Five telltale signs your work life is affecting your personal life
Do you remember the thrill of receiving the job offer you were so eager for and the excitement of starting at a new company? Work life balance in those early days is not a factor. But weeks, months, and years into a role, lots of us still relish the challenges and enjoy our jobs, but there can be times when it feels like the work life balance is non-existent and work is seeping into the corners of our home life and our brains can’t switch off.
Happiness at work has a huge impact on happiness outside of work, but often it’s not until we’re facing burnout that we realise our work life balance is having a detrimental effect on our home life. Read up on the five telltale signs here:
1. Disturbed sleep and insomnia
Sleep is crucial for humans to reset our minds and re-energise our bodies and brains. If your usual sleep patterns start to be interrupted by nagging thoughts of work or if bouts of insomnia strike, this is a big warning sign that something is out of kilter.
2. Our families see a change
The people we share our homes with are those who notice when we aren’t behaving like ourselves. When our moods are changing and we are less engaged with home life, it’s a clue that our work life is knocking on our front door after hours and upsetting our downtime.
3. Zero energy for hobbies – work life balance is a no!
Our inclination to head out and exercise, or meet up with our regular groups might suddenly drop off a cliff, and be replaced with a feeling of not wanting to do anything. Our motivation to pursue our enjoyment is depleted either because our brains are stewing over work and can’t switch off, or our energy levels are drained from burnout.
4. Lack of motivation at work
The role that you have given your all to now feels like something you don’t want to be doing. Completing tasks feels like a slog and your focus has gone from laser-sharp to blurry. When your productivity at work is noticeably low, your whole performance starts to suffer and resetting can be tricky.
5. Work and personal goals are left in the dust
You were set to apply for a promotion and had carved out time on your weekends to train for a half marathon, but these plans have been quietly shelved - in fact, it’s a struggle to even think about goals. Not managing time well and missing out on opportunities creates a negative cycle, which can be tough to override.
Here to help you
Work inevitably takes up a chunk of our headspace, but it shouldn’t be setting up permanent camp in our brains when we’re outside of work and making us worry or feel utterly exhausted. At Avilio we are specialists in increasing productivity and happiness in the workplace, leading to happier lives outside of work. Our unique programmes give you techniques and strategies for life to say productive, motivated, and happy.
Talk to us today about how we can make this happen for you and your organisation.
Still looking for more information? Read the Harvard Business Review article on the Work Life Balance being a cycle and not an achievement. The article looks at the work-life balance not being an achievement, but a continuous process, as per research by Ioana Lupu and Mayra Ruiz-Castro.
They conducted nearly 200 interviews with professionals and found that achieving a sustainable balance between work and personal life requires reflexivity and role redefinition. The process is a cycle of five steps: pause and denormalise, pay attention to emotions, reprioritize, consider alternatives, and implement changes.
This isn't a one-time event but a continuous engagement to accommodate changing circumstances and priorities.
Stop missing deadlines! A guide for project managers, software developers, and freelancers
Deadlines: familiar, unavoidable, and yet missed as frequently as a bus. How many have you missed in the last year? Even when they are pushed back and eventually completed, the knock-on effect is already in motion. The simple sum in business is this: Missing deadlines affect productivity. Productivity equals profitability, and each deadline that gets missed has a ripple effect directly down to the bottom line of the business. Whether you’re working for a small or large company or you’re freelancing, missing a deadline impacts profitability, morale, and reputation.
What is Quiet Quitting, and Should Your Organisation Embrace It?
In this blog, we’ll explore why embracing the quiet quitters in your workplace could improve your bottom line.
Quiet quitting has been heavily covered in the business press recently, a term which describes employees choosing to do the minimum requirements of their jobs, putting in no more effort than necessary.
Some say this is not a new phenomenon, but many business owners and HR managers are only now recognising that it indicates low morale in their workforces.
Is Employees Quiet Quitting Bad for Business?
Statistics have shown time and time again that stressed, burned out, and overwhelmed employees are less productive, negatively impacting your organisation overall.
The truth is that employees shouldn’t feel expected to give more time and effort to your business than they’re contractually obliged to. At the same time, it’s only fair for you to ask that your employees be optimally efficient during their contracted time at work.
The good news is that by supporting employees to protect their personal time outside of work, you can expect to have less stressed, more productive employees during working hours in return.
How Can You Embrace Quiet Quitting in Your Workplace?
Currently, only 60% of working hours are considered productive (Source Atlassian), leaving an enormous amount of time wasted and, with this, substantial potential for improved productivity.
Productivity has to be planned, using these three central tenets:
- Total focus from the employee and the employer
- Rigorous time management
- Improved communication and collaboration
Why Are Employees Quiet Qutting in the First Place?
Most employees you may consider to be quiet quitters will have been driven to that point by feelings of disengagement, disappointment and stress. These are purely negative emotions, where the workers in question have lost their positive intent and motivation - possibly even for their personal lives as well. If the reward from work is not worth the sacrifice of their personal time, employees will experience resentment and frustration, leading to further disengagement from your business.
Unlike coasting, a quiet quitter is not someone who is necessarily slacking while at work. Anthony Klotz, associate professor at the University of College London’s School of Management, says workers tend to strip back the above-and-beyond aspect of a job to its core nine-to-five responsibilities.
“Arriving early to work and staying late, helping a colleague out at the expense of your own tasks, showing as much dedication to your role as possible – these are extra behaviours that go the extra mile for an organisation but can take a personal toll.”
However, It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
Once you’ve understood that a happy personal life will help your employees to be more productive at work, you need to do everything in your power to support a good work/life balance for your staff.
The important thing is to make every moment of their contracted hours count, maximising individual and business productivity. If businesses could fully engage and commit employees during the working day, they wouldn’t rely on them going ‘the extra mile’ and certainly not on the inevitable burnout as a result.
I was reflecting recently after reading a post from David McLean, MA (Leadership) CHRL, asking; “What is your organisation’s employee wellbeing strategy?” McLean shares, “Organisations must embed a focus on employee wellbeing into their day-to-day operations, culture, and leadership to thrive in today’s environment.”
The key is honesty and transparency from both the employer and the employee. It’s about acceptance: accepting that trust doesn’t take away control, agreeing that work and personal commitments should be respected, valuing each other’s time and effort, assuming positive intent and creating a culture based on trust and honesty.
Turn your quiet quitters into vocal ambassadors of your business and your culture by helping them gain control of their focus and their time. Mastering time management helps individuals to thrive by assisting them to achieve 20% more productivity per week at work and home, thus attaining that coveted work/life balance.
For more information about how Avilio could help you and/or your organisation, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our founder, Philippe.
Alternatively, why not read our blog on how to successfully manage employee burnout?