One thing Technalink strives to do with everyone who works for and with us is to ensure they maintain a healthy work-life balance. It’s one of the trickiest things to juggle since it’s very easy to do too much of one, especially working, when, without hard work, there’s no salary, no possible promotion, and thus no improvement to the overall quality of life. At the same time, however, work is there to augment the personal and family life, not the other way around. Here are the top five reasons many people tip the scales on their work-life balance.
Corporate Culture
Sometimes, the problem with maintaining a work-life balance goes all the way to the top and then trickles down. If a company’s work culture itself stresses ignoring life over work, this will naturally affect employees who don’t want to be seen as defying that culture and possibly deemed a bad fit for the company.
If the company culture encourages people to ignore life in favor of work, then, if it’s your business, you can make a change to that culture.
Flexibility
This can sometimes be a result of the workplace or a specific individual. For example, if you have trouble finding work-life balance because you prefer to stick to a strict schedule, and everything must follow that structure and timing, you have a flexibility problem. However, if you work in a company where people, for example, can’t leave early on certain days for family commitments or can’t work from home remotely on certain days, then the flexibility problem is with the company itself.
Being able to take action that adapts to circumstances and isn’t forced to follow a fixed structure is often crucial to establishing a good work-life balance.
Overutilization
Efficiency is a great thing, and people who can multitask are important employees, but it’s possible to take this too far. A common reason for poor work-life balance is when employees are “overutilized,” which is to say they are given tasks that would normally require two or even more additional employees to do but on their own.
For example, having an employee hired for graphic design, working on finances, and even occasionally working in online/web management may mean you get “three employees for the price of one.” Unfortunately, this inevitably means the employee is more or less living and working in the office to keep up with all the extra duties.
Poor Time Management
This can once again be a problem for those in management or workers themselves. The ability to plan, organize, and execute schedules can be crucially important for good work-life balance. Being able to achieve a work-related goal at the planned time, then stop, go home, and engage and interact with family as planned for the evening is one of the best ways to achieve this balance.
However, some people need help organizing and managing this time effectively.
Setting Boundaries
A final reason that maintaining a work-life balance can be hard is that some have trouble defining and then enforcing boundaries. While it’s good to be flexible and receptive to the needs of others, taking on too many requests beyond your own work responsibilities can quickly lead to no time for private or family responsibilities.
The best way to avoid this is to develop the discipline to define boundaries, learn when to say “no,” and stick to it.
There are plenty of other ways to learn and develop this critical work-life balance. To learn more about healthier work-life balance and cultivating a sense of mindfulness, The Om Factor: A Women’s Spiritual Guide To Leadership is available in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
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