Nov. 14, 2020 "Come together: How to integrate your time between work, family and leisure": Today I found this article by Nicola Huelin in the Costco Connection magazine:
orget about finding a work-life balance. How about discovering work-life integration instead? Integration is less about dividing your time between work, family and leisure, and more about combining the numerous parts of your life in a way that’s right for you.
I think this view is more fitting because, in many industries, work doesn’t fit neatly into a 9-to-5 box. And if you work for yourself in a business you feel passionate about, with growing client demands, you don’t always get to hit the pause button at a set time.
If you’re feeling out of sync and terms like "hamster wheel," "overwhelmed," "stressed out," "exhausted" and "burnout" sound scarily familiar, here are three steps to help you kickstart better work-life integration.
Create some head space.
Things change when your thinking changes. But when life gets overwhelmingly busy, one of the first things to go is your time to think things through properly. Carve out some time to come out of "busyness" and allow your mind to unwind long enough that you can begin to think creatively about what is most important to you and what you want from life, both in the future and along the way.
Mind the gap.
It can feel uncomfortable to realize there is a big gap between how you want to live your life and your current reality. In this situation, you need to be courageous enough to not bury your head in the sand by staying too busy to think about it.
Lean into the discomfort and figure out what is working, what is not working and what needs to change.
Time for change.
Create a big-picture plan with a clear strategy and steps to bring about the changes you want to see across all the important areas of your life. There might not be a single magic bullet, and it may take time, but you can get there. With a clear plan, an updated strategy, a supporting set of goals and boundaries, and, of course, a new way of thinking about it all, you can begin to create the shifts and changes that will make a difference.
Working through these steps at a pace that’s right for you can go a long way toward helping you integrate the different areas of your life—and will ultimately bring a greater sense of well-being.
Myth of balance
Most of us have come across the term "work-life balance." This term is a buzzword in the business world, but what does it really mean? I recently looked it up in an online dictionary, and here’s what it said: "The division of one’s time and focus between working and family or leisure activities."
The idea of striking a work-life balance is outdated. In today’s fast-paced world, technology has led to less and less separation between work and life. That’s why integrating the various parts of your life makes sense.—NH
Oct. 26, 2021 "What if it were against the law for your boss to bug you after hours?": Today I found this article by Sophie Harris on CBC news. There are 772 comments:
For some Canadians, working from home during the pandemic has created even more of a blur between work and home life as kitchens and dens have turned into remote offices.
To help workers achieve better work-life balance, the Ontario government has introduced legislation that would force some employers to develop policies allowing workers to unplug from the office after their shift.
The legislation would require employers with 25 or more workers to develop disconnecting-from-work policies, which could include expectations about response time for emails and encouraging employees to turn on out-of-office notifications when they are not working.
At a news conference on Monday, Monte McNaughton, the province's minister of labour, training and skills development, said he doesn't want Ontario to become a province of burned-out workers.
"The lines between family time and work time have been blurred," he said. "Everyone should be able to unplug at the end of their work day."
But work-life balance expert Linda Duxbury said such legislation may actually contribute to the problem. That's because employees will still have to get their work done — even if they can't send emails after hours.
"A rule saying you can't do something after a certain time will add stress," she said.
Duxbury suggested a key way to help employees achieve work-life balance is to ensure they're not swamped with work.
According to an online poll conducted in April by accounting firm KPMG, nearly half of the 1,000 Canadian employees surveyed said their workload is heavier than it was pre-pandemic. More than 30 per cent said they're so overworked, they are or close to burning out.
"Workloads have become astronomic," said Duxbury. "We simply don't have enough staff or people to do the work required anymore, which means that work leaks into our evenings and weekends."
Ottawa exploring 'right to disconnect'
The issue of the right to disconnect after work hours has become a hot topic for workers across the globe as mobile technologies, email and gig work have helped blur the lines between being "in" and "out" of the office.
In 2016, France adopted legislation that gave employees the right to disconnect and not take work calls or answer emails after hours.
But in Canada, the Labour Code currently does not address limiting work-related electronic communications (such as email) after quitting time.
The federal government says it is committed to developing a "right to disconnect" policy for federally regulated workers to improve work-life balance.
As part of the process, the government recently invited Canadians to participate in an online consultation to share their views on the topic.
"There is more work to be done to ensure that the [labour] standards keep up with the rapid pace of change driven by digital communications technology," said former labour minister, Filomena Tassi in a statement in March.
But Duxbury said limiting the hours workers can read and respond to emails won't necessarily aid in creating a work-life balance. Instead, she said workers need both a manageable workload and the flexibility to be able to address their email inbox when it's convenient.
"For a lot of people … they would rather take some of the time during the nine-to-five day and deal with ... their child-care issues, and then do the email when their kids go to sleep."
How one workplace is doing it
Despite a lack of legislation in Canada, some companies have voluntarily created policies granting employees the right to disconnect.
At Edelman, a global communications company with 250 Canadian employees, workers are encouraged not to respond to emails between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The company introduced the policy at its Canadian offices in 2013 and then rolled it out globally in 2019 as the 'Edelman Dusk to Dawn' policy.
Edelman also reminded employees of its policy at the start of COVID-19 as people started working from home.
"We really want to encourage that space because when you have a bit of recharge time, you actually are going to be a better version of yourself for our clients," said Bianca Boyd, chief operating officer at Edelman Canada.
But she said there's also flexibility built in for workers who would prefer to send emails at odd hours, because they're also dealing with other demands during the day. In those cases, the employees would need to indicate why they're emailing at that time and when they expect a response.
"It's about creating that culture where it's okay to switch off. And then there's also some flexibility built in, that just makes sense for how people are working today," said Boyd.
She also said Edelman has implemented ways to help employees deal with workload, such as holding "Focus Fridays" when no meetings are scheduled so people have time to finish their work.
But even with a "right to disconnect" policy in place, Boyd admits that avoiding emailing after hours is not an easy feat in our 24/7 work culture.
"I try really hard to only send urgent emails after 7 p.m.," she said. "I've really trained myself to say, 'Okay, I'm going to respond to that in the morning. You don't need to respond to it right away.'"
What if it were against the law for your boss to bug you after hours? | CBC News
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