There are few things in this world as elusive as a work-life balance. Most of our lives revolve around work.
Personally, when I look for a job, work-life balance is at the top of my list of priorities that a measure a job opportunity on.
And this is one of those things that HR will nevver tell you about. You have to know someone on the inside to get information like this - but I digress.
The funny thing is that the work-life balance is a conversation only for those of us who are not entirely happy with our jobs and it’s just a means to an end. And that’s an overwhelming majority of us.
Challenges With Work-Life Balance
Toxic Work Culture
The question is why do so many of us struggle with work-life balance? What is it about work that makes it so hard to stop?
Well, for starters the entire work culture is backwards. We go into a job interview and the interviewer asks us “why should we hire you?” We, as employees never get to ask the employers why we should work for them. They have the leverage that they get far more candidates applying for the same job so there’s a certain competitive nature to landing a job.
And that mindset sticks even when we land the job. We feel like we constantly have to prove that we are worth keeping around. That feeling comes from a toxic work culture that doesn’t value it’s employees, making them feel disposable. That feeling makes us feel like we have to go the extra mile to establish our value in the company.
Working From Home
In this post-covid world, plenty of us working from home, which makes it that much harder to turn off. When you’re work, sleep, relax and have all your leisurely activities in the same space, the lines between work and home get blurry very fast.
First of all, there are manifold more distractions at home than in an office, which means productivity takes a hit. We often make up for that loss of productivity by working beyond our official hours which eats into our perssonal time.
It’s also tempting to just push your hours a little to finish that one task or check your emails one last time before logging off.
Although working from home has its countless advantages, I have never preferred it over working from an office because the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.
Work-life balance compromise is one of those.
Tips to Establish a Healthy Work-Life Balance
Having had my fair share of experience working from home and an office, I have some tips on how you can maintain a work-life balance regardless of where you work from.
Draw Your Own Boundaries
I’ve said this before: your employer will not set your boundaries for you. They will try to squeeze everything out of you they possibly can. So it’s up to you to draw your own lines and say no whenever it’s fair. And stick to those boundaries as strictly as you can.
Prioritize yourself
And that means prioritixe, your health, your relaionships and your mental wellbeing.
You don’t need me to tell you the health risks of a poor work-life balance. We all know about the increased risk of stroke, burnout, and the mental havoc the increased stress can wreak. It’s up to you to prioritize yourself over your job.
I know your work is important, it’s how you pay the bills, but what good is that paycheque if it comes at the cost of your health?
Disconnect Work Calls and Messages After Hours
Many managers take advantage of our instant messaging culture to text you about work after work hours, and these messages are hard to ignore because you don't know who they're from until you see them. I suggest setting a separate notification and ringtone for your work contacts to instantly know which calls and texts to ignore after work.
My superior knows for a fact that there's no way to reach me after work. I don't pick up calls and I don't respond to messages and it's working out very well for me so far.
The idea here is to not even think about work once you're off.
Final thoughts
Remember, your company only pays you for the 9 hours a day as agreed upon. Any time you spend at work beyond that comes directly out of your own personal time and you're never getting that back. Our employers will never respect our time if we don't respect it ourselves.
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