Rethinking Work-Life Balance

Inadequate and unqualified.

That’s how I’m feeling as I sit at my computer to write an article on a topic that has been written about by tons of people more qualified than I am – people who appear to have it all figured out.

Add to this the fact that I’m writing this at 5:00 AM, because it was due two weeks ago and I didn’t find the time to get it done; hence, my feelings of inadequacy and guilt.

The main reason I didn’t get it done before is because I took a week-long vacation with my family – which leads to why I’m writing this article:  To help myself, and hopefully others, to understand the ever-elusive thing called “work-life balance.”

The History of Work-Life Balance

The notion that a person’s working hours should be limited in order to have more time for “life” goes back two centuries to the Industrial Revolution.

Manufacturing laws of the late 1800s restricted women and children from working. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established a 44-hour work week.

During and after World War II and on into the 1970s, more women than ever before entered the workforce. This led to the introduction of maternity leave and the possibility of a more flexible schedule. However, it wasn’t until 1993 that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) passed.

After all this time, we’re hardly closer to finding work-life balance, yet the subject continues to be a buzzword in today’s culture.

The Myth of Work-Life Balance

Honestly, I believe the term “work-life balance” is unrealistic. I now realize that the feelings of guilt and inadequacy that I was experiencing might come from one word of that phrase:  balance.

The picture that comes to my mind is of a balance scale, where you have to keep both sides equal in order for life to be “right.”

The problem with this is that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. This would mean that our work time is only ever our work time (don’t answer that call from your daughter!) and that our personal time is only ever our personal time (don’t answer that email from your boss!).

In reality, however, the lines between our work time and our personal time are becoming more and more blurred, primarily due to advancements in technology. Our family can reach us anytime while we are working, and our work can reach us anytime while we are with family.

Therefore, it’s important to recognize that work and life are interconnected. With that in mind, however, we must still strive to get separation when and where we can, and keep these two big areas in harmony, rather than in constant conflict.

Because of the times we live in, I believe it is more accurate and achievable to strive for “Work-Life Fusion.”

Accepting Work-Life Fusion

The general dictionary definition of fusion is “the process of joining two or more things together to form a single entity.” 

In their research titled “A Trend toward Work-Life Fusion: A multi-generational shift in technology use at work,” Donna Haeger and Tony Lingham define work-life fusion as “the concurrent management of work and life demands, while at work.” 

The first step, I believe, is recognition and acceptance. Work-life fusion recognizes that we bring our whole self to the job; it is not always necessary (or possible!) to keep the professional side and the personal side of ourselves separate.

We will occasionally have to take that personal call during working hours. We need to accept that sometimes when we are on a scheduled vacation or on personal time in the evening, we may have to answer a work-related phone call, text or email. Especially for salaried employees, there isn’t always a clear “on the clock/off the clock” separation.

Role of Technology

As I previously mentioned, technology has allowed the lines between work time and personal time to become increasingly blurred.

Haeger and Lingham’s study looked at four generations co-existing in the workplace. The youngest generation, Millennials, have grown up with technology in a way that generations before them never had. Therefore, their expectations regarding technology availability to them throughout the day is different from older generations. However, even Baby Boomers have adapted to technology, changing their usage and expectations of it.

Because of the demands of technology and a shift in employees’ attitudes regarding its use, employers need to be aware of this and be prepared to respond.

We know that technology has fused our work and personal lives together and we know that this isn’t likely to change anytime soon. So how do we – as employers/employees and humans – prevent this from creating undue stress?

How Our Team Achieves Work-Life Fusion

Phone Boundaries

One of the first things we can do is create phone boundaries. Yes, as I just mentioned, sometimes we will need to answer a phone call or text or email when we aren’t at work. However, we do need to decide when we won’t be available at our phone.

According to research and explained in this article, the notifications on our phone – the “ping” we hear – trigger chemicals to be released in our brain. While some of these chemicals have the potential to make us feel good, others may make us feel anxious, stressed or distracted. Constant over-stimulations of these pathways may start to make us feel burned out or even become addicted over time.

