Work-life balance

Today’s working world poses many chal­lenges to employees. While some careers allow a relaxed re­la­tion­ship between work and private life, many others demand sig­ni­fic­ant re­duc­tions in the area of leisure and family. According to a study conducted by Totally Money the United Kingdom ranks 13^th amongst European countries with the best work-life balance.

With this in mind, employers are becoming more aware of the growing ex­pect­a­tions of their workforce in terms of the work-life balance. Companies are now con­sid­er­ing how to achieve a work-life balance and im­ple­ment­ing targeted measures to promote this. The goal is not only to make employees more pro­duct­ive, but also happier and more balanced.

The work-life balance has grown into much more than just an appealing concept. An in­creas­ing number of companies are relying on their employees to lead a more balanced lifestyle, as balanced, happy employees are ul­ti­mately more pro­duct­ive and motivated. If a company – either con­sciously or un­con­sciously – destroys an employee’s private life with too much overtime or an unnatural amount of pressure, it will in­ev­it­ably result in dis­sat­is­fac­tion and stress that can then lead to health problems, decreased pro­ductiv­ity, and ali­en­a­tion from the company.

The general dis­sat­is­fac­tion of employees worldwide signifies how far from achieving a work-life balance we really are. However, the working world is slowly changing as more and more companies are beginning to welcome the idea and are also spe­cific­ally promoting it.

What we know for certain is that all sides benefit from a work-life balance. Our per­form­ance-ori­ent­ated society all too often dis­reg­ards the im­port­ance of the ‘happy employee’ principle, which still causes confusion and scep­ti­cism in some levels of man­age­ment. This is due to com­pet­i­tion and the fact that every important link in the chain must function in order to remain com­pet­it­ive – es­pe­cially in terms of the so-called shortage of skilled workers and demo­graph­ic de­vel­op­ments. Something that is often mis­un­der­stood is the fact that employees are not machines that can work in­cess­antly during the day and simply fill their tanks at home at night in order to repeat it all again the next day. In most cases, people work in order to live and not the other way around.

A healthy attitude towards the work-life balance begins with the employer. The employer must view them­selves not as the highest authority in the life of employees, but rather as a reliable companion that en­cour­ages a healthy lifestyle. It is a narrow line that divides the two, and many companies fall into a similar trap: man­age­ment still struggle to find the right balance between a ful­filling personal life and a healthy amount of strict­ness in the workplace. The question often arises: how much freedom should one give their employees and how much dis­cip­line is required in the workplace? Companies that operate on a very ‘loose’ basis run the risk of the employees taking advantage of the gen­er­os­ity of the employer, which may then lead to neg­li­gence, and a lack of dis­cip­line.

At the end of the day, the employee is also re­spons­ible for achieving a sat­is­fact­ory work-life balance. After all, we are talking about striking a balance, as opposed to a disregard for work in favour of a more casual lifestyle.

On the other hand, there are companies whose cir­cum­stances have a negative impact on the private and family life of their employees: overtime means less free time while pressure in the workplace can often lead to de­press­ive moods outside of the office. Work then becomes constant and dominates private life in a harmful way. De­press­ive disorders, burnout, and feeling over­worked, are all common con­sequences of an economic system in which growth is still the maxim and personal happiness is left to the in­di­vidu­al. The concept and benefits of a work-life balance seek to change this.

Family plays an important role in achieving this balance. In the modern working world, we run the risk of the family becoming a by-product of a suc­cess­ful career. Companies have a re­spons­ib­il­ity to foster and encourage a healthy family life. After all, for many employees, family is the key to a healthy and happy life. If this is neglected in favour of a pro­fes­sion­al life, you run the risk of the entire work-life balance toppling.

A healthy work-life balance involves a number of in­ter­de­pend­ent factors. Es­tab­lish­ing a work-life balance is the art of im­ple­ment­ing as many of these factors as possible in both areas without causing damage elsewhere. It is therefore important to know what exactly belongs to a healthy working life and a healthy private life, and how these elements are connected.

Many of the factors listed below can also work together across other cat­egor­ies (e.g. the ‘social working en­vir­on­ment’ factor in work life and the ‘friend­ships’ factor in private life can often be combined). Ad­di­tion­ally, it should be clear that the needs in the re­spect­ive aspects of one’s life develop in­di­vidu­ally. While one employee may place great im­port­ance on hobbies and interests but is not currently in­ter­ested in family planning, another employee may place more emphasis on family.

