Work life balance
Why I am huge believer of “Work Life balance”?
Almost throughout my career, I have always been one of the first persons to reach office, mostly because, I like to start my day early. Mainly due to two reasons, one, it helps me beat the traffic and two, I get a head start before the itinerary for the day takes over. I am a huge propagator of maintaining a healthy work life balance.
Having said that, I also do realise that maintaining a work life balance in today’s world is not an easy task. The need for constant connectivity is making it increasingly difficult for us to separate our personal and professional lives. I see almost everyone, constantly checking mails, taking business calls etc. almost everywhere and anywhere they can.
All this in turn is increasing the stress on our lives, making us vulnerable to more and more mistakes as we have longer working hours and have less time to switch off and relax. The root of this lies in the constant need to be competitive and stay ahead, the conditioning for which starts early in childhood. Children are bombarded with consistent stimulus to stay ahead, be better, not be left behind when all they should be focusing on is savouring their childhood, gaining experience and creating memories.
This trend then continues into our adult lives and suddenly we start feeling really important when we start spending more and more time at work. And then we start celebrating the lop-sidedness which is a strong indicator of an unstable organisation, in a constant state of chaos. A workplace that appreciates efficiency, is stable, has its processes in order and will never require its employees to stretch unless there is a crisis or a situation which needs immediately attention.
The idea is to develop a culture of sensitivity and respect for each other’s’ personal space and time. Give colleagues an opportunity to maintain a healthy lifestyle, have happy relationships because all this will ultimately affect their productivity and performance. I do not want them to feel burnt out or suffer from chronic stress. Yes I do agree, work is important and timely completion of work is extremely important. Slackers make me lose my cool too but, my aim is to foster a culture of personal accountability and onus.
Our focus should be, that when GHCL employees walk into office every day, they come in and work with their heart and soul and give their best. Once they leave, unless something super urgent comes up, I want them to explore other aspects of their lives. Spend time with their families, play a sport, invest in hobbies and work on becoming better and well-rounded individuals.
It may not be something which we can achieve overnight but, I am glad, we have started by increasing emphasis of efficiency rather than number of hours spent at work. Flexibility of office time, rejuvenation leaves etc. are some steps in the right direction.
In fact I believe that people who take time offs and rejuvenation leaves, come back happier, refreshed, and recharged, with better ideas and full of positive energy and make the workplace much happier.