Jade was a new employee at her company. One of the attractors of choosing to work there was the work/life balance of their culture, which was promoted in the interview process. Early on, however, Jade observed that the people in her office usually worked through lunch, and most came in early and/or stayed late on a regular basis. Soon she found herself melding into the established culture, working through lunch or staying late like the others. She became concerned that her desire for family balance was being compromised.
One day her boss approached her, and encouraged her to take a lunch break. She replied that while she thought it was important to do so, she felt self-conscious about taking lunches when he and her co-workers rarely did so.
Her honest dialogue with her boss gave him an awareness that he had not had before. He had always felt it was important that employees work hard, and he also believed that it was important to take breaks to re-energize. Until now, he had not realized that he was not promoting what he was “preaching,” and just as important, was not fully living the values that he had professed to be important for himself and his own family.
The following week, the boss brought up Jade’s observations and concerns to the rest of the team. They too admitted that there seemed to be two cultures: one that was intended, and one that they all seemed to default to: the nonstop, type-A environment. They decided together that they would start adapting their practices to re-align with their intended culture of work – life balance. Here are some of the ways that this was accomplished:
The group planned a way for office coverage with an agreement that staff could choose to work within a one-hour variation of designated working hours. This allowed individuals to adapt to their life situations to come in earlier or leave later within the eight hour workday if they chose.
They also discussed the wellness and stress reducing benefits of having a lunchtime break. The group made a pact that they would remind and encourage one another to take their well-deserved lunch break as much as possible. While this did not happen daily, the group found that they were more mindful of taking breaks more consistently.
The boss worked with each member of the team to better prioritize what they were working on, and was able to reduce the pressure to work longer hours every night. Soon, the group learned to practice reasonable balance together. While there were still times when they had to work long hours on certain projects, that became the exception rather than the routine.
The group also agreed that when someone was on vacation, that they would genuinely support one another so that the person would not feel obligated to work remotely from their “vacation.” While knowing that there would be occasional exceptions, the intention was that time away to rejuvenate would be honored fully by the rest of the team.
Most importantly, the boss set the new pace by modeling the desired behaviors. He found that working in a more balanced way did much more than just reduce everyone’s stress. These practices ultimately built up trust and stronger relationships within the team. In addition, focus, creativity and productivity flourished.
