Chasing Equilibrium

Finding good work-life balance is vital, but achieving it is more like a marathon than a sprint

Work-life balance is something that means different things to everyone who reads it, which makes sense as we all balance our lives in different ways. Everything is relative to the person who is experiencing it, and there are a multitude of different things which can factor in to how we balance our lives compared to our friends and colleagues. Saying “we need to have a good work-life balance” and successfully actioning it are two very different things, however. As the world has collectively roused to the importance of caring for our mental and emotional health as we do our physical health, the term “work-life balance” has crept into the collective consciousness, positioning itself as something we all need to strive for, regardless of our respective workloads. The term itself is not particularly new, in fact, if you’ve ever seen the movie Cheaper by the Dozen (the 1950, not the Steve Martin vehicle), you will be familiar with the brains behind the concept: Lillian Moller Gilbreth, mother of the famed dozen and intellectual in her own right, created the philosophical basis for the concept by examining the ways time, motion and fatigue intersect to affect the worker, and how a lack of equilibrium in this area can result in dissatisfaction across one’s life. What does a healthy work-life balance even look like? Many people - not just OTs - will find the lines of our work and life are blurred, especially in the aftermath of a global pandemic where many of us were working from home, thereby eradicating the physical barriers that exist between our workplaces and our places of rest. Working outside of our traditional nine to five is also becoming more common as we try to make up for all the hours in the day that seem to go walkabout when we’re not looking. That said, working overtime or outwith normal working hours is absolutely fine, so long as we do things to balance it out on the other side. According to the Mental Health Foundation, a good work-life balance can involve meeting work deadlines while still having time to see friends and perform hobbies, having the time to eat and sleep well, and not worrying about work when we’re away from the workplace. As they say, it’s not necessarily

While it may feel sometimes that the cards are stacked against you when trying to balance work and life, there are steps we can take to try and at least bring the balance closer to equilibrium

about splitting your life down the middle so that half of your time is dedicated to work and half to leisure, it’s about creating balance to ensure that you’re fulfilled in both areas of your life.

The negative effects of having a poor work-life balance can, unsurprisingly, affect both our productivity and our mental health. CIPD, who produce a yearly report on health and wellbeing in the workplace, present us with the concepts of “presenteeim” and “leaveism,” which sees employees working when unwell and working when they should be on annual leave, respectively. Their reports also highlight what is perhaps one of the most difficult pressures to manage in any workplace: stress. Experiencing high levels of stress at work, which have been exacerbated for many by the additional fear of avoiding COVID-19 in workplaces and on commutes, is the main cause of short-term and long-term absence, per the CIPD.

While it may feel sometimes that the cards are stacked against you when trying to balance work and life, there are steps we can take to try and at least bring the balance closer to equilibrium. These don’t have to be big changes, but can instead involve making sure that you are taking time out in your day for yourself, even if you only have five minutes going spare. Ensuring you take breaks when you’re entitled to them - as the law states you are - is just one small way you can take time for yourself in the day.

It is also vital to note that reaching out for help, regardless of to whom or when you do so, is never a moral failure on your part, despite pressure sometimes making it feel so. It is a greater show of strength to reach out and ask for help with things you might be struggling with in the workplace - be it workload or tasks you might not fully understand - than to remain slogging away while experiencing pressure or anxiety. A problem shared is a problem halved, as they say.

There is no quick fix for ensuring our work-life balance is in check, and there’s no one thing we can do to even out the scales. For everyone, it’s about making incremental changes until finally, after some time has passed, we feel that both the weight of our expectations in the workplace and our ability to do what we love in our free time have equal weight in our lives.