We asked career advice experts for advice on finding work-life balance
If you’ve hung onto your job, you’re probably feeling both grateful — and overwhelmed. Now that the line between work- and home-life has blurred and vacations have evaporated, what gives? We asked the experts at Old Town Media for advice on finding balance.
Katie Couric Media: We hear the term ‘work-life balance’ thrown around a lot these days. But what does that really look like?
Old Town Media: Although studies suggest a shorter, well-defined work week maximizes efficiency and improves employee productivity, we don’t foresee this policy being widely adopted anytime soon. The onus of creating a work-life balance — an ideal situation in which a person prioritizes an equal amount of energy and time to one’s career and one’s personal life — falls first and foremost on company leaders. They are responsible for setting the tone and determining expectations, then creating and communicating the policies and processes reflective of these decisions. The blurring of home and work during the pandemic has left everyone struggling to differentiate between the two. There are tips below for how both managers and employees alike can create boundaries and respect others’ as well.
Why is work-life balance so important for employees?
There’s an old phrase that says some people live to work and some people work to live. In our experience, nobody fits either category neatly; it’s more of a spectrum. That’s why you need to set the standard at maximal “work to live.” The employees who work the most tend to set the workplace standard; while those who work the best or smartest often fly under the radar. So you need to reward those employees who work best and smartest — because the people who live to work will do what they do anyway.
This line between work and personal life has been blurred as more people who work from home are under flexible work schedules. What are three ways people can set boundaries to stay offline during their “out of office” hours?
1. Maintain a shared calendar clearly indicating when you are unavailable. Google’s calendar, for example, offers the ability to enable “working hours.” Use this — and respect it for others! In the same vein, snooze your Slack messages and set an automatic out-of-office email reply detailing when you expect to respond. (“I’ll be checking email tomorrow at 8:30am and plan to be in touch then.”)
2. S. Mitra Kalita, a veteran media executive and friend of Old Town Media, recently wrote in Fortune about the benefits of using a productivity tool like Boomerang — which allows you to pause your inbox entirely and schedule email send times.
3. Create an arbitrary “signal” for working hours. One of us has a desk light that goes on when she’s working; off when she’s done. Some people shut the door on their offices or pack them away at the end of the day. Some go for a run to end the workday; when they come back they’re “home” and not at “work” anymore. Some put on an apron to cook dinner — work’s over. Some pour a cocktail — but in that case, we suggest you turn off all notifications.
Burnout can happen when we work 50 or more hours a week, studies show. How does burnout impact productivity and performance? And why should employers take this seriously?
We can attest to the negative effect of working long hours on a continual basis. A sustained break — ideally one to two weeks — does wonders for both employee and employer. A reset can increase productivity and improve performance. Afterward, some employees are excited to roll up their sleeves and return to a routine.
Burnout is directly correlated to retention: Managers should check in and take a pulse on their employees’ stress levels. They should monitor workloads and be willing to intervene when necessary. When employees can recover from — or ideally, avoid!— burnout, it results in fewer departures.
It’s 9pm and your phone rings with an email from your boss. What should you do?
You should press the “decline” button, but use your judgment: Does your boss often call to talk about things that can wait until morning? Respond in the a.m. with an email: “I’m sorry I missed your call last night, I’m available now.” But if your boss would never contact you at 9 pm unless the factory was burning down then, yes, go ahead and answer. After a few times, you’ll know whether or not your boss cries wolf. A boss who simply expects everyone to be available at all times is the exception. If this sounds like yours, your next steps are in this order 1) answer the call to do what you need to keep your job and 2) start sending out your resume.
What can managers and bosses do to support work-life balance — especially during these unusual times out of the office?
Mix it up. Host virtual staff gatherings during the workday, whether it’s in the form of a weekly yoga class or a monthly wine tasting. But, most importantly, make these optional! Some folks may opt for a solo break and knowing your teammates are occupied can alleviate the stress of not being readily available.
Rethink the way you communicate. That meeting that could have been an email? Well, it could have been a 60-second video chat. One of Old Town Media’s projects, SuperQuickQuestion, encourages more productive conversations and aims to eliminate unnecessary back-and-forths.
Since the pandemic, fewer people are taking time off for vacations or travel. Why is it so important to step away from work — even if it means taking a “stay-cation”? What can employers do to encourage this?
This is a straight-up policy issue. Employees need time to recharge. Those who forego that time aren’t doing a service to the company — they’re making themselves martyrs. Most of the time, they extract a “benefit” for always being available: Their “dedication” gives them an excuse to be late, to miss meetings, to flub deadlines, etc. If vacations aren’t mandatory, they’re pointless. And the height of the dot.com boom, employees had “unlimited vacation.” The result? Nobody took vacations. It was a trick and nobody benefited, many employees suffered and performance suffered. Those days are done. Mandatory vacation time is the answer.
Old Town Media is a boutique, three-person media strategy firm that brings its collective 60 years of experience in management to bear in advising Katie Couric Media.