For a healthy work-life balance, it is not only the re­la­tion­ship between the two sides that is important but also the in­di­vidu­al factors of each side. When an employee drags problems into their work life or private life, the whole structure will suffer. On the other hand, personal issues can also have a negative impact on pro­fes­sion­al life. Clearly, a good work-life balance can only be achieved if certain con­di­tions can be achieved within the workplace that ensure it does not stand in the way of the employee’s happiness. Ideally, this happiness is the found­a­tion and goal of a pro­duct­ive and healthy working re­la­tion­ship.

For many employees, a sat­is­fy­ing pro­fes­sion­al life means that their own work brings visible and valuable results. In this sense, ‘pro­duct­ive work’ does not mean maximum per­form­ance while dis­reg­ard­ing other factors, but rather, the amount of valuable work that is optimal for each employee. For example, an un­sat­is­fact­ory set of tasks means that an employee may not ne­ces­sar­ily identify with their work and could therefore feel alienated from their work, which can ul­ti­mately have a negative effect on their work life.

Pro­duct­ive work consists of the right amount of both sat­is­fy­ing and ful­filling work. With the right con­di­tions for pro­duct­ive work, the employer benefits from a high degree of mo­tiv­a­tion among employees. In contrast, un­sat­is­fact­ory work may have a negative impact on one’s private life if the employee takes that dis­sat­is­fac­tion home. A work-life balance therefore largely depends on the in­di­vidu­al’s quality of work and work sat­is­fac­tion.

Here, the employer is par­tic­u­larly in demand. Most employees need a sense of ap­pre­ci­ation both for them­selves and their work in order to pos­it­ively identify with the workplace. This ap­pre­ci­ation should include both in­tan­gible rewards like praise, as well as tangible rewards like trans­par­ent promotion op­por­tun­it­ies, fair salary, bonuses, etc. Most employees want to be perceived and treated with dignity. If a company ignores this point, it will treat its employees like machines that are expected to supply the same product over and over again. Ap­pre­ci­ation of work simply means re­cog­nising the per­form­ance of an employee and rewarding it.

A par­tic­u­larly de­struct­ive part of any job that can really damage an employee’s happiness is un­con­struct­ive criticism. The resulting worry and un­cer­tainty often affects other areas of an employee’s life. The employee may then find it difficult to avoid letting the frus­tra­tion of their work life seep in to their personal life. The work-life balance only works if the employee feels treated with dignity and ap­pre­ci­ation. Otherwise, a downward spiral of stress, frus­tra­tion, and worry will shake the entire balance.

Col­leagues are often viewed as the ‘second family’ because they spend so much time together. This makes the social structure of the en­vir­on­ment all the more important. Re­la­tion­ships between people are highly complex and difficult to influence due to many in­di­vidu­al factors. Nev­er­the­less, with the right con­di­tions, employers can ensure that the workplace becomes a breeding ground for in­ter­per­son­al re­la­tion­ships. This includes a healthy in­ter­ac­tion of clear hier­arch­ies such as struc­tures and social freedoms, clear rules against an­ti­so­cial behaviour like bullying and in­tol­er­ance, team building measures, an ‘open office,’ and much more.

The right corporate struc­tures, a positive corporate philo­sophy, and a corporate re­spons­ib­il­ity towards employees all create a good basis for employees to work not merely with col­leagues, but rather with people whom they feel com­fort­able with. If an employee is poorly in­teg­rated into the social structure of the workplace, or if they ex­per­i­ence har­ass­ment or bullying, this can have dev­ast­at­ing con­sequences on both the employee’s pro­fes­sion­al and personal life. Here, both areas overlap; if the social work en­vir­on­ment suffers, so too does the employee and therefore the problems seep into their private and pro­fes­sion­al lives.

The term work-life balance is often un­der­stood to be a simple means of time man­age­ment, but this is just one element of the work-life balance defin­i­tion. However, the right timing is essential for the balance and provides the basis for many other factors. In order to ensure that there is enough time for private or family life and working life, the employer has a number of options. On the one hand, home office is becoming in­creas­ingly popular, es­pe­cially with so-called desk jobs. It affords employees the op­por­tun­ity to work from home – all that is usually required is a func­tion­ing computer and an internet con­nec­tion.

