Stressed Out? Does Your Company Promote a Healthy Work Life Balance?

Never, in a million years, did I think I would be working five full days a week after having my third child, but here I am, sitting at my desk, in the office writing a blog about it – and happy too!

How does one deal with juggling family life while holding down a full time job? If you asked me this a year ago when I was on maternity leave I would have said: ‘At this stage, full time is not for me! Three days is the best way for me to spend time with my children while also getting an income and hold some normal (adult) conversations’.

Alas, three days a week was not an option. I needed to go back to work full time. Basically, I couldn’t afford not to!

I met Liz, CEO of TAMI, last August and was introduced to the world of eCommerce market sizing. Being a start-up it was an ‘all hands on deck’ environment and full time was needed.

But the beauty of my job is the empathy that flows within culture of the organisation. The fact that my CEO knows that it can be challenging juggling full time work with family life actually makes my life a lot easier. I work one day a week from home and that makes a huge difference to me as well as the kids (they are happy knowing that I am simply at home, even if I am working). And as for those emergency calls we, as parents, simply must go home for – well, that’s life! But I know it’s not going to be a problem with work as I can catch up at home on the laptop in my own time.

If you, like a lot of us out there, are juggling full time work with family life, ask yourself if you are making the most of your work life balance. Further, if you work in a company that doesn’t require you to physically be in the office to get the job done, is it really necessary for you to commute every day?

If you’re not already availing of working from home or flexible working…

Here are some tips to help balance family and work

• Find out about your company policies on working from home and flexible working.
• See if anyone in the organisation is already working flexibly and ask how this was arranged; get as much anecdotal information as you can about current arrangements that other people have
• Research all potential flexible working options, and consider your childcare requirements
• Write a formal application to your company:

1. Outline the benefits to your organisation – appeal to the person’s logical side
2. Ask for a trial period with review points, so that you and your manager can tackle any problems as and when they arrive
3. Present your request as a win-win arrangement. If you don’t ask you won’t get: remember, you’re offering a solution that should be a win-win — they don’t have the time and expense of recruiting and selecting a new person for the role, and they get the benefit of increased engagement from you

• Flexibility isn’t just about reduced hours – it’s the ways of working that increase effectiveness of your work life balance

Written by Audrey Grant, still believing the ideal balance is 3 days a week but very happy with the work life balance she has with TAMI!