Work and Life balance: maintaining a delicate balance

The latest buzz in the corporate world these days is Work-Life balance. Sweden known for its massages, meatballs, and IKEA is one of the first countries to implement a 30-hour working week so as to improve productivity and better employee morale.

Work and life balance in Sweden

A good work-life balance is very important in Sweden. The government has brought forward a number of initiatives to help workers spend more time with their loved ones instead of in the office. For instance, parental leave is designed to encourage both parents to stay at home when a baby is born. Promoting the father’s role in a child’s early upbringing and housework duties is encouraged. The idea is that the work-life balance of both men and women are equally affected.

The Six-hour day

The Swedish government also introduced a two-year trial in some Swedish cities. The working day has been reduced to just six hours. This has resulted in a productivity boost reported by many sectors. Many employees are reporting feeling more energetic and, therefore, more productive in the six-hour day. In fact, the Swedish six-hour working day trial proved very effective. Companies from other parts of the world, including the UK, are adopting work-life balance to see if it makes a difference to their working environment.

Europe is at the forefront when it comes to Work and Life Balance

Apart from Sweden, countries like Norway and the Netherlands also value work-life balance a lot. Similar to Swedish companies, Dutch companies also offer their employees flexible working hours. Add to this the perk of working from home.

It is illegal in Germany for employees to contact staff during the holidays. Several major companies such as Volkswagen and BMW have implemented their own restrictions on contacting employees out of hours. Car manufacturer Daimler installed software on its systems. It automatically deletes emails sent to staff out of hours.

Clearly, all these companies are realising that keeping employees happy and therefore allowing them to spend more time with family is a way forward to success. This trend is catching fast across the globe. Sadly, India has to do a lot of catching up on this front

The Indian Work Culture

In India the parameter to weigh success is different. It is measured not in terms of how much time you spend with your family but how much time you spend at work.  India, probably would be the only country in the world where many organisations still work 6 days a week x 4 weeks per month. Companies working 5 days a week always find an excuse to call their employees even on Saturdays on some pretext. If it is a lean period, the sales team is called to discuss strategies to improve business. If it is a boom period, the team is called to take care of the extra volume of business.

Companies directly can’t be blamed for this practice. Calling employees to work on a weekend is more an individual driven diktat like by the head of the department. Also, all organisations can’t be classified as employee unfriendly. There are many who strictly want their employees to stay away from work on weekends so as to maintain a healthy work-life balance. And if the boss wants to call the team then he has to justify his action to his superior.

Quantity of Time becomes more important than Quality

Over a period of time, a time-based work culture has evolved in India. Spending more time at work gets you the label of a dedicated worker. What counts in India is not the quality of output but the quantity of time you have spend on a particular assignment. This is because managers who are not good at judging employees performance, use time in the office as a proxy.

I have seen so many of my friends who will proudly announce to all their colleagues that every year all their earn/privilege leaves lapses. For them there is no concept of work-life balance. The fact that their company doesn’t recognise this as a parameter for performance evaluation, is totally overlooked. In a scenario like this, hell breaks loose if you declare that you are going on vacation. Suddenly, all eyes on the floor will turn to you as if you have committed some crime. If the vacation is all about travelling to a foreign destination, it still gets accepted. If the vacation is about taking time out to help your kids study for their exams, the reason seems flippant.

Late sitting in office kills work and life balance

We also have to get out of the culture of late sitting in an office. There are times when Bosses do not like going home before their team leaves. On the other hand team fears leaving before Bosses. This sure is a recipe for disaster. Sending emails to employees at odd hours and calling for meetings on weekends are some practices which are considered employee unfriendly. In today’s time, late sitting culture has to be discouraged at any cost especially seeing the increased number of Burnout cases. An organisation practicing a good work-life balance can avoid employee burnout.

Burnout is side effect of poor work and life balance

Burnout now finds a mention in the latest update of WHO’s catalog of diseases and injuries around the world. It is defined as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been managed successfully”. The report says that the symptoms of Burnout are:

• Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion.
• Increased mental distance from one’s job or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job.
• Reduced professional efficacy.

Burnout refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context. It should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life. Clearly, Burnout is a by-product of excessive work with no breaks or in other words poor work-life balance.

Work and Holiday Culture

So how do we move from a workaholic culture to work-and-holiday culture? We will have to start with a basic premise that ” Work is important but Family is even more”. Organisations will have to realise that taking employees on a foreign junket for a conference can only motivate them to an extent. On the other hand, giving an all paid 4 day/3 night  trip with family to the top performers may work wonders. Employees should be told to consume all the leaves they are entitled to within that year. And if they do so then they will earn some points which get counted in their appraisals.

Organisations which are evolved understand the importance of a motivated employee and have a very effective HR policy along with a strong HR team. But it’s companies which are still evolving that have to pull up their socks.

To promote Work-Life balance companies will have to focus on 2 aspects which are the 2 F’s– Family and Flexibility.

Family and Flexibility

Companies have to realise that the more time an employee spends with his family the more he will be able to focus on work and higher will be the productivity. The moment an employee joins an organisation he becomes a part of that family and along with him his family also gets linked to the organisation. Companies will also have to be more flexible. If an employee comes late to the office because he had to attend a parent-teacher meeting at school, it is ok. Being more humane is a good way to promote a great work-life balance.

Women Employees

The role of an organisation doesn’t end by simply giving a 3-month maternity leave to women employees. In fact, women need more time at home once a baby comes in this world. While the first year is about running to the pediatrician for the vaccinations, year 2 is about the creche and year 3 is about nursery admissions. But life doesn’t stop here.

The subsequent years are about schooling which is even more challenging. So how about allowing women employees who have young ones to leave an hour early or allowing them to work from home for a couple of days in a week. At least they will be able to devote more time to their young ones. In the end, I will just conclude with “Winning employee trust is a must and companies who work towards it will always keep ahead”. So just motivate your employees by practicing a good work-life balance.

You can read more such similar posts on my blog. Click on the link below:

Work Life Balance: Balancing Time is a big challenge

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