Ad­vant­ages of home office are:

• Without any commuting time, employees have more free time
• The employee can often enjoy a more relaxed working en­vir­on­ment without certain workplace rules (dress code, break times, social pressure, office noise, etc.)
• Parents have the op­por­tun­ity to spend more time with their partners or kids, as long as they remain suf­fi­ciently engaged with their work

However, home office always runs the risk of busi­nesses being ‘exploited’ for personal purposes because employees are normally deprived of social control. Many find it difficult to con­cen­trate at home, so home office is therefore not the universal tool for achieving a good work-life balance.

A somewhat easier method for achieving this balance is with flexible working hours. The more freedom employees have with regard to their start and end times, break times, and the or­gan­isa­tion of weekly hours, the better they can adapt their pro­fes­sion­al life to their personal life. This is already the case in many work­places, for example, it is often down to employees to decide when they begin and when they leave work, as long as they are ful­filling the required hours according to their contract. A general framework can be set (e.g. 8 hours between 7am and 8pm), and the more generous this is, the more flexible employees can be with their working hours. Many employers make Friday an exception to this framework so that employees can start their weekend sooner if they have already worked the full number of hours.

The subject of sleep and the recovery through sleep (more details below) is also very relevant to this (and the following) area. Since adequate sleep is conducive to con­cen­tra­tion and per­form­ance, employers can use flexible working time models to do something not only for the health of their employees, but also for the quality of their work.

Many activ­it­ies have a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of workers. The employer can combat this with certain measures. For desk jobs, in addition to back-friendly fa­cil­it­ies (good chairs, height-ad­justable desks, optional standing desks, etc.), it is re­com­mend­able to offer things like exercise classes and regular health education (back training, yoga courses, etc.).

A healthy diet is mostly the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the in­di­vidu­al employees. However, employers have various op­por­tun­it­ies to create con­di­tions that may encourage healthy nutrition. If there is a canteen in the workplace, it should ideally offer a wide range of meals (ve­get­ari­an, vegan, gluten-free etc.) and also make sure to provide trans­par­ency in terms of in­gredi­ents and additives used. Ad­di­tion­ally, regular de­liv­er­ies of fruit and drinking water fa­cil­it­ies (water cooler, etc.) are other common ways of doing something for the health of the workforce.

Employees often have dif­fi­culty spending enough time with their children. The search for day care centres also presents working parents with serious chal­lenges. This means that kids can upset the work-life balance greatly. On one hand, there are parents who spend too little time with their children because their work takes up too much time and attention. On the other hand, there are employees who, because of their ob­lig­a­tions as parents, perform worse and are often absent.

A company kinder­garten is an effective solution to the above problems. Parents and children are then within a com­fort­able distance from one another. If a company provides the ap­pro­pri­ate personnel and childcare facility, it can result in an inspiring, familiar at­mo­sphere in the workplace. Generally speaking, in-house childcare is an effective way to help employees manage their work-life balance.

Company benefits can also have a positive impact on an employee’s work-life balance. For instance, a company pension scheme defines how life in old age should be financed. Another popular company benefit is a public transport ticket, allowing employees to use public transport without incurring their own expenses.

Employers should not un­der­es­tim­ate the positive effect of corporate re­spons­ib­il­ity in practice. A company that takes its re­spons­ib­il­ity towards society, the en­vir­on­ment, and its employees seriously, leads to a better all-round con­nec­tion with the employer. Employees are generally more willing to perform for a ‘good company.’ Another popular option are days off where the employee can volunteer with local char­it­able events.

The factors that con­trib­ute to a healthy personal life differ greatly from person to person. Everyone un­der­stands personal happiness to be something different. However, there are of course certain factors that play an important role in the personal lives of most people. If part of one’s private life is un­pleas­ant, this can often have direct con­sequences on one’s pro­fes­sion­al life. Some employees have the ability to com­pensate an un­ful­filled private life with a suc­cess­ful pro­fes­sion­al life. However, the following is probably true for most: a good work-life balance starts in your free time.

