your dancing shoes on and enjoy a fun workout with online Zumba videos. You can’t NOT be happy after the boppy music and movement.
- Find a quiet corner and read a book or enjoy an audiobook. Get lost and forget the world.
- Better yet, get 2 or 3 friends to read the same book as you and start an online book club to review it. Controversial opinions welcome!
- Teach your pet a trick. A rewarding pastime — for both of you.
- Don’t forget you likely have annual leave that is still available if you need a long-weekend to unwind.
Whilst it will undoubtedly take weeks, if not months, for many of us to get used to the new norm of working remotely and not seeing our colleagues outside of the screen, it’s important that you strive for a balance that suits you and your family. You won’t regret it.
