![]() ![]() Know that communications never end, so when it’s time to process your email, take two important steps: So many knowledge workers make the mistake of viewing email as “the thing you squeeze in between ‘real’ work.” But many of my clients can spend more than 3 hours a day simply responding to email! So email, as well as other forms of communication, is absolutely real work and deserves to be treated as such.Ĭarve out time in your schedule for email. So if you are convinced that you must work long hours to get your job done, question that belief.Īlso consider if you have room to learn how to get more done in the same amount of time by better managing your attention and your responsibilities. In this Harvard Business Review article, Erin Reid discusses how men’s performance is often praised even when they’re doing less. You might be surprised at the results.Īnother idea is to give the appearance of working more hours without actually doing it, a tactic successfully used by many male professionals. So back off a little bit, take better care of yourself, and see what happens. If your work depends on your brainpower, then giving your brain the downtime and stress reduction it needs might help you become better at your job and get more done in less time. However, you probably do have some degree of choice in how often you work, and even where you work. If you work at a demanding company, you might feel defeated, and like you have no choice but to work ever-longer hours. So below are several ways you can preserve enthusiasm for your work and reduce your own risk of burnout as you head back to the office-whether you’re reporting to the office every day or just for a few hours a week. While it might seem like this headline conflicts with the one above, it’s true that the team’s work-life balance is the responsibility of both leaders and individuals. While ultimately, work-life balance is up to employees, it can’t be evaluated in a vacuum, and the company culture will shape the employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Designate a specific channel, like text messages, to use for emergencies outside of these communication hours.Īs a leader, you play a critical role in the company culture. Decide on your company’s “ communication hours,” and strongly discourage team members from sending work-related messages to one another outside of these hours.Help employees feel that they can disconnect, by designating someone else they can put on their out-of-office messages, and maybe even allowing them to have emails deleted while they’re gone.Research strongly supports the idea that truly disconnected vacation time is critical for staving off burnout and increasing employee productivity. Encourage all employees to use vacation time (and not work while they’re gone!) and take vacation yourself.Be a good role model for work life balance, because the leader’s work-life balance has a big impact on your team members’ work-life balance.With that in mind, here are some suggestions for what leaders can do to help their teams thrive: This is good for individuals and for the bottom line happy employees are more productive, and burnout is a primary obstacle to happiness at work. Like Jane Fraser, leaders everywhere should focus on developing a company culture that encourages work-life balance. Explicitly Encourage Employees to Recharge Acknowledging how the pandemic has blurred the line between work and home, Fraser also encouraged employees not to communicate after their “business hours” so that they could have time to reset and recharge. She made news this week when she banned internal Zoom calls on Fridays simply to give employees a brain break and help them refresh. That said, as a leader, it’s your responsibility to help dissuade workers from feeling they need to always be available and can never fully disconnect from work.Ĭitigroup CEO Jane Fraser agrees. Also, employees want to appear “responsive” when you email them on evenings and weekends, especially if “responsiveness” is something that is highly valued-and expected-at your company. That’s partly because we have a habit of doing it all day, so that habit can’t be “paused” just because the work day is over. Set Boundaries With TechnologyĮven if your team communication is limited to channels you can “shut off,” such as Slack chats and email, checking messages 24/7 is often too hard to resist. Your brain needs time to unplug and recharge in order to unleash your genius and creativity. Working too many hours limits access to your full range of skills and abilities-the unique characteristics you were hired for in the first place. ![]()
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