The rush of everyday life increasingly challenges Work Life Balance. That is, the balance between life in and out of work. Indeed, along with the responsibilities of work there are duties in personal life that challenge a person’s well-being, and there is little space for them to take care of themselves.
That is why it is important to bring the topic of Work Life Balance up for discussion. Especially at a time when we are talking more and more about mental health and when burnout is becoming an almost daily word. There needs to be effective time management. Not only on the part of the worker, who will have responsibilities in this respect, but also on the part of the company, which is required to have some flexibility in managing the time that the worker spends in the company and in being open so that he can manage his tasks outside of it. This is one of the best ways to retain talent, which we will also cover in more detail in the topics attached to this very fashionable topic today.
What is Work Life Balance?
There is no clear definition of what work life balance is or can be, but it is clear that it is a balance between professional and personal life. There is no clear definition of what work life balance is or can be, but it is clear that it is a balance between professional and personal life. Com efeito, em 2003, Nancy Lockwood, especialista em Recursos Humanos, já publicava um artigo acerca deste tema e a verdade é que não encontrou uma definição clara sobre o mesmo. There is no clear definition of what work life balance is or can be, but it is clear that it is a balance between professional and personal life. This article will have a similar approach insofar as it “breaks” the concept of Work Life Balance into several concepts, although necessarily different from those addressed by the researcher.
Well-being
Let’s start with well-being. It is too vague a concept to explain. After all, one person’s well-being can be guaranteed with characteristics that are not enough to fill another. An intense work flow can be tolerated in different ways by each worker and this may, or may not, impact on their well-being. Indeed, different workers manage the separation between work and personal life in different ways.
With this in mind, it should be noted that there is an increasing body of academic literature related to workers’ well-being. Incidentally, this is an aspect to which more and more attention has been paid since business schools stopped seeing a man as purely economic. In other words, the concept of Homo Economicus, introduced in the 19th century, it fell progressively as the interests of workers beyond their own remuneration were taken into account.
Today there are benefits that contemplate the well-being of the worker and that can include, among other things, flexible working hours.
How, then, can a company intervene? There are several hypotheses. One of them is to identify possible stress inducers in the worker. In this way, it will be possible to remove or mitigate it so that it avoids falling into a depressive spiral. And speaking of depression, the company can also adopt practices that encourage well-being in the workplace, such as, for example, activities outside the office (like team building). Besides this, the recognition of good work will also be important and beneficial for the well-being of the worker and, therefore, for the company, which may experience an increase in productivity.
Burnout
At the opposite pole of well-being is burnout, an extreme symptom of imbalance in Work Life Balance. Burnout refers to chronic stress in the workplace that has not been properly managed, often leading to exhaustion of the worker, who may demonstrate a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that may also include, in more severe cases, a loss of personal identity.
As with increasing worker wellbeing and company productivity, attention will need to be paid to worker performance and burnout symptoms which include:
- Inability to concentrate
- Irritability
- Recurrent illness
- Trouble Sleeping
- Lack of hope
- Cynicism
These behaviours will be a wake-up call for companies. In addition to this, prevention can be done through the introduction of flexible working hours, where the worker can have space for his personal life, allowing him to better manage his time. This will make it easier, both for the worker and the company, to have productivity gains… which could be associated with the good performance of good workers whose potential would only be limited. In other words, looking out for the signs of burnout is not only important to ensure worker well-being, but also to… retain talent.
Retaining talent
One of the big challenges facing companies today is related to talent retention. Indeed, in a competitive market it can be difficult to hold on to an employee who receives a tempting offer, not only in financial terms, but also, and above all, in the way they can manage their life outside work. That is, the Work Life Balance.
There are several ways to promote talent retention. One of them is worker satisfaction. Isso poderá ser conseguido através de um horário flexível (trabalho híbrido será uma solução), que lhe permita uma gestão do tempo mais eficaz..
Furthermore, there should be no avarice in the distribution of praise or technology. Anyone will like to work in an environment where they have good means at their disposal… and good feedback related to the work they do.