Work-Life Balance and the Burn-Out
COVID-19 upended everything particularly when it came to our perspectives on career and work-life balance. Or did it?
Rethinking the Great Resignation and its connection to COVID-19
The Great Resignation, believed to have started in spring 2021, has often been attributed to the pandemic. The narrative suggests that, faced with the realities of COVID-19 and mounting pressures to perform, employees chose to leave the workforce in search of greater meaning. While the pandemic played a role, I believe the Great Resignation was more about our collective yearning for balance and a way to avoid burnout. Many of us were already stressed and struggling to find downtime to decompress even before the pandemic hit. After sitting in a doom spiral for weeks with the news on constantly, I began evaluating the choices I had made in life to this point and one thing was clear: I had made a thousand little compromises along the way that led me to living a compromised life. Change was needed.
How has the workplace evolved?
Throughout my 30-year career, I've witnessed numerous changes in the workplace. While many have been positive, such as increased diversity and inclusion, more equitable pay structures, and improved compensation packages, there has also been a relentless drive to achieve ever-increasing performance levels. This often results in an always-on work culture that breeds internal competition and leaves little room for work-life balance.
So Quiet Quitting right?
The unrelenting pressure to perform has given rise to Quiet Quitting. This phenomenon intends to describe employees doing their jobs competently, but without constantly striving to go above and beyond. (Although, some people are just phoning it in and trying to collect a paycheck and I don’t condone this behavior in the least!) Employees are beginning to recognize that the rewards of extra effort often don't scale with the effort itself. Should you be punished for doing the work outlined for your role? The simple answer is no.
The unwritten rules of evaluating performance
As a leader, I can tell you what I couldn’t tell any of my employees at the time; there are unwritten rules around how performance is measured. Many organizations expect employees to hustle to get to the next level of performance, to learn and grow (on their own time) beyond where they were during the last performance cycle, to volunteer for extra work assignments. If you aren’t killing it, by default, you may be considered underperforming. And if you are doing everything in those unwritten rules around performance? You’re probably just meeting expectations. For you to be considered a top performer, in many organizations, you must be performing at 1-2 levels above your current level without the corresponding pay. There are hurdles you have to jump through to be considered for promotion to that next level and the compensation adjustment you get for those promotions will pale in comparison to what someone who came in externally would make at that same level you were promoted to. Oh, and, don’t forget much of it is a subjective popularity contest! Sounds appealing right? Is it any wonder why people are reconsidering their options?
Rebel with a cause?
The escalation in expectations is what fueled the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting movements we’ve seen over the past few years. Employees reached a breaking point and decided that sacrificing their mental and physical health for minimal rewards wasn’t worth it. Corporate America’s response wasn’t to fix these practices, but to over-rotate to increasing demands to make the office more like daycare where each individual could have their own personal preferences catered to (that’s another blog; for another time). But the underlying problems around the downward pressure to get employees to perform and the lack of balance this creates in our lives was never addressed; the answer was: companies simply made working harder and longer more like “home” with your “family”.
Are you living to work, or working to live?
Most of us work to finance our lives, seeking to make an impact without feeling like we're living just to work. We can see the burnout cliff approaching and are trying to avoid it, but how?
So what’s the answer?
You could wait for companies to make changes in the way you approach things which enable you to have a more balanced work experience. Or you can take responsibility for the way you are showing up. It starts with understanding what in your life, outside of work, is important to you and that you want to have the time and energy for.
Keep the energy reserves replenished!
Think of your time and energy like a bank account that is replenished every night. When you wake up in the morning you will have a specific allotment of time and energy you can spend during the day; some things have a high cost and others have a lower cost or actually put reserves back into that account. What is the percentage of time and energy you need to have for every aspect of your life? When you are done with that list are you overallocated? If so, you will need to make some tough calls about what you are prioritizing that day. And it’s ok for that set of priorities to shift from day-to-day. Some days you may have a particularly demanding deadline and work takes priority. Other days perhaps it’s a milestone event happening in your family and you need to make that the priority so you can be present.
Not Time Management… AGAIN!
Once you understand the demands on your time and energy, it’s vital to develop efficient time management skills. Since your career is funding your life, you do want to do it well. And don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of people who not only thrive under the conditions that I’ve described above but who want to work in this manner. Do you! I celebrate you and that choice. And even if you do thrive under those conditions, understanding how to optimize your time in and out of work can only help. Personally, I find that planning and differing intervals helps (professionally and personally). What does my team need to accomplish this year? What does my household need to accomplish this year? How do I break the year down into quarterly chunks of priorities? How do I break down the quarterly priorities to monthly goals? How do I turn the monthly goals into weekly objectives? Once I have the objectives for the week now we can get started. Slowing down enough to plan things out is a game changer!
Tips for effectively managing your time and energy:
The more overwhelmed you feel, the less you should be doing. It sounds completely counterintuitive, doesn’t it? When you are overwhelmed you want out of overwhelm so you tend to want to push through. Pushing through will add to the overwhelm. Instead, try this: take a short break. Walk away from what is causing the overwhelming feelings. Give yourself permission to completely put down and shut off any thinking about what is overwhelming you. Personally, I like to go outside when this happens. Something about being in nature calms my mind and helps me reset. My teams will tell you when Jess is walking the dogs, leave her be. She’ll have the answers when she returns. 15-30 mins is all you need to hit the reset button.
Tackle the big boulders first. Often we feel like we want to gain momentum by doing the easy thing first. And sometimes, that is the right approach but if you are so busy doing all of the easy little things on your list, you can inadvertently run out of time to tackle the big things. Start with the big boulder of an item and at least get it started. For the big ticket items, you often need time and space to refine the work you are doing here. If you save this for the end you won’t be able to take the small breaks while working on it to make it great.
Ask for help. A team isn’t just a group of people who perform similar job functions; although it can be. Your team is just that; A TEAM. Think of a sports team. Could Steph Curry carry the Warriors all season by himself? (Well, maybe and perhaps he has in some seasons… If you want to discuss the merits of Steph Curry and the magic he brings to the court, we’ll have to do that over cocktails one evening!) But generally no. The Point Guard needs the Power Forward, the Shooting Guard, the Center and the Coach (to name a few) to help achieve the goals the team has. Your team at work (or your team of friends and family) is no different. You are working together to achieve a common goal and others on the team likely have strengths that you don’t have. Tap into those!
These tips apply to both your work and personal life. Stay tuned for my next blog post, where I'll discuss turning your work-life balance into high-impact performance!