Hey everyone and welcome back to the Understandable English Podcast.
My name is Oliver and today we are going to be talking about something called work-life balance.
We're going to look at what it is and how we can achieve it and also why it is important.
This topic is a little bit different for everyone, and some people will have different opinions and ideas of how this should be.
Work-life balance is having a balance between your work and the rest of your life.
So being happy with the amount of time and the role of your job or work versus, or combined with, the free time that you have and the other aspects of your life.
Some societies and countries value their time, so the life part, much higher than work.
And in other countries, they value work.
So working longer hours, more time, less holidays.
And this can result in less free time or time for the rest of your life.
A recent study in the UK by the insurance company Aviva showed that since the pandemic, so after COVID, more workers said that they were attracted or they liked their current job for the work-life balance more so than the salary.
So 41% felt that work-life balance was more important than salary.
And this is the opposite from before COVID, before the pandemic.
Of course, work is an important or very big part in all of our lives.
Our work gives us money to pay the bills, to keep warm, to get food and to do things that we like, like travel or visit friends, to go to interesting places and do nice things.
And of course, when this is important, we do a lot of it.
But working more can make it harder to have that work-life balance.
Let's take some examples.
So if you live in the city, your work-life balance is more likely to be heavier on work than life.
And if you live in the countryside, perhaps you will have more of a focus on life and work is less important.
And this comes from competition and the economy.
Especially in cities or countries with a strong economic focus.
Employers expect more from their people.
They're usually paying them more money and there are more demands or requirements from them.
And this can lead to people feeling more pressure to achieve or get greater results, better results.
And this can cause stress.
It can make people tired, unhappy and even depressed, which makes it especially important to ensure that you have a good quality of life as well, that you're balancing your work with your personal life.
In quieter places, like in the countryside, often jobs will pay less money.
A lot of jobs will have less demands, less intense, less of a focus on profit.
Of course, this is not always the case.
But even if a company or a job has a bad work-life balance, this costs a lot of money for the company too, because workers are more likely to leave and find another job.
And some recent research from Oxford Economic.
It showed that replacing an employee, so finding a new one costs, on average, around £30000.
And it can take up to 28 weeks to get the new employee to the same level or at least being able to be almost as productive.
So, looking at this, it shows us how important it is to keep employees happy as well as keeping ourselves happy too.
It saves time and money for both and keeps both our companies and jobs happy as well as ourselves.
So what are a few reasons why work-life balance is important?
The number one reason in my eyes is fewer health problems.
When we have very high stress and pressure from work, we can damage our physical and mental health.
A lot of studies show that when we are stressed and overworked and tired, we are more likely to get cold, get a flu or other health problems.
And it even increases the risk of a heart attack or a stroke.
And this isn't even talking about mental health problems like anxiety or depression.
Overworking and being too stressed in the long term is not healthy and I don't think it is good for anyone.
Another important reason is that people will be more productive and effective with a healthier work-life balance.
When they are refreshed and relaxed from their personal life, they can focus and work at the best level and ability and they will be less likely to have a burnout.
A burnout is when they feel overwhelmed.
There's too much, too much pressure, and it can almost stop a person where they need to take some time off and relax to recover.
Okay, so what are some tips that we can do to ensure that we have a good work life balance?
One way is looking at holidays or time off as not a luxury.
It is something that you need.
It is a necessity.
Make sure that you use your time off and don't feel pressured to not take holidays.
In some cultures and some companies.
They put pressure on employees to not use all of their holiday time.
Because if they take too many holidays they are not working hard enough.
They don't want the next promotion.
But actually...
We need our vacations or holidays.
We need the time off to relax, recover and come back to work with a fresh head.
Another way to ensure a good work-life balance is to take short breaks, to make sure that you are taking a break for a coffee, for a walk outside, for some time to read, to relax, for yourself.
This allows us to work effectively in the time that we are working and also allows us to have that time to reduce our stress, to calm down and to relax a little bit.
And finally, to share and work together as a team.
The best way is to within your workplace or to find a job in a company that values teamwork and their employees.
For example, if you need to finish work early to go to an important life event or to pick your children up from school, you should be able to share and work together as a team to ensure that the work is done and that also you can meet those expectations or important things in your life.
Flexibility is so important.
And I think one thing which is great from COVID or after pandemic is that a lot of places offer flexible work or hybrid work, where you can take some days at home, some days in the office, and it means you can have a variety.
You can have different experiences with your work each day.
It can allow people to save time on driving to work or using public transport.
They can be at home sometimes to pick their children up from school or to meet a friend after work.
These things are all so important.
So when you're thinking about your job or working, make sure that you keep a good work-life balance.
Prioritizing or focusing on one far too much over the other is never a good, healthy thing.
So having and keeping that balance is very important for our physical and mental health.
I hope this episode was interesting for you and I hope you have an amazing day.
Goodbye.
