Companies will have to step up work life balance

            Having work life balance in European countries seems like a dream to many Canadians. Where in many other countries employees get flexible hours to work and can also work from home and get some paid vocations, it has been found that on an average a Canadian works 1,704 hours annually which is more than in Germany and Australia.

            But these days, in order to keep the younger talented workers, companies will have to implement the policies attract the talented workers because younger generation wants a clearer divisions between their work and personal life.

            Companies often want their employees to work more not less and work nearly 24/7 so that they can earn more and more profit. Not only this, workers not only work during their working hours but are also riveted to their smartphones doing the work of their office. But what workers want is their relaxed lunch breaks, spend time with their families instead of remaining glued to their smartphones or laptops. Companies offer many facilities to their employees like free meals and other services but they not give them such services to promote work life balance as their wish is to not allow their employees to leave their workplaces and work as much as possible. Experts say that the companies who will fail to implement the true work life balance strategies will not be able to attract and retain talented workers. According to the Information and Communication Technology Council, there will be shortage of workers in Canada and there won’t be enough qualified people to fulfill new jobs. (Sagan, 2016)  

Initiatives towards work life balance

            In order to promote balance between ones’ personal and official life many initiatives have be taken and many should be taken by the employees. In simple words, initiatives are in the form of some policies, some programs or some kind of benefits that can help us manage our work at job and our life outside our work better. These initiatives can be like

o   Child care centers in or near offices – This can be a very good step because this allows you to meet your children during breaks or whenever you are free from your work.

o   Flexible working arrangements – Yes, definitely, working arrangements should be made flexible. For example, one should be allowed to work from home during some emergency or whenever required.

o   Family leave policies – One must be granted leave whenever there is some emergency or work in family.

o   Employee assistance programs – There should be some programs organised by the companies in order to guide their employees about the work – life balance. They should be taught about how to best deal with the stress, etc.

Why should work places have such programs?

            Work places should have such programs as these programs will give many more benefits in their businesses. Resent surveys have shown that such programs at work places have shown many good results like this has attracted many new employees. Attracting new employees helps in increasing levels of productivity and satisfaction. Such programs also help in decreasing stress and burn out. (CCOHS, 2016)

Enjoying at Home

            In order to maintain a good work – life balance, we all need to give proper time to our family also. And, giving time does not mean that you sit and near them and are indulged in some other activity like taking phone calls or using social media sites on your phone, etc. Giving time means you sit with and indulge in some activities with them like playing, making gossips, cooking together, etc. I will list some ways how one can make their home a happy world.

v  Cooking and eating dinners together

The best to spend your evenings together is to cook your dinner with your spouse. This will not only lend them a helping hand but also bring them closer to you making your relationship stronger. And then just sit with your family while you have dinner and try sharing activities of your day with them.

v  Say a big ‘NO’ to your phone

No doubt, technology has made our life easier but things like phones along with bringing us closer to the whole world has kept us away from our own family. So, rather than spending time with friends on social networking sites spend time with your family.

v  Arrange small picnics on weekends

Another way to spend time with family and enjoying with them is to arrange small family picnics on weekends. This will give a lot of time to play with them, eat with them and talking with them. This will definitely lend you many cherish able memories. (Greenblatt, 2015)

Enjoying at workplaces

            We spend most of the time of our life working at our workplaces. So, to remain happy most of the time of our life we will have to make our workplace a fun rather than having a boring routine daily – ‘Rush to work, do work and then rush back home’. This type of schedule really make us depressed. To avoid this type of situation, first of all we should do the job which really suits our interests because it is only then that we can enjoy doing our work.

            Another way is to choose to be at your workplace. To be happy, try not to get involved in a negative gossip with a negative person. We should always try to maintain our company with a positive person or be alone if you cannot find a person with such an attitude as it is always said that ‘it is better to be alone than enjoying in a bad company’.

            One should also try to make friends at ones’ workplace. This will really keep you happy at your workplace. Making friends will give you support at your work and also you can share your ideas with each other and do something really good for the betterment of your and their future.

          Also, always try to make the commitments that you can keep. This attitude would, for sure, keep you away from frustration because when we find that we are not able to do something that we promised or committed to do then we will be depressed from this feeling and will get frustrated, which again means unhappiness.(Heathfield, 2017)

Work-life balance

            Work life balance is how we balance our work life and our personal life. In order to lead a successful and happy life one must be able to balance ones’ personal and professional life. This is necessary for every individual to enjoy his or her life and I think we all should not leave any single chance of enjoying our life as we have got only one life to live and nobody knows when is the last day. Work-life balance does not mean that we give equal hours to both our work and personal living but it is the way how we enjoy as well as achieve success. If we spend our life in just achieving the success then we will miss all the joys of our life that we could have in our life. We all should have this in our minds when we start our day that ‘today I want to achieve something new and also today I want to enjoy some beautiful moments to make my day the best day of my life’. If we are successful in making our all days like this then definitely we are going enjoy the whole life having many beautiful moments in our pocket to remember and cherish. (Work-life balance, 2003)

            We should have the ideas of how to enjoy every single moment of our life. Some of you will be thinking that how we can enjoy at the workplace. But yes for sure we can also make our work enjoyable if we have the desire and ability to do that.