Our boss (and owner of MBS), Megan, says, “I find that it helps that I turn off a lot of alerts on my phone. I don’t get notified every time I get an email or Facebook notification; I find them too distracting from whatever I’m doing.”

Time Boundaries

MBS employee, Jazmine, works part-time while attending college full-time. She says, “For me, it’s more of a work-school-personal life balance. I have set times where I work, go to school/work on homework, and spend time with friends and family. I have my schedule planned out so each part of my life gets some time but keep myself accountable that the times don’t overlap if at all possible. For example, if I set aside time to work on my MBS work, I don’t spend time with friends while I do it. I make my plans for when I’m done. This not only gives me motivation to do my work before I have my free time, but also helps keep everything separate while still connecting with all 3 major parts of my life.”

Physical Boundaries

Megan suggests creating a separate space if you are working from home.

She says, “Since I have worked from home for over a decade, I definitely find physical separation of the office space from the home space is helpful, especially once I had kids. When I go to work, I’m at work (just as if I were gone from the house). I’m not a great multi-tasker, so I don’t try to squeeze in little bits of housework, laundry, etc while I’m working.  My kids are only at daycare/school for a set number of hours, so I find I need to utilize my kid-free time for work and don’t let myself feel guilty, even if there are dishes in the sink or laundry to put away.

“Other things that have helped have been outsourcing some of the things I don’t love doing on the personal side anyway (like cleaning) so that the time I do have for family can be spent as quality time together that recharges me vs drains me further.

“Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help!”

Daily Goal Setting

MBS employee, Breanna, says, “I always set up goals for each day. Then, I can move up goals if needed, but I always try to keep goals where I set them and never push them back.

“My most important promise to myself is always being kind to myself and realize that I cannot do everything. Yet, I don’t like it to become a procrastination situation. I can usually tell when I get overwhelmed, and I know that I am not productive if I push myself for too long.

“Sometimes, that is the best thing that coworkers and employers can do for others in a business. They should be able to know each other well enough to know when breaks and time off are needed.”

How Employers Can Promote Work-Life Fusion for Employees

If you are an employer, you want to advocate for a healthy work-life fusion for your employees.

We recommend the following:

• Offer vacation time.

  • Encourage your employees to plan ahead and schedule time off. At least once a year, time off should be in a one-week chunk so that employees can feel they are truly “away.” Taking a Friday or Monday off for a long weekend is nice, but it is not enough time to truly decompress. 

• Allow employees to work remotely (if applicable).

  • The amount of time employees spend commuting adds up and doesn’t contribute to either work satisfaction or personal satisfaction. In fact, Andy Wu argues that it could actually hurt productivity.
    

• Don’t expect employees to be available 24/7.

  • Emergencies may come up where you need to reach an employee late at night or on the weekend. But if your company doesn’t have evening or weekend hours for customers, then don’t demand that from your employees.

• Understand your employees.

• • Check in with your staff on a regular basis. If you notice something is “off” or an employee seems stressed out or not engaged, ask about it and find out what’s going on. Little problems ignored can easily become big problems if not handled.
  • One of our core values here at MBS is People Focused – not only towards our clients, but to the employees who work here.

• Don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach.

• • Each employee’s life situation is unique. Because of this, Kris Fannin of Intelivate believes that work-life balance programs fail to achieve results. He advocates for employers to provide work-life integration programs that “offer employees choices based on their priorities. As an employee, you choose the individual benefits that help you achieve your defined balance. Instead of getting the same perks that everyone receives, you select the ones most important to you.”

As I come to a close with this article, I still feel inadequate on the topic of work-life fusion. However, I am extremely thankful for the time I spent with my family on vacation; those are memories that will stay with us forever. I am also extremely thankful for the job that I have and the amazing clients that I get the opportunity to work with. I am grateful for an employer who understands the challenges her employees face and is willing to help with those challenges.

The balance will never be perfect, but harmony can exist between work life and personal life if I keep fighting for it.