As a leader, are you creating a work environment that respects personal boundaries and promotes well-being? How aware are you of your members’ work hours and the impact of that on their mental health?
A mother of a new baby wakes up at 2 am to log into a call with her US colleagues. On vacation, an SVP of another firm stays back in the hotel room to monitor the project virtually while his family is having a good time on the beach.
Many others take calls early in the morning, late at night, over weekends, and even while unwell. Most don’t see evenings being spent with their families.
They go to bed with work on their minds and wake up anxious about the workday. Sleep is compromised with no time for exercise, hobbies, or self-care, and work pressures are released at home.
Work is swallowing up many of their lives, one day at a time.
Over the past 12 years as an Executive Coach, I have heard numerous client stories about how blurred the lines between professional and personal lives are. Sometimes, it seems like the lines don’t exist anymore, which is troublesome in more ways than one.
It’s easy to say that employees need to set better and manage boundaries; however, the problem is deeper than that.
Work-Life Balance Needs Your Attention
The continuing issue of constant and never-ending work, resulting in longer work hours, impacts sleep, health, and overall well-being, and this is not to be taken lightly.
Home, which should be a sanctuary, is becoming another venue for work stress. This alarming trend, where the lines between professional and personal lives blur, sometimes disappearing altogether, points to a deep-rooted problem in our work culture that demands immediate attention and intervention.
Overworked employees see their job performance and satisfaction plummet, creating a cycle of stress and inefficiency. This impacts the organisation through fatigued, irritable employees who have frequent conflicts, eventually leading to higher attrition.
Work-Life Balance As A Leadership Priority
Establishing a healthy work-life balance is beneficial for employees and a crucial factor for organisational success. Teams with a good balance report higher job satisfaction, leading to better performance, lower turnover, and a more vibrant workplace culture.
They experience fewer burnout symptoms, resulting in more consistent productivity and a remarkable ability to engage creatively in their roles. These benefits have ripple effects on enhanced organisational health and employee morale.
Moreover, companies prioritising work-life balance tend to attract top talent and maintain a competitive edge in their industry.
Advising your team to ‘set better boundaries’ is not a practical solution. The expectation of constant availability reflects deeper systemic issues within organisations.
Here are some questions to reflect on about your work culture:
What does it say about your work culture if you expect team members to be available beyond their scheduled hours?
This question invites you to rethink how you value employee time and well-being about work demands. It nudges you to assess whether your expectations are reasonable and how they might impact your team’s stress levels and overall job satisfaction.
Who owns, is responsible, and accountable for the well-being of employees?
This question is crucial in understanding the layers of responsibility for employee well-being within an organisation. While individual employees have some responsibility for managing their boundaries and well-being, leadership must take a proactive role in ensuring that the workplace supports these efforts.
As a leader, you are accountable for creating an environment promoting health and balance. This means setting policies that protect employee well-being and actively encouraging a culture where these policies are genuinely respected.
Leaders must embody and reinforce these values, making it clear that the organisation prioritises the well-being of its team members.
It involves transparent communication, providing support systems like mental health resources, and ensuring that managers at all levels are trained to recognise signs of burnout and stress among their teams.
Additionally, holding regular discussions on work-life balance and collecting feedback on the effectiveness of current policies are essential steps in maintaining accountability.
How should leaders manage work distribution and planning to support work-life balance?
Effective leadership involves careful planning and equitable workload distribution to prevent work-life conflicts and promote a healthy balance. This means proactively checking in with your team about their current workload and adjusting assignments to avoid burnout.
Under what circumstances is it appropriate for leaders to request extra hours or personal sacrifices from their teams?
Requests for additional work hours need to be the exception and made with careful consideration of the impacts on team members’ personal lives. Such requests are understandable during critical project phases or emergencies, but they must be accompanied by compensatory measures to balance the scales.
What can you learn from companies and regions that excel in work-life balance?
Numerous firms worldwide can provide a better work-life balance for their employees and, as a result, are observing greater creativity, productivity, engagement and retention.
What they are doing is not rocket science, and success leaves clues.
Learning from the best and implementing them within your organisations can help enhance your work environments. Look for ways to incorporate flexible scheduling, work options, and wellness programs that have proven successful elsewhere.
In Closing
Engaging with these questions and actively seeking to improve the work-life balance within your team are crucial steps towards creating a more sustainable and supportive work environment. This commitment benefits your team members and enhances your organisation’s performance and reputation.
While team members have a role in managing their boundaries, You must lead the organisation’s policies that protect your team’s time off. Your actions and decisions significantly impact your team’s work-life balance, and it’s crucial to recognise and fulfil this responsibility.
Points to Ponder:
- What are the average work hours of my teams?
- What seems to be the bottleneck to work-life balance?
- Where can I intervene to streamline and reduce workloads?
- What can help better allocation and completion of work?
- What fears and mistaken notions do my teams carry, and how can I help?
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