How should an employer follow the basic principles of work life balance?
Work life balance, i.e. the philosophy of maintaining a balance between private life and work duties, is often confused with the approach of more and more employees, according to which after 8 hours of work the laptop is closed and regardless of whether the company is in crisis or not, we stop worrying about professional issues and start rest time.
This approach for many may be an ideal sign of maintaining a balance between private life and work, but this is not the point. The basis of the assumption of work life balance is to maintain a balance between the two zones of our life in such a way that they constitute two perfectly coherent parts of our lives. In such a methodology, none of the areas can dominate, but on the other hand, we should assume some flexibility that will give us room to bend the rigid rules „work from 8 to 16 and the end”. In many industries and companies, the need to stay a few moments longer is natural and there is nothing wrong with that, as long as it is not a standard situation. If we are able to meet the expectations placed in us at work and leave nothing to chance, we should smoothly move to private life without thinking about what happened at work.
At first, the problem with maintaining balance may be imperceptible – the employee is stressed, the onslaught of duties does not give him peace of mind even after working hours. At a later stage, the employee may feel burnout and health and mental problems can lead to irreparable damage. The lack of work life balance in the United States leads to the fact that up to $ 190 billion is spent on treating the effects of long-term stress. And we are talking only about those people who decided to share their problem.
A dozen or so years ago, it was assumed that the more an employee works, the more he will be able to do, and thus earn more. But is this true? Do not necessarily. A greater burden of duties at some point will reduce the effectiveness of the employee – it will reduce his commitment, concentration and in extreme cases will result in the use of sick leave, which will be an even greater problem for the employer.
How does the situation of an employee implementing the principles of work life balance look like on our domestic labor market? Not very optimistic, as evidenced by the report of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. According to reports, Poles constitute the 7th busiest nation among all the countries of the community, working about 1928 hours a year. In Poland, unfortunately, the idea of work life balance in many organizations is only used in theory, which is not conducive to productivity and employee involvement.
The introduction of work life balance principles does not have to be a great investment for the company. This is just a set of small improvements that will allow you to maintain the balance of employees and the peace of mind of the employer in the long term. Where to start implementing the principles of work life balance in your organization?
First of all, from minimizing situations in which the employee is to deal with business activities after working hours. The lack of e-mails and phone calls to employees after the end of their working day is the beginning of introducing an appropriate organizational culture focused on the employee, not on the results of the enterprise.
It is equally important to set an example and encourage employees to live a healthy lifestyle and develop their passions. Although it seems impossible in our conditions, the largest technology giants have already introduced one day a week for their employees, in which they spend their working time on developing their skills, competences and interests. Let’s remember about cyclical integration meetings, which will certainly bring the team closer to each other and allow you to get to know each other from a side other than the one at work.
However, it is worth using one more additional treatment, which will certainly have a positive effect on the morale of our employees. We are talking about the possibility of remote work or flexible working time. If the specificity of work does not allow the introduction of a hybrid mode of work, the supervisor should at least once in a while allow the employee to work from home or propose other, more tailored to his real needs working hours.
Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.