For many, family is an essential part of leading a happy life. For most pro­fes­sion­als, the end of a working day consists of time spent with family or a partner. If this time is stressful, the employee will not get the desired rest and a vicious circle of work and ‘work after work’ begins to develop, which can even­tu­ally disrupt the entire work-life balance. In extreme cases, some employees will vol­un­tar­ily do overtime at work in order to avoid going home. This, of course, also works the other way around: when the employee takes too much time for the family and endangers their job.

The exact elements of a good family life and a good part­ner­ship are very hard to explain. Nev­er­the­less, the personal happiness of many employees is based on the strong support of their families. Both employees and employers have many op­por­tun­it­ies to create good con­di­tions for a full family life.

Many employees find it difficult (es­pe­cially the older they get) to cultivate friend­ships outside of their pro­fes­sion­al lives. There are many reasons why meeting friends becomes more and more difficult with a full-time job. Firstly, many pro­fes­sion­als are simply too exhausted after work for social activ­it­ies, so friend­ships may therefore suffer. Secondly, a full-time job often leads to schedul­ing problems, es­pe­cially if there is a family and kids involved.

Ad­di­tion­ally, many workers tend to make their col­leagues their new social anchor points that may pre­vi­ously have been filled by external friends. While this can often lead to a generally more pleasant working en­vir­on­ment, it can also result in a friend­ship that is too heavily defined by the job itself. These friend­ships often end when the em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship ends. If the employee then neglected his/her external friend­ships, the employee may ex­per­i­ence some social isolation.

Personal happiness, which helps forge a work-life balance, is often the result of long­stand­ing friend­ships forming re­la­tion­ship anchor points outside of the workplace. This way, people do not feel reduced to a mere employee in the workplace. External friends are very important for one’s own well-being because, to put it simply, they allow access to the world outside of the workplace. This is essential to the work-life balance, which is why friend­ship should never be un­der­es­tim­ated.

This factor mostly applies to employees that are single. A stressful job that may require a lot of overtime and is ex­haust­ing can have a negative impact on one’s dating life. If employees do not cope with the loneli­ness and (sexual) frus­tra­tion typically as­so­ci­ated with an un­suc­cess­ful love life, this, in turn, can damage one’s private life and con­sid­er­ably shift the work-life balance.

The love life factor is similar to the family and friends factor in its large scope. If work takes up too much place in an employee’s life and com­prom­ises their dating and love life, this may have con­sequences on a person’s emotional well-being. In extreme cases, de­press­ive moods can lead to serious illnesses. Pent up frus­tra­tion is often released in the workplace, for example when an employee begins to look for a partner during working hours. This, in turn, can damage the social fabric of a company.

An employer cannot prevent intimate re­la­tion­ships from occurring between col­leagues. It is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the employees concerned to define and reconcile between their pro­fes­sion­al and personal re­la­tion­ships. Generally speaking, it is re­com­men­ded to inform your employer about the re­la­tion­ship, but in many cases you are not obliged to.

Most employees have a number of hobbies and interests that they want to pursue in addition to their jobs. However, many jobs make this con­sid­er­ably difficult. Certain hobbies that follow fixed schedules must sometimes be ruled out due to in­flex­ible working hours. Ad­di­tion­ally, a stressful job can often leave the employee too exhausted to pursue any interests or hobbies after work. Here, the in­di­vidu­al’s self-real­isa­tion during leisure time is at stake – private life makes room for a demanding work life. The work-life balance suffers no­tice­ably.

In addition to more flexible working hours, employers have several ways of valuing the in­di­vidu­al interests of their employees. Internal social networks are popular platforms for the exchange of interests. This enables employees to network and arrange joint activ­it­ies. Sharing hobbies and interests with col­leagues has two key benefits: firstly, planning activ­it­ies in a group means that others can work around your schedule, as opposed to an in­di­vidu­al joining a class. Secondly, this strengthens the social dynamic within a workplace, because shared interests do wonders for re­la­tion­ships. However, it is also important to remember what has been said above on the subject of friend­ships.

The topic of health affects all areas of a person’s life and is therefore a central part of the work-life balance. Almost all factors – social, personal, family, psy­cho­lo­gic­al, or physical – are closely linked with health. Exercise has been proven to play an essential role in both physical and mental health.

