On the road to work-life harmony

My team recently started our work week with a “brunch-and-learn” session on cultivating work-life harmony. Our speaker was a clinical psychologist from our Employee Assistance Program through Metropolitan Family Services.She provided an array of thoughtful insights, action steps, and helpful resources. The most important takeaway from the program was that each of us has the power to create better harmony in our lives. Although every individual has a unique set of life circumstances, each of us can determine what level or flavor of harmony feels right for us at any given point. What harmony means for a young single person living in the city may look entirely different than a mid-careerist who has two school-age children and a home in the suburbs. Keep in mind that your profession and industry greatly affect the level of control you have over work-life harmony. For example, physicians and chefs may not be able to avoid working nights and weekends, while engineers and accountants usually have more flexibility. Regardless of your career though, working for an organization and boss that respects their employees’ boundaries is vital. Unfortunately, this is not easy to determine before accepting a job offer. Many people report learning the hard way that their organization’s culture or their manager’s style is not congruent with work-life harmony. Warning signs include regularly expecting prompt responses to emails and phone calls after normal work hours and not respecting employees’ use of vacation and personal time. There’s a not-so-funny joke being passed around HR circles that the “unlimited time off” policies being offered by some forward-thinking organizations often equates to little-to-no-time-off in real life. Interestingly, our personal duties and responsibilities are just as likely to cause disharmony in our lives as our jobs and careers. While many American workers are thrilled to have the flexibility to do their jobs all or part of the week from home, it’s not necessarily making it easier to keep up with everything. From childcare to eldercare, household chores and cooking, there’s a heavy load to carry and only so many hours in the week. For those who also are trying to exercise, read, and stay involved in their community through church, sports, or volunteer work, the balancing act becomes even more difficult. And, on top of that, experts say taking time to meditate, sleep seven or eight hours a night, and enjoy downtime with family and friends is essential to long-term health and happiness. How do we fit it all in? The answer is, we usually don’t … not every week, or even every day, especially if we have a demanding job or home life. Still, we can take meaningful steps to improve our work-life harmony. The first step is to determine what needs to change. Once you’ve figured that out, communicate with those who can help you improve your sense of harmony both in the workplace and at home. Don’t expect people to read your mind or know what you expect. Their definition of harmony is likely quite different from your own. Finally, keep in mind that this exercise will need to be repeated many times over the course of your career and life. The benefits, however, are well worth the effort.