Can we really achieve a work life balance?
One of the things that has really emerged from the Covid pandemic experience is a greater awareness of our work life balance. I hear from a lot of people who are keen to maintain some of the flexibility that has come from working at home, in particular reclaiming that commute time as personal time. There are also those who have found less defined separation between the two, as having children at home whilst working has seen the focus less on balancing and more on dual tasking.
But what is a work life balance? And is it possible to achieve it?
Work life balance is sometimes seen as a more recent consideration, fuelled by a workforce increasing represented by the ‘millennials’ for whom technology has created more blend between work and home than the generation before them. But it is not a modern concept. Quite the opposite, as it is arguably the Industrial revolution that was the first step in a global move for a better balance. At this time a 14-16-hour day worked 6 days a week was quite typical not just for adults but for children living in the UK too. Meanwhile in the US most people were clocking up 100 hours of work every week. Governments saw this as a huge health and safety threat to the nation and began to put in place acts to limit the hours worked and promote better wellbeing.
The Eighties saw the term “work life balance” used more frequently as a greater emphasis was placed on the role of women in particular and the need for flexible schedules and maternity leave was a real debate. Whilst there were plenty of advocates, there were also many who viewed this as a detrimental move by women who “wanted it all”, and the changes campaigned for largely fell short of expectations.
So, what has happened in this time period? We begin with a bold change to working hours designed to improve the wellbeing of entire nations, but somehow in the 1980s campaigns for further reform have been met with a feel of ‘greed’. The economic landscape may provide a big clue here. The beginning of the decade sees a big increase in inflation and the years that followed were largely unstable with ‘booms’ short-lived. Unemployment stats are as you’d expect in a volatile economy and it is understandable that many really valued their stable employment at this time. Perhaps when considering work life balance, we could understand a swing towards work at this time. But at what cost?
From a financial perspective we clearly see why work is an obvious focus. Whilst we may see benefits from large scale changes to leave steady employment and make brave choices to bring work life balance back on the level, for many this simply does not feel a viable option. Self-employment may be on the up, but still only represents around 15% of workers in the UK, so the majority of us are striving for work life balance whilst working for other businesses. And I wonder how much of a factor this plays, as many people still fear how they will be perceived if they don’t work over their scheduled hours or complete all their work in their daily 9-6.
Despite increasing efforts that value employees’ contributions, workplace stress is still commonplace. In the UK a survey by Totally Money showed that on average individuals work an extra 10 hours per week over their contracted hours, with 61% saying it affected their work life balance. 53% of UK workers feel they have more work than they are able to complete, and 15% feel pressure to stay and complete that work by their senior managers. The knock-on effects of overtime can be seen in life quite clearly. 22% say work limits their ability to exercise, 20% say it negatively affects their diet and 17% say work has affected their sleep. The impact of this workplace stress can in the long-term lead to burn-out, a term many of us will have heard. And the irony of this is that it affects the economy too. In the US it’s predicted that workplace burn-out costs between $125-190billion in healthcare every year.
My view is that work life balance isn’t a greedy ‘have it all’ mentality, but rather an essential part of our wellbeing. Even as children we learnt that Goldilocks needed to choose an option that was just right rather than opt for extremes. But all this history has had an impact and can make it really hard for us to know where the balance is on a daily or weekly basis. And I’ll be honest in that I’m conflicted myself. There is one school of thought that promotes the 888 rule. 8 hours of work, 8 hours of life and 8 hours of sleep. It’s pleasingly equal isn’t it? It feels very fair too. And it largely fits into our ‘9-6’ working day routine so feels do-able. And all of this makes me feel it’s something to aim for. Some studies even suggest how to carve up your 8 hours of life into exercise, socialising, nutrition….and for me this is where it starts to show how unrealistic the approach is. I don’t want to live my life on a clock schedule! 2 hours of fun and not a minute longer…! Hmm, not sure this will make me feel like I have a better work life balance than before! 8 hours of sleep when I also need to plan for a 4-hour commute? A totally unachievable luxury. In the last 2 decades we’ve also become increasingly available outside of the office through advances in technology meaning it’s much harder to limit work to a single block of time where we are either at work or at home. The 888 rule seems like something that works much better on paper than it ever will in reality.
But I can’t quite adopt the other approach of “stop dividing work and life” either. I can see how viewing work as part of life rather than an interruption has benefits. I enjoy, and actively chose my career so it’s not something I view as a chore, but neither does it feel like leisure time. There is responsibility and there are KPIs, and both these things are good for me, but not sustainable without time for my brain to also slow down and relax. Work is part of life for sure, but if we view it as akin to physical exercise very few people can run a marathon without considering a training plan. So, whilst I feel restricted by the 888 rule, losing all structure doesn’t feel the right route either.
So surely the answer is for us to strive for something in the middle? Something that allows for the ebb and flow of life. I will always work my contracted hours, that’s simply a given, but where I have a big project I enjoy then I will feel the value from spending more time on work, even if I’m working on a weekend or over lunch. Where I am physically drained it’s better for me to put limits on work and invest in some R&R to recharge my batteries. So, I’m trying to reflect on my work life balance on a more regular basis and make a series of small changes. I’m not going to be putting any number on overtime hours worked, or time spent here or there. Far better to reflect on whether I feel any area of my life is out of balance, and then decide whether I want that to continue. Sometimes that imbalance is absolutely fine! When recovering from an illness we’ll probably sleep more – it’s an imbalance but it makes sense.
My hope is that over time I’ll have made many smaller changes to my work life balance that make me feel less like I have a grand plan, yet still in control. Making adjustments week by week that are based on how I feel and what I can achieve through change. And perhaps it is this being in sync with ourselves that holds the true key to unlocking a healthy work life balance?
