TIPS ON SUCCESSFUL LIFE-WORK INTEGRATION MUNIR HASAN
Since the first quarter of 2020, the world has gone through some unique times. Ironically, the year began with businesses and individuals alike espousing “2020 Vision,” while conversely the world has since been enveloped in confusion and panic!
technology. If anything, COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of change even further and brought forward certain quantum changes which were deemed to be on the drawing board and perhaps a few years away in terms of being implemented.
This is not to say that there have not been such crises in the past, but the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in terms of the scale and span of impact. Prior such events as the Spanish Flu, which happened over a century ago, or more recent pandemics such as SARS and MERS tended to be national, or at the most regional in terms of impact. However, given the interconnected world we live in today, the impact of COVID-19 is truly global and no country nor any segment of the population has been spared its implications, the only variable being how huge.
For example, remote working or Working from Home (“WFH”), which was talked about as a developing phenomenon in recent years has swiftly become the norm and is likely to continue to be the new normal for many people going forward.
It goes without saying that the pandemic has had a significant impact on mental health. There are challenges and concerns about the pandemic itself, as well the changes in work and lifestyles that have resulted as contagion outcomes. This is too wide a subject, so here I shall restrict myself to mental health issues from a professional perspective and particularly in the context of men, although many of these principles can be applied generally. LET’S TALK ABOUT CHANGE Change is a constant feature of life, and especially so in recent years. Technology is a major enabler of change, but humans and particularly men have increasingly become slaves to
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LIFE-WORK INTEGRATION Work-life balance as a concept has been under challenge for some time as these facets increasingly overlapped. In my view, the concept is inherently flawed as it puts work ahead of life while it should be the other way round. It would be better to view this concept as Life-Work Integration.
If a man has a fulfilled life, then he will be successful at work. As success at work does not offset a messed-up life, a key success factor in life is for a man is first take care of himself. This is not being WFH has introduced several selfish but rather making oneself changes as well as challenges to better equipped to help oneself people’s lives. And this is the case and others. A common analogy, if for men in particular, where their one can remember in the WFH era, career and its trappings tend to is the flight safety demonstration become intertwined with their prior to air-flights take-off. being. The corporate life image and Passengers are always advised, routine is how they conduct much that in the event of an emergency, of their life and often it defines to put on the Oxygen Mask their self-worth. This mindset and themselves first before attending to routine are often also used as a others even if it is their own minor shield to avoid being a full partner child. where a man is also a husband and father. Many men are struggling WFH has resulted in moving the with the new concept of working increasingly shaky concept of workfrom home as it also means that life balance to a state where there they can’t avoid contributing and are no boundaries, whether these working at home! be physical, mental, or emotional,
