In my last blog post, I discussed the challenges and opportunities presented by remote work in a world where COVID is receding, and employees and employers are reconsidering their relationship with one another. Remote work is a relatively new consideration in the business world. Navigating a work-life balance is an evergreen issue in the workplace. The struggle to achieve a work-life balance is reflected in the discussions about remote work. But what is work-life balance, and how can it be achieved?
Work-life balance seems easy to define: an equilibrium between work and personal life that allows employees the space to reach their professional potential and obligations to their employers while providing people with non-work time to pursue their other obligations, hobbies, and have time to recharge. Others may have different definitions, but this one sets up some parameters that can be widely agreed upon. Then there is the age-old question, do we work to live or live to work?
The debates on work-life balance are evolving and have been accelerated by employers and employees questioning long-held assumptions about the workplace as a result of COVID. As Forbes points out, leaders in the workplace
need to provide for their team members a definition of work-life balance that is relevant to the current business environment. Then this clarity can serve as a guidepost to employers and employees alike. It can be useful in crafting policies, attracting and keeping talent, and, if adopted as a company value, can guide employee behavior at all levels of the organization.
The key is leaders need to be willing to have these conversations with their employees. Setting reasonable boundaries matters, both for employee performance and retention. As a Harvard Business Review article about a work-life balance study explained, “our research showed that achieving better balance between professional and personal priorities boils down to a combination of reflexivity — or questioning assumptions to increase self-awareness — and intentional role redefinition.”
So achieving a work-life balance means defining what that means and promoting flexibility by management and employees. In the business world which often relies on hard data, this type of analysis can seem, well, squishy and not results-oriented. That doesn’t have to be the case. As another study discussed in Harvard Business Review explains, “we believe that companies that educate their leaders on the organizational benefits of providing employees with a healthy work-life balance will see better results than those that focus solely on designing formal policies.”
As Catholic business leaders, we need to be conscious of what Pope Saint John Paul II wrote in his encyclical, Laborem exercens
[w]ork constitutes a foundation for the formation of family life, which is a natural right and something that man is called to. These two spheres of values – one linked to work and the other consequent on the family nature of human life – must be properly united and must properly permeate each other. In a way, work is a condition for making it possible to found a family, since the family requires the means of subsistence which man normally gains through work.
Once work-life balance is analyzed from this perspective – as a foundation of and condition for the creation and sustenance of family life – we begin to have richer and more nuanced discussions about the employer-employee relationship. Hopefully, these discussions lead to outcomes that respect and enhance the dignity and roles of employees, and their obligations to those who pay their wages.
Defining terms, having conversations, and looking for best practices that enhance work results are keys to making progress toward finding a work-life balance structure that helps create happy employees and good business results. That balance isn’t a perk for employees. It is a requirement for employee retention and the company’s bottom line. And it is consistent with the teachings of the Church.