5 signs your people don’t have work-life balance

By ExecutiveBrief Staff

While there are a number of definitions of work-life balance, they are one in essence. It is all about devoting time and effort to achieve harmony, enjoyment and peace with self, family, relatives and friends on one end, and fulfillment of work challenges and responsibilities on the other. It does not mean committing equal amount of time for the four quadrants of work, self, family and friends, as it would be unrealistic to do so. It does not mean a fixed set of activities, as they vary from time to time, stage by stage. The right balance for today may be different by tomorrow; when one is single and then marries; when one will have children or have a new job. Work-life balance continually changes as demands of work, family, and friends change.  However, the work-life balance essentially revolves around the concepts of achievement and enjoyment in life.

Here are five signs you or your employees are losing the balance
Although it seems easy on the surface, identifying signs of work-life imbalance in employees is not as simple as it looks. Each person is unique in his set of values and attitudes, goals and priorities. His or her ability to cope with the pressures of social and work environment is another vital factor. People have different levels of satisfaction and enjoyment.

There have been many studies on work-life balance in such deep detail that the concept is now commonly known.  The compendium of studies is unified in pointing out the alarming signs of work-life imbalance. This could be a starting point in going into a more detailed identification of work-life imbalance by companies and their executives.

1) When employees are burnt out
When one sees employees as having chronic fatigue (exhaustion, tiredness and a sense of being physically run down), they could be having a burnout. As Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary puts it, burnout is “exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration.” Irritability and explosive anger at the slightest mistake are some of the more overt emotional expressions while cynicism, negativity, paranoia and self-pity are the internally repressed emotions and attitudes pervading in the person’s mind. Employees who are burnt out usually isolate themselves from work teams, become anti-social within the workplace, and show non-cooperation. Their initiatives and creativity likewise deteriorate. When one sees these symptomatic abnormalities, there is a 99% probability that employees do not have a work-life balance.

2) When employees health suffer
Another common sign of work-life imbalance is when employees often get sick--from the minor headaches, weight disorders, ulcers, hypertensions to heart attacks. While these are medical conditions that can develop in anybody regardless of their work-life balance, it is common to attribute work-life imbalance as a contributing cause. Unreasonable work deadlines, voluminous work, demand for quality work output and long working hours oftentimes create pressure that stresses employees.

     Email This Article      Print This Article