Many employees seek balance through movement and exercise, es­pe­cially because they spend most of their working life sitting down. With desk jobs it is par­tic­u­larly important to exercise for at least half an hour a couple of times a week. It is also advisable to be on your feet for at least five minutes for every hour you spend sitting. Physical fitness is important to most people, which is why sporting activ­it­ies during free time are of great im­port­ance.

In addition to providing healthier working con­di­tions (see above), companies can also ensure their employees lead a well-balanced life in terms of sports. Possible activ­it­ies they can offer may include company runs, football tour­na­ments, or fitness studio discounts. Ul­ti­mately, however, it is the employee’s re­spons­ib­il­ity to ensure whether or not, and to what extent, they would like to partake in such offers.

Finally, it is of great im­port­ance that both the employer and the employee pay attention to the topic of health. This means, on the one hand, that employees take care of their health in their private time, and, on the other hand, that the employer is un­der­stand­ing towards sick employees and is obliging, to a certain extent, towards absences and medical ap­point­ments during working hours. This can prevent a sick employee from getting into a dangerous downward spiral.

An often un­der­es­tim­ated factor of one’s overall health, is a healthy sleep cycle. Sleep depriva­tion can result in poor per­form­ance, mood swings, increased physical sus­cept­ib­il­ity, and many other risks. A person’s sleep is often a good in­dic­a­tion of their work-life balance status. It is therefore not sur­pris­ing that many psy­cho­lo­gists and doctors consider healthy sleep to be a key factor of a happy life.

Sleep is a valuable resource that is often over­looked by many employees. Those with leisure activ­it­ies planned after work often forgo a few hours of sleep in order to partake. This may result in the work-life balance shifting out of sync.

Professor James Gangwisch of Columbia Uni­ver­sity insists that healthy sleep is an extremely important factor in workplace pro­ductiv­ity. In his study on sleep as a factor of the work-life balance, Gangwisch states that flexible working hours are a par­tic­u­larly suitable means of promoting healthy sleep for employees. In par­tic­u­lar, generous reg­u­la­tions for the starting hours of a workplace allow employees to adjust their working hours according to their own needs and pref­er­ences. This can result in increased per­form­ance, which in turn benefits the employer.

At the same time however, Gangwisch warns against providing too much freedom and flex­ib­il­ity as the employee may take advantage of this and therefore lose their own day-night rhythm. We must therefore agree on a working system that is flexible and binding enough for everyone.

Healthy sleep is an extremely complex issue and cannot simply be resolved with suitable working times. After all, almost all factors in pro­fes­sion­al and private life can have both a positive and negative impact on sleep. Many people have problems falling asleep because of their own worries, while others are rarely able to sleep peace­fully because of the stress of their private lives. Aside from the in­di­vidu­al physical and mental factors such as diet, exercise, and mental health, in­flu­ences such as the place of residence, noise, and the weather can often play a large role in the type and duration of rest.

This factor largely depends on how each in­di­vidu­al perceives re­lax­a­tion and how much of it they require. Many people enjoy a healthy pro­fes­sion­al and personal life, yet still struggle to find peace. Your life has the same flow every day: head to work in the morning, have lunch with col­leagues, go home to your family after work, spend time with your partner and/or your children, exercise, and go to bed. What sounds like a good work-life balance can often feel somewhat su­per­fi­cial for the in­di­vidu­al as they may feel like they never have time for them­selves.

The ability for self-re­flec­tion must be cul­tiv­ated and refreshed over and over again. In essence, it is about main­tain­ing a personal compass and remaining grounded through­out life. For this, a variety of questions centring on self-real­isa­tion, ful­fil­ment, and personal desires play a large role: am I really where I want to be? What are my dreams and goals? What have I already achieved? What do I fear? What makes me happy?

Many people deal with such questions during their hobbies and interests through which they define them­selves. Some may manage this time for self-re­flec­tion during exercise, while others may find certain places that allow them to switch off. With this in mind, med­it­a­tion is becoming an in­creas­ingly popular spiritual practice that allows one to gather their thoughts and reflect on important questions. 

