Top Five Ways to Encourage Work-life Balance in the Office

Everyone’s idea of what work-life balance looks like is different. However, according to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, finding balance between our professional and personal lives “is not necessarily about splitting time equally, but rather that the individual feels fulfilled and content with both aspects of their life.”

While that may sound easier said than done, encouraging a healthy culture of work-life balance can play an important role in strengthening our resilience and overall well-being both in the office and out.

Why is work-life balance so important?

In our busy world, the idea of work-life balance tends to be treated like a luxury; an aspirational, nice-to-have state we all hope to achieve some day. Often our professional obligations take priority and bleed into the rest of our lives. We check our email at the dinner table, work long hours to meet deadlines, and put our own needs on the back burner for the sake of the hustle. But what’s the cost of this behavior?

As it turns out, there are a number of negative consequences of having poor work-life balance, including:

• Burnout
• Job dissatisfaction
• Mental health issues (i.e. anxiety, depression, etc.)
• Increased fatigue, injuries, and illness
• Lower quality of work
• Missed work and decreased employee retention

Five ways to encourage work-life balance

Ensure people take their time-off

Sadly, even in workplaces with generous paid time-off, it’s not unusual for people to leave those vacation and sick days unspent. Sometimes this is due to high workloads and packed schedules. In other situations, there may be an element of toxic office culture at play, leading people to feel as though taking P.T.O. demonstrates a lack of commitment to their job and organization. But no matter the reason, the results are the same: people aren’t taking the time to rest and rejuvenate.

One easy way to enhance work-life balance in the office is to encourage everyone to take the time-off that is owed to them – including sick days. Get ahead by planning for the upcoming year or quarter, making a point to ensure you have plenty of breaks throughout the coming months instead of packing it all in at once. If workloads are a factor, collaborate with your colleagues to help make sure everyone has the support and coverage needed to take and enjoy their down time.

Protect off-hours 

Between email and smartphones, it’s never been harder for people to disconnect from their jobs. Our hyper-connectivity often blurs the lines around our workdays and, if left unchecked, can easily create a culture where the boundaries between work and personal time are regularly crossed. To help avoid this, establish a shared understanding in the office around working hours and acceptable after-hours communications. In some cases, it may help to define what kind of requests are actually considered “urgent”, or even mandate that requests shouldn’t be sent between specific hours. Unless someone’s job description requires them to be on-call, employees should be empowered to turn off their phones and close their email after work and on weekends. 

Offer flexible work arrangements

If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything, it’s that standard 9-5 office hours aren’t the only way to work. In fact, as the Harvard Business Review points out, “even though millions switched to flexible and remote work arrangements during the pandemic, productivity didn’t decline”. For many people and businesses, the adoption of flexible scheduling and remote work was – and continues to be – a valuable way to improve work-life balance without compromising outcomes. Offering arrangements such as flexible start and/or end times to the workday and remote work options makes it easier for individuals to accommodate their personal life around their jobs. As an added bonus, these kinds of arrangements are also great ways to support diverse work styles, including for people with neurodivergence or disabilities.

Keep workloads manageable

Not only can heavy workloads discourage some people from taking their P.T.O., they can also lead to long, exhausting workdays and even taking work home. It’s hard for people to prioritize work-life balance when they’re overwhelmed by outsized demands in their job. To help, people leaders should regularly check-in with their team members to make sure they’re on track, not drowning in deadlines, and to help delegate tasks if possible. Individuals should be encouraged to ask for support when they need it – and to offer it to their colleagues if they can.

Lead from the top

Leadership positions often come with increased demands on a person’s time. Still, when bosses don’t nurture their own work-life balance, people around the office notice. To truly encourage healthy work-life balance within your office culture, it’s important for managers, directors, and anyone else in leadership positions to set a good example. This can look like taking breaks, leaving the office on time, and not sending emails or messages outside of office hours.

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