was successfully added to your cart.

Differentiate between Personal and Work Life

By April 28,2023 Whitepapers

Early in November 2021, Portugal passed a law banning employers from contacting employees outside of work hours. This concept is nothing new, as France passed a similar law in 2017. Portugal’s legislation is just the latest attempt to encourage employees to disconnect at the end of the day in order to improve work-life balance.

Since the introduction of Covid-19 nearly two years ago, much of the world has embraced remote work, with many employees now reluctant to return to the office full time. However, working from home is not without its drawbacks, which became evident throughout the pandemic when those who had never worked remotely before realized the challenges of separating their work and home lives, especially when they occur in the same place (and often at the same time).

Now that many offices have reopened, employers realize the necessity of a hybrid workforce and continue to accommodate remote workers in order to retain top talent. However, some employers choose to exploit the dark side of remote work, calling on those whose workday is not bookended by a commute. And for employees unwilling or unable to change jobs, pushing back can be difficult.

 

As remote work becomes more common, so too does the tendency to blur the lines between work and personal life, thus the importance of keeping those boundaries strong. Let’s look at a few reasons for prioritizing work-life balance in a virtual environment and some best practices for doing so.

 

The Benefits Of Balance

There are real benefits to separating our work and personal lives:

Overall Health: Every employer expects 100% during business hours, but the human body and mind also need time to rest and recharge. Without it, stress levels can start to increase, leading to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, as well as a variety of related physical ailments.

Personal/Work Relationships: Work relationships are sometimes compared to personal relationships due to the investment in time required to make both successful. Just as managers and co-workers wouldn’t appreciate excessive personal calls during meetings, so too will personal relationships eventually deteriorate with constant work interruptions.

Quality Of Work/Life: When employees multitask, they divide their attention between two or more tasks, often resulting in reduced quality or output. This principle doesn’t just apply to individual projects. When the focus is taken away from work during work hours or personal time outside of work, quality suffers.

Engagement Levels: If employees feel their employer doesn’t care about them on a personal level, engagement levels will decrease, and if not reversed, will eventually lead to burnout. Employers that make demands of workers after hours send the message that the company’s needs are far more important than their employees' personal lives.

Putting It Into Practice

Striking the proper work-life balance requires you to:

Stay Consistent: Though the word “routine” may have a negative connotation in the workplace, establishing a daily pattern is important for those who don’t have a commute to do it for them. Determining where work is done (a dedicated home office space) and when it’s done (sticking to a set schedule) can help the mind distinguish work time from personal time.

Set Boundaries: There’s a fine line between always being willing to help and establishing personal boundaries to preserve work-life balance. Everyone’s personal time commitments are different, and even well-intentioned employers may not realize they’re asking too much if initial boundaries aren’t set.

Take A Stand: Though many jobs require occasional overtime or late nights, it’s the frequency of after-hours work requests that can negatively affect employees’ personal lives. Failure to stand one’s ground against an employer that asks too often will eventually result in more requests and less personal time.

Offer A Solution: Prioritizing work-life balance shouldn’t turn into a stand-off between employee and employer with threats of quitting and firing. Employees should try to offer a solution to urgent requests such as addressing them first thing the following morning. The more employees can show they want the team to succeed and are not just trying to avoid work, the more understanding employers will be.

Over the past two years, the workforce has changed in countless ways, with the acceptance of remote work being one of the most significant. Though work-life balance was still an important factor long before Covid-19, it has gained more attention with the recent increase in remote and hybrid work options. But we've also seen the difficulty this flexibility can create in disconnecting outside of traditional work hours. Just as virtual employees must learn to be productive while working and living in the same space, so too must they learn to balance work and personal time so neither suffer. While this balance may be different for everyone, those who determine how best to maintain it will benefit the most from a remote work environment.

 

A version of this article appeared on forbes.com, posted on January 18, 2022

EXPERD, Human Resources Consultant, Jakarta – Indonesia

For further information, please contact marketing@experd.com