A greater demand from the modern day work culture is increasingly having a detrimental impact on our mental wellbeing. Facing this ever increasing pressure is a significant challenge for everyone from ourselves, our employers and the government.
What is a good work life balance
Each of us will have our own belief on what makes a healthy work life balance. It isn’t just splitting the day in half for work and play, but more about ensuring you are felling happy and contented in both your work lifestyle and your leisure lifestyle.
The following are examples of a positive work life balance
Hitting targets within a regular working day- Getting home on time and at a decent time
- Not worrying about work when you have left “the office”
- Not worrying about home when you are “at the office”
- Having time with your loved ones without feeling rushed
Long Hours, Stress and Speaking Up – what is healthy?
It very easy to accept that long working hours or feeling stressed because you are buried in work is the norm, especially if your colleagues are in the same boat. It can also become something of a learnt behaviour especially if you have been doing it for a long time. Sometimes you need to pause and take a look around you.
Depending on your work, there can be multiple pressures in play that make it extremely challenging to making changes to your work lifestyle. You may have concerns over job security especially if you wish to make changes to your role. You may need to work long hours to cover your bills. However, if you are in a position to make changes to your working life, research has suggested the following steps can be helpful.
- Take a step back. Ask yourself what is currently causing me stress, unbalance, or dissatisfaction. Is this affecting how my job or my personal life? What am I prioritising and what am I sacrificing? What is falling by the wayside? Rarely do we stop and take stock of our lives and our priorities, and usually when we do it is after key life event such as a birth or death. It is only when you acknowledge a problem can you begin to tackle it.
- Listen to you. Listening to yourself and your feelings on your current lifestyle. Is it making you happy, energised, content? Or do you feel angry, resentful, sad? Once you are aware of your feelings you can start to make changes.
- Rethink and reorder. Put things into perspective and examine how your priorities can be adjusted. Ask yourself if long hours is better than spending time with your family. Is working weekends better then socialising with your friends and family?
- Reflect. Before making any changes, consider ways you may be able to change your job to accommodate your new priorities. A role change, switching hours, job sharing?
- Make the change. Finally, it’s time to take action. It could be a whole new role at work – or even a new job. Though change doesn’t have to be grandiose, it could be as simple as using all your annual leave, not checking emails at weekends (or outside of work) or as simple as just leaving on-time. Sometimes the smallest of changes can make a big difference.