Commentary: Work-life balance, the elusive unicorn?
SINGAPORE: A few months into my stint as a career adviser, I coached a bright-eyed, zealous student who was keen on a junior associate position at a consulting visitor.
We went through the usual gamut of topics: Application procedures, resume templates, even a mock interview with the requisite question-and-reply routine.
At the end of the session, I reminded her that as an employee there, she may have to piece of work tardily to meet project deadlines, or even piece of work on the go while travelling overseas to come across clients.
Genuinely shocked, she asked, "You mean I won't become any work-life balance?"
"What practise you empathise past that term?" I responded. Looking defeated, she asked: "Can we look at other industries instead … like banking?"
Truth be told, "piece of work-life balance" is a term tossed around like the proverbial unicorn that everyone is looking for but very few can find.
A recent Randstad Employer Make Research 2022 Survey reveals that Singapore employees ranked good work-life balance as their top priority, while employers ranked it their eighth (being financially healthy was their get-go).
The fact is almost job applicants often expect a strict division of fourth dimension and space between piece of work and not-work. However, mobile phones and immediate email alerts take rendered these notions meaningless in the modernistic era.
Information technology is also ironic that many students and young adults who are technologically savvy millennials are the same ones who frequently concur on to the archaic, punch-carte du jour ideal of piece of work-life residual.
What should i practise to inch closer to finding this unicorn?
1. FOCUS ON YOUR ROLE
Nosotros all play different roles at different times of the 24-hour interval. Today, a common scenario is for most employees is to be distracted in the office by personal matters as a parent, child or spouse, only to get back to their homes and be distracted past work matters.
To counter this, stick to the role of an employee fully in the office. Resist the urge to cheque your social media profiles and mindlessly surf the internet, and curb time-wasting activities such as meandering meetings.
Similarly, assume the role of being a loved one or friend outside of the office, and resist thinking or talking about work.
You will detect that spending uninterrupted quality time with people who matter to yous not only helps you to destress from work, but also enhances your overall happiness. It can also be an unlikely source of ideas and inspiration.
2. URGENT VERSUS IMPORTANT
In tertiary institutions like NUS, students' schedules are planned to a tee. When they make that transition into the workplace, they often find themselves at a loss at planning their time effectually competing tasks. The same goes for young adults when they switch to a new employer or industry.
Often, mutual symptoms indicating a lack of work-life residue are confusion or burn-out. In this case, everything is urgent and needs to be done immediately.
To counter this, draw upwardly a list of tasks and targets at the beginning of each 24-hour interval and prioritise what to do first.
Y'all will demand to understand the difference between what is urgent (like replying to random emails) and what is important (such as providing that management report). The deviation betwixt the two will exist determined by your management'south expectations and the organisational culture.
Does your arrangement consequence directives top-downwardly and expect regular reports and updates forth the style, or does it let ideas and concepts develop organically in a more laissez faire way with everyone's inputs included? Every bit an employee, you lot will need to find that out.
3. COMMUNICATE YOUR INTENTIONS
Communication which is clear and early on will get a long fashion for you as an employee. About organisations today have flexible working arrangements to cater to different needs of diverse employees.
Demand to exit slightly earlier every Tuesday to have care of parents or children or attend dark classes? Permit your boss know and offer to get in up erstwhile else.
Have a medical appointment before a major presentation the following forenoon? Let your colleagues or team mates know early on so they can help pick up your slack.
It helps to communicate your intentions early on and then that no one is caught by surprise. Overall, this also enhances empathy for everyone in the part.
4. UNPLUG
We run regular workshops at the Heart for Future-ready Graduates. During these workshops, students are encouraged to put abroad all possible distractions, including mobile devices. This is done and then they can focus their attention on learning.
The pervasiveness of technology today makes this difficult, especially for young adults who operate under the stress of the "fear of losing out" from what is happening at work.
To counter this, learn how to have some time off occasionally to unplug. By non reacting to every single update or alert, you volition build more focus and resilience in the long run. Unplugging also ensures that you depict a mental boundary betwixt work and your personal life.
In conclusion, work-life rest is not an elusive unicorn – information technology is all near self-direction. The reality of the employment market is that job applicants are expected to formulate their own work-life residual equation within the framework of what needs to exist done.
For a young adult, asking about information technology may imply a sense of entitlement which ordinarily works confronting you lot. For a mid-career professional, asking about the aforementioned usually raises questions about your ability to self-manage.
At the end of the day, information technology is a state of mind you lot have to create and manage by yourself. And by following the points fix out here, you can movement closer to achieving work-life residue.
Ryan Ang heads the career informational team for professional services and research at the National University of Singapore'due south Heart for Hereafter-set up Graduates.
This is the second commentary in Aqueduct NewsAsia's series with the NUS Centre for Hereafter-ready Graduates on achieving career success.
Read the offset commentary on why networking is not a dirty give-and-take only a necessary skill hither.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/commentary-work-life-balance-elusive-unicorn-213156
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