4 Work–life balance and overload
Section 3 touched on some aspects of work–life balance and overload. This section will look at the day-to-day practicalities of managing these issues in a hybrid working environment.
Mobile digital technologies, smart devices, superfast broadband and cloud computing mean that for many people, work is now just a click away, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This ‘always-on’ culture makes it challenging to maintain effective workload management and keep a healthy work–life balance. This challenge was intensified by the pandemic forcing many of us to create an ‘office’ within our own homes.
In a recent CIPD (2020) survey, 86% of respondents identified the ‘inability to switch off during out-of-work hours’ as the main negative effect of technology on wellbeing. This was closely followed by the stress resulting from technology failure (70%).
To maintain our wellbeing in the face of all this, we need strategies in place to stop us burning out.
In the following video Grace Emiohe from The Open University shares her experiences of maintaining her own wellbeing.
Download this video clip.Video player: hyb_4_2022_sep104_diverse_voices_british_nigerian_female_compressed.mp4
Transcript
GRACE EMIOHE
I am Grace Emiohe. I work at the Open University as a senior performance consultant. I’ve been in that role now for almost seven years.
So I am a single person. I live alone. So when pandemic happened, it really get close to home for me.
So I don’t have any support within my environment. And at that moment, one of the things I really found that was weird was when the organisation was capturing feedback in terms of from different people, I tend to- I used to be a minority, but I didn’t tends to become extra-minority. So what does that mean?
It’s that because everybody was talking about how great it is, I’m a family person, I have got family, and different stuff. But I don’t have family. So what was working for other people didn’t work for me. And also, I mean, I’m a young Black woman. You know?
And I felt like my minority was even becoming more closer. So it was about we have to do what works for the majority. So that really impacted me. And also the fact that COVID was affecting people more of the minority background, that was really a big thing for me.
And then I got sick, and I went to the hospital. I was in the hospital for a long period of time. And that was another shocking aspect for me, too, in terms of especially what I’m dealing with.
I was to do research for it. What I’m dealing with is something that affects mostly Caribbean and Black women. And the research is very, very low. So that was kind of shocking, dealing with that within the pandemic. And also at work having to then how do I come back to work, how do I get that social interaction, how do I deal with things. And it was just coming at different angle.
So I talked about for me personally it becomes not just the case of who I am. You know? It was just a case of the society tends to just want to feed to the majority. And it really impacted me.
And I just learned to kind of live with it, which is a bad thing. You know? But all my life, I’ve learned to live with it because I’ve been in the minority group. I just learned to- like, you know what? I just have to deal with this and move on, and that’s what I’ve learned to do.
I keep telling them this. You’ve got to identify me. I know it’s difficult. You’ve got thousands of employees, but there has to be things put in place to give someone like me a space to come in.
And when I meet someone like me, I’m referring to someone that- I’m not just a Black young woman. I’m also a Black single young woman. So that means I’m in two different categories. And it’s about seeing what works for me.
So at the moment- and I have had to deal with my own inner struggles because I was alone. You know, I didn’t have any support. I’ve had to then look at what works for me in that period.
And all of a sudden, I’m being told you have to change that because now we just need everybody to do hybrid work. We need everybody to start coming back but not actually identifying what works for me because I’ve had to deal with this on my own without a lot of support.
And it’s about coming back to actually making sure that is about- I think what is the biggest problem for me is that support is now being destroyed because I have to fit into the new way that I think is the right way of working. And that’s a concern for me as a person. One of the things that’s really helped is my line manager because you become lost in a very big pool of things.
So I’m being able to let my line manager know- you know, I get a lot of support from my line manager in terms of, OK, how can we move things forward, how can we- because before when pandemic happened I was very much like, I need to go into the office because I was in that category of people that felt like this is just something that would last for a month.
So I didn’t kind of prepare, you know, and then it becomes more months, and I’m like, oh, I need to have a plan. I am falling. So my line manager did work with me.
And when I started identifying things that would work for me in terms of that, I get that loads of support. So I think in terms of the organisation, the fact that our line manager is empowered to make decision with us is very, very good. And I think that’s something the organisation did really well.
And there was a lot of things that they put in terms of connections, social connections. So that really helped because for someone like me, I needed that social connection to be able to know that it’s not only me. I’m not the only one left, the last woman unheard, because I’ve been locked in my house.
You know, so there was a bit of we had- for my units, we had team gathering and social gathering, where you can bring your own drink. You get to- it’s not touching face to face people. But kind of that reminds me that I’m not alone. There are other people with me, and that was very good.
In terms of at work, there was a lot of surveys international and also across the organisation but also kind of like to my own unit to kind of get my thoughts. You know? And also one of the support was also kind of working with me to see what kind of equipment I need that’s going to make working from home easy and things like that.
So equipment support was also there and also because then I said I need this, I need that, and then I was given a space to come in and actually get the things that I need from the office to help me set up properly. So I thought equipment was really good supporting in terms of equipment. Also, kind of identifying what kind of check-in I would need.
So for example, my team, we were doing a daily stand-up whereby we had a 30-minute daily stand-up, 15 minutes just to have conversation about whether the things you would do when you used to see each other. And 15 minutes was about work, so that was really, really kind of useful.
So we also have coffee catch-up, you know, whereby we just come in and you bring your coffee. It’s just another 15 minutes to me that’s like twice or three times a week. And you just- those things you do it by when you’re in your office, you go to the kitchen, and you run into somebody. So we try to turn that into -. So a lot of stuff we’ve been put in time to accommodate that social interaction.
