We are all familiar with the old adage: “No one on their deathbed wishes they’d spent more time at the office.” Yet in these fast-moving times of change and complexity that’s exactly what we do – spend more time at the office as our workday knows no boundaries.

Then when we do leave the office, what happens? We take with us our laptops, networked with our office computer, of course, our mobile phones so we can be accessible to everyone 24/7, or better still our blackberries so we can access our emails all night long and every minute of the week-end.

I was reading a study of work/life balance recently that was done by the Centre for Work/Life Policy in New York. The study discovered a phenomenon that it called “4 in a bed relationships” – 2 people and 2 blackberries. People are using their blackberries all night long. They can’t switch off. This is addictive behaviour.       

We do so many important things now, that deserve our full attention, with the mobile phone or blackberry in our hand – drive the car, watch our son’s basketball match, or interrupt a meal in a restaurant.

The repercussions for our lives are damaged and broken relationships with our partners, children, extended family and friends; stress and severe risks to our health and well-being. As well, we too often live compromised lives as we feel pressured to give up what is most important to us, in favour of what our work demands of us. 

Why do we do it - better business outcomes, success and career development?

Are we really more productive and successful in this high-powered 24/7 workplace?

• 123 million days of job leave in Australia are currently stockpiled because employees cannot take time to relax and recharge.

• 20% Australians are working 50 hours or more a week.

• 30% people routinely work on week-ends.

• 2 million Australians lose at least 6 hours of family time through Sunday work.

Yet, in an independent national survey of Australian workers, commissioned by The Institute of Chartered Accountants, 99% of Australians ranked work/life balance and job satisfaction as the greatest priorities when reviewing career opportunities.

Work/Life Balance in the 24/7 Workplace of Laptops, Mobile Phones

and Blackberries

So what are we talking about when we talk about work/life balance?

It’s certainly not about spending equal amounts of time between our work and  our personal lives. Long gone are the days of 8 hours of work, 8 hours of leisure, 8 hours of rest. This depended on women being at home in the role of homemaker. It is no longer relevant – or meaningful - in the world in which we live. It’s not necessarily about working less than we are at present either.

It is much more about having flexibility around our work, that ability to balance what’s important in our work against what’s important in our personal lives.

What appears to cause stress and difficulties for people is where either their work and/or their personal lives demand of them rigid adherence to procedure and routine. They are caught between their two lives, being pulled in two directions, often at once, but having no control over what happens in either. This is determined by someone or something other than themselves. For most people, the most stress-provoking experience they have is when they feel they’ve lost control over their lives.

Ironically, people can often work longer hours, yet feel less stressed than working normal hours if they have been able to fit the hours around what’s important for them outside of work.

Many people are prepared to work long and hard, if they can take a Friday off and have a long week-end every now and then, or can go to their child’s sport’s day at school or take time to pick them up from school in an emergency.

The stress is enormous for a working mother if there is no flexibility in her workplace and she has a sick child. Does she leave the child with someone else for the day and worry about the child and feed her guilt about putting her work first? Does she take the day off and lie about the reason? Whatever decision she makes creates a stress that sees her less productive and often contemplating resigning or going part-time.

Having flexibility is also about how people manage their own work – whether they can commence work later and stay later, whether they can work from home some days, whether they can job share or work part-time.

There are a whole variety of options in this area, for example –

• 9 day fortnights, 

• 10 month working year,

• purchasing extra leave to allow for child care over school holidays,

• career breaks and leave without pay to pursue other interests, like travel, flexibility in transition to retirement and for women returning to work after giving birth.

Having flexibility in the way people go about doing their work is also important. It is quite stressful for most people when they are required to log their work in 6-10 minute intervals and have their productivity (and therefore value to the organisation) measured in that way. 

There is also considerable stress for people who feel that their productivity is measured by the number of hours they work. Even when they efficiently manage their role and their time, they don’t feel they can leave the office at a reasonable time because they will be seen to be less committed and so be excluded from the organisational pipeline that leads to promotion and career advancement.

When organisations offer flexible work opportunities to their people, and they are able to negotiate flexible arrangements both at work and at home, they usually experience far less stress, greater productivity and much higher levels of commitment and engagement both at work and at home.

Work/Life balance is not just the employer’s or organisation’s responsibility, it is also the employee’s. They need to be able to manage their lives in such a way that they remain as stress free as possible.

Prepare Your Case for Flexibility in Your Work.

If you are feeling that you would like more flexibility in your working life, that you would like to negotiate for some of the arrangements suggested above, then go for it!

More and more organisations are prepared to be flexible. They want to keep their talented people and they will often do whatever they can to ensure they stay. They do, however, want their businesses to function well and not be negatively affected by the flexible arrangements their staff request.

So prepare your case for management with that in mind.

• Make it a win/win both for you and your organisation. 

• Anticipate management’s concerns and make sure your request addresses those concerns.

• Have an ideal Plan A, but be flexible yourself and have a less ideal Plan B.

• If management is hesitant, be willing to negotiate a trial period. Reach a mutual agreement about what will be evaluated during the trial period so you can perform to the criteria.
  

• Bounce it off someone else first who can pick up any flaws in your argument so that you can improve your case before presenting it.

What's Most Important in Your Life is made of Glass.

Brian Dyson, when he was CEO of Coco Cola Enterprises, said:

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling 5 balls in the air.

You name them WORK, FAMILY, HEALTH, FRIENDS and SPIRIT

and you are trying to keep them all in the air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball.

If you drop it, it will bounce back up.

But the other 4 balls

- FAMILY, HEALTH, FRIENDS and SPIRIT -

are made of glass."

Copyright © People Empowered-Maree Harris 2009
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