Work-Life Balance

I have first heard her story from my boss, with bare minimal details. It was a pity of her to pass away at such a tender age.

Today, a colleague has forwarded me a report featuring her story. After reading that article, I felt sympathy, sadness and some form of relation to her story. Some of the comments in her blog struck a chord in me. Her body of 29 years abandoned her after prolonged working.

The corporate culture today seemed to equate 12 or more hours of working as normal working hours. The weekend never arrives. Many weekends are utilized on catching up backlogs which seem impossible to complete. People who only chip in their 9-to-5 share are immediately labeled as cruisers or even slackers. Many are so knackered from their demanding jobs that on the occasions where they have a workless weekend, they devote the entire weekend to ‘recuperating’.

Are the workers getting less efficient such that increasing hours are required to complete the tasks? Do our workers slack during the official working hours so that they have to put in extra hours after office hours to clear work?

Given the recent study which shows that Singaporeans’ walking pace has increased tremendously and even surpassed many countries, it seems unlikely that our productivity has declined. Many likened the fast pace to the increasing stress of Singaporeans though.

Most people will prefer to have dinner at dinner time, rather than supper time. Most people will prefer to go home for a home-cooked meal and slouch on their sofa for their favourite 9 o’clock drama than be stuck in the cold office. Thus, I believe if one knows that they will need more time to complete the task, they will pull themselves from the afternoon tea cum gossip break.

Perhaps some organizations in their quest for continual excellence and lean methodology have taken cost cutting, particularly manpower cost cutting, a tad too far. When employees are overstretched, especially for prolonged period of time, it is both detrimental to the employees and the organization. In the short term, employees who overworked and overstressed are less healthy. There will be increasing medical reimbursements. Absences of the employees will also cause more disruptions. In the long term, employees become demoralized and leave the company. This causes greater disruptions and even brain drain. It is also more costly to recruit and retrain the replacement. Short terms gains can sometimes result in higher costs in the long term.

We should give our best in work. Yet, we must also strive for a work-life balance, for instance, by taking short breaks now and then to give our body time to recharge. When things seem to get out of hand, we should talk to our peers or our supervisors to work out a win-win solution. If all things fail, perhaps it can mean a mismatch of personal and corporate goals. It is timely then to part ways for the good of both the individual and the company.

Perhaps I am oversimplifying things. Afterall, it is difficult to say no, especially to your boss. With growing competition, to have a healthy bottom line, cost cutting becomes a constant battle for any organization. The balance between a healthy pay-check against our healthy and the balance between the employee welfare and shareholder value will constantly be on our and the managers’ minds. These balances have become harder and harder to juggle with an increasingly competitive world.