So it was about just identifying, getting our feedback in terms of what would work, what kind of tools do we need to put in place, you know, and what kind of allowance do we need to give people, giving people the capacity to say it’s actually OK if you’re just off your system for like 10 minutes to take a walk. Sending that kind of image so we trust you, and I think that was really key because you’re kind of like, oh, I don’t want him to see me as not being online or offline or something like that.
So it’s kind of like you don’t- I think what I love about the organisation is it wasn’t given. It was actually being communicated because sometimes you can’t just assume that something is given. So that was good.
I think one of the things that could be better is if we do survey it and we tend to see majority, we need to take a pause and consider minority. It’s really important. I think we’ve got to be careful we don’t fall into that stuff of let’s take a vote. Oh, 10 out of 12. That’s fine. We go with the 10 people.
I know it looks like the two people are just small in the bigger- but then these are also human beings. So I think the aim is continue to do what they do but trying to stretch out into the minority and actually see what they can do to accommodate that minority. So if majority just said we prefer hybrid working, we prefer simple- there could be a small, which tends to fall into they just want something different.
And it’s about thinking outside of the box to say, OK, how can we reach them? You know? And it’s not just about trying to customise to every single person. It’s actually saying we are going to take it upon ourselves to make sure that the little ones are not lost. The minority are lost in times of trying to bring a solution.
But I think using the approach of your unit- your line manager really helps because your line manager will bring that one to one. And I think that is what will make the massive difference. And that’s something that my unit was able to do. So it it’ll be good to hear this that across the entire unit because then that is something that would really bring the minority into the fold.
We’ve learned to see the importance of being there for one another. Because one of the things that pre-pandemic happened is life was so fast. We didn’t have the moment to pause. You know? And this has brought a lot of positive in terms of supporting one another.
I tell you during the pandemic a colleague of mine that didn’t even work in my department but I used to work with came and just brought a card and waved to me from my forefront because she felt like I was alone. You know, she knew that, and she wanted to just check in with me. So that was something that was- it really warmed my heart. It was a five-minute wave from my Juliet balcony.
But it was still kind of like- it brought that people connection. So I feel like that people connection, we’ve been reminded we are not alone. And I thought that is just amazing.
I mean, we hear the big stuff happening. But actually at work I have actually seen that with my colleagues, actually just connecting with one another, kind of like even when we couldn’t see each other, just driving down somebody’s house, just pressing the horn and just waving to them just so that- and that’s something that really warms my heart. So I think the people connection is the great aspect.
So before I went into the pandemic, I was one of those people that believed that I need to be in the office to work. I was very strong mindset like that- office needs to be office and that’s just how it works. And one of the things I have found is working from home is becoming- it’s made me more productive. I was extremely- I’m a very hard worker, but I actually found that actually I’ve becoming to identify my own space.
It’s developed me more, and that doesn’t mean I’m all for- I’m not against remote working. But what I felt like I really, really love about this is bringing us as human beings into the fold because before we were taught by this society the only way to work is you go to go to the office. You’ve got to, and I came with that mindset. That’s the only way, and then I’m beginning to recognise that actually I can help to- the evolutionary can come from this in terms of me deciding what the working patterns should be.
And I think if that’s something good the organisation is recognising, so going to do it this way. It has to be a 9:00 to 5:00. I don’t know how well that has been adopted, but I think the conversation is there. Even is 9:00 to 6:00 the right thing to do? So I think that is bringing actually human being to the forefront of it, actually saying we recognise that your needs is different from this other person, so therefore we’re going to work with you.
So I think for so many years we’ve talked about balanced working. We talk about bringing- we talk about how we want to make sure you’ve got work-life balance. But I think this pandemic has really brought that because now it’s opened the field for conversation, whereby we can actually talk and say, OK, what can we do? You know, how can we help you to give you that work-life balance that you need?
And it’s creating lots of opportunity for people to be creative because you need a quiet space to bring yourself. So I think in time of the pandemic it’s kind of revolutionary the workforce. So it’s interesting to see what’s going to happen for the future. I’m excited.
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Activity 7 Monitoring your online/onscreen working time
If working remotely for some or all of your time has meant that you’re not sticking rigidly to traditional office hours, it’s important to keep track of how long you are spending online/onscreen, to ensure you don’t unintentionally become an always-on worker.
Over the next week, try to make a note of your ‘screen time’, whether that’s using a computer (desktop or laptop), a tablet, a smartphone or any other kind of work-related digital technology. Count each device separately. You might want to take a break from the screen to record your time with a pen and paper!
Pay particular attention to times when you weren’t planning to work, but the affordances of technology meant that you ended up doing it anyway. For example, when you were sat on your sofa watching TV in the evening, but had your smartphone next to you, and when a work notification popped up, you couldn’t stop yourself from checking it.
Also try to note whether you felt that the online/onscreen time was particularly positive (e.g. it made you feel satisfied at your productivity) or negative (e.g. reading ‘out-of-hours’ emails made you feel stressed or angry). If it caused no strong feelings either way, you don’t need to note that.
At the start of the week make a note of what you expect the balance to be, then at end of the week, review your notes to identify how much time you spent online/onscreen, and what impact the emotional responses you noted had on your wellbeing.
Make some notes summarising your experience, including whether the balance was as you expected, in the box below.
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Discussion
Did you record more or less time than you expected?
Were the activities that caused negative emotions (if any) unavoidable, or could you take action to reduce these?
Did any of the activities create a positive sense of connection or community with your colleagues? Or were there things you felt would have been done more effectively in person/away from a screen?