Therefore, the work-life balance does not simply mean striking a balance between pro­fes­sion­al and personal life, but also regularly re­flect­ing on it and ques­tion­ing it. It also depends on the right measure: anyone seeking to achieve a good work-life balance more than to live, is missing the entire work-life balance defin­i­tion.

The work-life balance concept views the success of a company largely in the happiness and pro­ductiv­ity of its employees. More and more employers are therefore looking at suitable strategies to promote these par­tic­u­lar factors. Often, the re­spons­ib­il­ity of planning and im­ple­ment­ing such strategies lies with the human resources de­part­ment. A company’s sense of re­spons­ib­il­ity and self-un­der­stand­ing can determine the direction. 

The term corporate social re­spons­ib­il­ity (CSR) covers a wide range of factors from en­vir­on­ment­ally-friendly op­er­a­tions and social re­spons­ib­il­ity, to com­pet­i­tion and the correct treatment of employees. Ul­ti­mately, CSR is the moral compass of a company. If this is lacking or mis­aligned, many employees may suffer – and not least their work-life balance.

In the following overview, you can find possible measures employers can take in an effort to improve the work-life balance of their employees.

Although the work-life balance model is generally accepted and more and more companies are beginning to promote it, there are also some voices who regard the concept as prob­lem­at­ic.

One common criticism views the work-life balance as a myth. It is an ideal situation that is prac­tic­ally un­achiev­able because life is un­for­tu­nately not so easy to plan. The concept ignores the chaotic nature of life, which simply cannot be brought under control by careful planning. Ad­di­tion­ally, the model ignores important skills such as ad­apt­ab­il­ity and im­pro­visa­tion. At the same time, it tries to prescribe people a “life man­age­ment” concept that is es­sen­tially im­possible in this form. Iron­ic­ally, too much stringent life planning can often add even more stress to any situation.  

A further point of criticism is the term “work-life balance” itself. This suggests that work and life are two com­pletely different fields. Critics of the model often argue that this division is next to im­possible because there is so much crossover between the two areas. Ad­di­tion­ally, if an employee is dis­sat­is­fied with their work, this cannot simply be mended by improving their work-life balance, but rather by changing jobs.

In reaction to such criticism, work-life in­teg­ra­tion was in­tro­duced, an al­tern­at­ive concept that takes a slightly more modern approach to the idea of a work-life balance. It focuses on a seamless com­bin­a­tion of one’s personal and pro­fes­sion­al life rather than the sep­ar­a­tion or division of the two elements. Work-life ef­fect­ive­ness, another al­tern­at­ive, also follows a similar notion.

Many critics also criticise the pri­or­it­isa­tion of “balance” in the work-life balance model. People are in­her­ently un­bal­anced, which is not ne­ces­sar­ily a negative thing. For many a suc­cess­ful pro­fes­sion­al life is enough to be happy and pro­duct­ive; some employees even gain more strength from an inner rest­less­ness, which drives them to even better achieve­ments. Ad­di­tion­ally, many divide their lives into periods of con­cen­trat­ing more on their pro­fes­sion­al or private lives. It is important to remember, however, that the work-life balance aims to provide an ideal general state of health that should not, and could not, be applied to everybody.

Further criticism is directed against the in­di­vidu­al measures of the work-life balance. Flexible working hours do not suit everyone, while a strictly planned work day could also have many ad­vant­ages from planning security to better sleep (although there are many sci­entif­ic un­cer­tain­ties about sleep). Fa­cil­it­ies such as company childcare centres can sometimes be a source of ad­di­tion­al stress as some people enjoy their time at work and away from their families.

Many of the factors listed above have been described by critics as con­tra­dict­ory: if employees are offered fresh fruit and flexible working hours, and then go out and enjoy them­selves, this does not exactly mean they have a suf­fi­cient work-life balance. Critics of the work-life balance tend to lean towards a positive corporate social re­spons­ib­il­ity that creates a healthy framework for good work. This then deems concepts such as the work-life balance as su­per­flu­ous and the term itself as a redundant buzzword.

The aim of the work-life balance is to see that both employers and employees equally benefit from a work-life balance. The model must be adapted to each in­di­vidu­al person. Nev­er­the­less, some general benefits can be iden­ti­fied for both parties that have been proven in practice in many busi­nesses. In the following overview, we outline the mutual in­ter­ac­tion of a healthy work-life balance.