Work Life Balance
Hello and welcome back to the Center Street Psychology blog! For the month of October we’re focusing on mental health in the workplace, which is this year’s theme for World Mental Health Day. This week we will be exploring how to create work-life balance, but make sure to check out our previous posts on bullying in the workplace and boundaries in the workplace if you haven’t already.
If you did read last week’s post, you may remember that other people in the workplace, such as our boss or co-workers, can make our time spent at work very taxing if we do not have the appropriate boundaries put in place. However, we also need to have healthy boundaries with ourselves. With flexible hours and always-available work communications blurring the lines of what a workday looks like, we do not want to decrease our quality of productivity by trying to maximize our quantity.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (2022) identifies four categories of work-life balance dysfunction. These are:
Role-Overload – Total demand of roles is higher than what can be adequately completed.
Work-to-Family Interference – When demands from work hinder our ability to fulfill family responsibilities.
Family-to-Work Interference – When family demands hinder our ability to fulfill work responsibilities.
Caregiver Strain – When the responsibilities of being a caregiver (such as parenting or supporting elderly relatives) create high amounts of stress and burnout.
Regardless of the type, experiencing imbalance between work and personal life can lead to symptoms such as burnout, anxiety, depression and more; we might experience illnesses at a higher rate as stress compromises our immune system, or we might have feelings of guilt when we realize we’ve been more invested in one side of work-life balance than the other. The good news, however, is that we don’t have to accept these feelings of overload and we can implement strategies to create a healthier boundaries.
A helpful way of looking at things when trying to maintain balance is that if we take care of ourselves now and invest in the things that bring us joy, we will be able to stay at peak performance in both work and personal tasks. Last week’s article had some points on being able to say “no” when it is appropriate.
Speaking of last week's article, we can also set boundaries with ourselves in terms of how long we will work and even where we will work. It can be helpful to have as much tangible separation as possible, so we know not to do work at home or on vacation. This could mean leaving laptops at the office, or not using holidays as a chance to catch up on low-priority work tasks. Developing a predictable schedule or routine can also help, by creating systems to ensure we are being productive when we need to be. This can also ease some of the anxiety of not knowing when we might be able to finish a particular task (Madeson, 2021).
For those with long, packed workdays that you cannot really avoid, you might find it helpful to integrate intentional self-care into your day. I like to call this “shuffling the deck”. Instead of working 8+ hours straight and then trying to find time to do self-care at the very end of your day when you don’t have any more energy left, try adding small increments throughout your day to help pace yourself. This might include reading a few pages of a book, listening to some music, or just taking some intentional time to enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. This could also be a good opportunity to implement some mindfulness exercises too.
Hopefully you find something here to help maintain a healthy work-life balance for yourself!
Please reach out to us at Center Street Psychology if you would like to discuss more about our services. We provide support to a variety of populations and are able to support those experiencing difficulties in the workplace. We provide a collaborative approach and are happy to provide you with a complimentary consultation to help potential “fit” with one of our counsellors. We are an inclusive clinic, located in Calgary, Alberta, providing in-person, virtual or hybrid services within Alberta and across Canada. Please call 403-399-5120 to speak with our Director of Client Care, Amy, who will gently guide you through the counselling process.
References
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (2022). Work-life balance. Government of Canada. https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/worklife_balance.html
Madeson, M. (2021). 11 best tools & questions for work-life balance coaching. Positive Psychology. https://positivepsychology.com/work-life-balance-strategies/#strategies
