Get your work-life balance
Top Tips
- If you feel constantly exhausted, book a day’s holiday off from work and rethink your goals.
- Choose a job in an organisation that suits how you want to work.
- Make the business case to an employer if you’re negotiating new working arrangements.
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A good work-life balance is about having some control over when, where and how you work. It means doing your job to the best of your ability in the time allowed but not running up a time “debt” where you work much more than your paid hours with no financial reward or time off in lieu. This negative equity leads to other aspects of your life being neglected which in turn causes frustration and stress.
The answer could be to change your way of working or even to change your job - improving work-life balance is second only to pay as a reason for job hunting.
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Making it work
Jugglers know that they have achieved the balance when they have a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work. What fulfils you outside work is up to you - it might be scaling Scafell Pike, or studying. Most commonly it is likely to be dealing with family responsibilities or even caring for sick or disabled dependents.
"You’ll know that the work-life ratio is imbalanced when you don’t feel that you are living life in the proportions you want," says Julie Hurst of the Work-Life Balance Centre at Keele University. She says that there are a number of steps you can take if you feel that the imbalance is becoming an issue in your current job:
- Be clear about your ability to meet deadlines. Don’t agree to the impossible
- If you are feeling exhausted, take a day’s holiday off from work to re- think your goals
The good news is that employers are increasingly aware of the work-life balance problem. Many of the
leading employers in the region now take flexible working and work life balance seriously. The public sector in particular has developed approaches which give employees some flexibility in managing their time but which also satisfy the needs of the business.
The idea of mutual benefit is important. No employer is going to agree to a more flexible approach to work if it cannot be made to suit the business. Rochdale Borough Council, for example, has won praise for its approach but it is clear that requests for flexibility can only be met if service levels for customers can still be maintained.
Major private-sector employers are also making great strides.
At United Utilities, its 5,500 employees in the North West can request a variety of working practices such as compressed hours, homeworking and changes to working hours or times. For example, the company helps mothers with a three-month phased return from maternity leave. Returners are expected to work an 18-hour week out of a minimum three days a week.
"It really helps with the transition back to work, both for the returner and the person carrying out the maternity cover," says Helen Norris, head of corporate responsibility at United Utilities.
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If you decide to change job or employer in order to change your life remember to consider the downsides as well as the ups. Think carefully where your priorities really lie:
- Be sure of your values, particularly when you are looking for a new job. What are your expectations? For example it can be harder to establish work-life balance issues in a fast-paced finance firm than in the public sector. Be wary of trying to transpose values where they won’t fit.
- In an interview for a new job ask about current working practices and use a business and non-emotional vocabulary to do this. For example ask employers about job sharing or rotational working.
- Always be prepared to take the employer’s business case into consideration when constructing an argument to change your hours. You might find that your request, such as trading an earlier start time for an early finish will even help their staffing requirements or provide cover when there has been a shortfall.
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There are lots of ideas available for employees struggling to balance work and home. For more information on how you can rebalance your life, visit:
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