What is Work/Life Balance for You?

I’ve often thought about what it really means to have a work/life balance. Setting strict guidelines for yourself, ensuring you are logged off by 5 p.m. each day, making to-do lists, scheduling one-on-one time with your kids. But when forced to have both worlds collide, how do you navigate that when everything you do makes you riddled with guilt?

We’ve all been through those initial months of the pandemic, and its effects have been discussed ad nauseam, but for parents, we’ve all been rocked off our axis, flailing around trying to find that equilibrium between those unexpected special moments we’ve shared with our kids while working from home and scrambling to keep them occupied while having a virtual meeting with the team.

It’s worth noting that parents with young children are less likely to advance in their careers. According to Pew Research Center, 1 in 5 working parents turned down a promotion due to an uneven work/life balance.

So now a call to action, what can your company do to help working parents excel in their jobs? How can you help ensure your team members are showing up to work fulfilled?

For business owners and managers, are you worried about your employees falling into the dreaded “quiet quitting” trend? Rather, could it be burnout? It may be time to have a discussion on helping your employees blow off steam, reconnect and reconfigure so that they can come to work the next day with a fresh perspective, new ideas and renewed drive.

For parents feeling in over their heads, find projects to spark passion. Have discussions on how you can improve your work performance. Take a mental health day to reset.

I decided to take a deeper look into the state of child care in Nebraska to better understand why child care centers are forced to shutter and why parents are leaving the workforce.

My mom, “Na” to my kids, has served as the primary day care for my family since my children were infants. I’ve been able to keep my work hours flexible for school pick-up and doctor’s appointments. Not everyone has the same privilege as me. Not by a long shot. I hope parents can find the following articles beneficial, and that our business community can take notice of the hardworking organizations in our community, fighting for brighter futures for our children.

- Tiffany Brazda, Editor