Work life balance meaning1/3/2023 ![]() ![]() “We come home and even though physically we are there, mentally we still may be processing things that happened at work. Because even if you do make sure the hours are evenly split, if the underlying emotional sources of stress are still there – the kinds of stress that the five-step cycle could help identify – then the time you actually spend at home may not be enjoyable. It’s not simply about divvying up the hours in your day between work, the gym, kids, chores and meditation. New York University’s Lechner agrees that finding that balance is an ongoing pursuit. “Awareness of your emotional state is essential in order to determine the changes you want to make in your work and in your life,” says Lupu. Work life balance meaning professional#Going through the steps, and constantly checking in with yourself, can help you shift and adapt your professional life to something that will better harmonise with your personal one, their research suggests. This five-step process is something anyone can adopt. Fourth, they considered their alternatives: is there anything at work that could be changed to accommodate these new priorities? And finally, they implemented changes, like asking their supervisor for greater flexibility, or deciding not to take on every project that comes their way. Second, after identifying the cause, they zeroed in on their resultant emotions – did they feel angry, sad, energised? Third, they reprioritised, asking, “Is working long hours really worth cutting back on family time?”, for example. Lupu and Ruiz-Castro identified five steps that the respondents in the study who had better work-life balance used in their jobs.įirst, they paused, de-normalised beliefs such as “I’m a professional, so I should work, work, work”, and asked themselves questions like, “What’s currently causing me stress?”. Taking stock and “claiming this mental space to gain clarity of what they want for themselves is the first step toward identifying and implementing alternative ways of working and living,” says Ruiz-Castro. ![]() Workers stopped and questioned their circumstances – reflecting on their emotions and situations, then pinpointed their specific roadblocks to work-life balance. They employed more “reflexivity” – or the ability to reflect and question assumptions in the name of self-awareness – and regularly took steps to adjust the things standing in their way of coveted work-life balance. Once Lupu and Ruiz-Castro looked at those who rejected the long hours, they found that those workers actually had strikingly similar strategies for maintaining their work-life balance. The other respondents, meanwhile, all worked long hours because they thought that’s what successful professionals should do. In their 2020 study, the researchers interviewed nearly 80 employees at two London-based firms – an equal number of men and women between the ages of 30 and 50, all with at least one dependent child – who worked in middle or senior management roles.Īlthough it sounds like the respondents had a lot in common, here’s what separated them: about 30% of the men and 50% of the women reported resisting working long hours. Instead, they suggest it may be more of a lifelong process – a continuous, never-ending exercise that requires vigilance, self-awareness and timely tweaks.įorget reaching that golden goal: researchers Ioana Lupu of ESSEC Business School in France, and Mayra Ruiz-Castro of the University of Roehampton in the UK argue that work-life balance is a “ a cycle, not an achievement”. Some researchers are now encouraging us to stop thinking about work-life balance as an achievement that you either hit or don’t. “I don’t think it’s such a simple formula.”Īnd, according to new findings, it may not be. And once you’ve reached it, congratulations: you’ve made it you’re a successful human being of the 21st Century.īut the problem is that we often tell ourselves: “’I’m going to put in eight hours’ worth of work, and then I’m going to put in eight hours’ worth of me time, which will include my family, my hobbies, my workout, my everything’,” says Anat Lechner, clinical associate professor of management at New York University. The concept is often presented as something to achieve, or a goal to reach. The quest to attain this somewhat nebulous state has dominated discourse around careers for years – especially for working parents. Few topics have been so endlessly analysed, glorified and dissected as work-life balance. ![]()
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