is Work-Life Balance a myth?

Increased Stress Level: Poor Work-Life Balance

One of my younger brothers working at one of the well-known MNC called me to discuss the current situation in his office. He mentioned that he is getting swamped with too much workload and he was staying at work for more than 11 hours every day and there is no work life balance.

I asked him a set of questions to understand more about his current situation - what was the project/sprint deadline? Did he highlight the issues proactively? If yes, what were the responses from his leaders? Was he able to deliver the work at a fast pace? Was he getting swamped always with workload or happening sometimes?

Based on his answers, I realized that some important feature was added in an ongoing sprint that caused additional workload. He was not able to deliver it due to the pressure of completing the activities on time. Resulting in ruining his work-life balance. But, these were some off days and otherwise, he was getting enough time away from work. Do you think he is having poor work-life balance in general?

What is Work life balance?

Work-life balance means balancing the time between work activities at the office and non-work activities in life like spending time with family, working on your hobby, walking with your pet etc.

An important point to note here is that Work-life balance does not mean, skipping your work or putting less effort into balancing the time for non-work personal leisure activities

Few signs of maintaining a good work-life balance

1. Your office commitments and life commitments don’t conflict with each other

2. You get enough time to spend with your family

3. You get time to build on your hobby

4. You are not thinking about work when you are off from your work

5. You are able to take off without stress or guilt

What are the impacts of poor work-life balance?

1. Poor mental and Physical health: A person is not able to spend enough time time away from work which increases the stress level, impacting mental and physical health

2. Poor productivity: As a person is not getting enough time away from work, the person drags himself/herself to the office resulting in poor productivity.

3. Lack of satisfaction with life: As the person is majorly spending his time with office work, this ruins his personal commitments even leisure talks with family and friends doesn’t happen. This makes him/her dissatisfied with his/her life.

4. Not able to make simple decisions: The decision taking ability of the person also takes hammering, due to prolonged working hours. The person is not able to make simple decisions as the person is stressed all the time.

How to strike a balance of work and personal life:

1. Set a realistic schedule: Prepare a realistic schedule of your work commitments with respect to your KPIs 

2. Discuss the situation with your Supervisor: Discuss the schedule and possible solutions to avoid overtime at work. The supervisor will help you make the right decisions

3. Take breaks: Sometimes, there will be off days like my younger brother. In such cases, take enough breaks in between which will ease out some of your stress level.

4. Spending time with your team members over lunch: Talk more about topics other than work over lunch. This will help you relieve some stress and you will regain some burnt energy.

5. Spending some time on things which you like: Ensure spending some time on hobbies or activities which you like, this will help you to reduce your anxiety level and make you feel relaxed.

Conclusion

Work-life balance is not a myth and it's a continuously evolving practice, in which a person should constantly keep a tap on his work schedule with respect to KPIs to balance the time for his/her personal leisure activities. 

If you are still not able to find a better work-life balance and are looking for new opportunities feel free to reach out to us. We will help you find companies you would love to work at. Cheers!