The recession across Europe has shifted the focus of many commentators from well-being in organisations to the fundamental survival of those organisations. Unemployment in the private sector has risen sharply and the public sector in the UK is undergoing radical reorganisation and down-sizing. On the one hand, organisations are looking to reduce costs where possible, while employees seek to minimise their own chance of redundancy.
I would argue that this context is one in which we should be particularly mindful of the importance of balancing the work and non-work domains of life, for the benefit of both employees and employers. There are a number of factors that could potentially impact employees’ work-life balance, including:
1. Avoiding redundancy: In organisations where there is a risk of redundancy, employees may wish to make themselves seem indispensable. As a result, they may feel it’s not the right moment to explore flexible working options with their manager or indeed take advantage of flexibility that is already their right. In other cases, those working part-time may put in additional hours to indicate organisational commitment to their manager. Others will volunteer to take on additional responsibilities to offset the change of job loss.
2. Surviving redundancy: Where headcount reduction has already taken place, surviving employees may well have to pick up at least some of the workload of their erstwhile colleagues, whether they like it or not. This can easily result in longer working hours and spillover of work to home life.
In fact, employers should be paying more attention to the work-life balance of their employees now so as to prevent burnout. Indeed, even the negative impacts on satisfaction and productivity the precede burnout should be enough to convince employers that long hours at work don’t necessarily translate into better outputs.
It’s a challenging context, especially when we consider the employers’ perspective. How employers put across their message regarding work-life balance can really impact employees’ perceptions of the situation. However, this discourse paints a picture of a zero-sum game. One party’s win is the other’s loss.
But it doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.
Both employers and employees need to understand the role that recovery from work plays in preparing us for the ongoing demands of the workplace. Insufficient time away from work – physically and psychologically – has deleterious effects on health and general wellbeing.
Employers should be on the lookout for employee behaviour that prevents them from fully recovering from work or that causes them to neglect their wellbeing. This may involve the counterintuitive step of monitoring overly long working hours, avoiding taking holidays etc.
So in order to maintain a healthy, motivated and productive workforce, contributing to a successful organisation, employers should now more than ever be mindful of challenges to employees’ work-life balance.
