In China, the balance between work and life faces significant challenges with economic development and increasing competition, alongside rising living costs and the traditional notion of “work-first”. You may already feel overwhelmed and inadequate, but still underestimate the importance of balancing work and life. Perhaps you’ve longed for a better work-life balance but are unsure how to attain it. Robert Half offers some suggestions.
Recognizing the Importance of Balancing Work and Life
Enhancing work efficiency and creativity
We know that feelings of inadequacy stem from a lack of energy or ability. Enough time and resources are needed to enhance one’s skills, but through effective management, energy can be restored in a shorter period. When work and rest are effectively scheduled, energy can be better managed to avoid fatigue and distractions from long working hours. Proper rest and relaxation help to revitalize the mind, spark innovative thinking, improving effectiveness and creativity.
Maintaining physical and mental health
Long-term work pressure and insufficient rest can significantly undermine physical and mental well-being, increasing the risk of developing anxiety, depression, cardiovascular diseases, and so on. By paying more attention on how to achieve work-life balance, one can have ample time for exercise, maintain a healthy diet, enjoy hobbies, and spend time with family and friends, all of which contribute to a sound physical and mental state.
Enhancing quality of life
Through balancing the rhythms of work and life, one can allocate time to enjoy life’s pleasures, such as traveling, learning new skills, engaging in social activities, all of these are enriching personal experiences which support happiness.
Promoting family harmony
For the married, prolonged work will decrease their attention towards their partners, and even worse, their children’s growth will also be affected. The balance between work and life is crucial for maintaining harmonious family relationships. Excessive dedication to work often leads to neglecting family needs, resulting in increased conflicts at home. By scheduling quality time with family, you can foster positive exchanges between family members, creating more a harmonious atmosphere.
Setting a positive example
Leaders and managers can set a positive example for employees by showing them how to achieve work-life balance. By demonstrating how to effectively manage time and maintain a healthy work-life balance, employees will be inspired to follow suit, thereby fostering a healthier, more productive work environment.
Bestselling author Nigel Marsh once said in a TED Talk, “Knowing how to balance work and life is crucial; this balance cannot be entirely left to the employer or others to decide.” He encourages people to achieve a balance between family, personal development, and work through self-adjustment and planning. In his 40s, he decided to make changes in his life and within a year he ultimately found a better way to achieve this balance.
Behavioral scientist and Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans also spoke in a TED Talk about how the “always-on” work culture is destroying our happiness and work efficiency. She examined various cases and illustrated the stress and decrease in happiness that continuous work intrusion into personal life brings. She proposed three methods to delineate the boundaries between work and life, including redefining relaxation, distinguishing between work and personal life, and striving for more personal time.
Analyzing the Reasons Affecting Work-life Balance
There are many reasons that influence work-life balance, including cultural factors and competitive job environments.
First of all, in today’s society, dedication to work is widely regarded as a virtue. Dedication is also seen as an endeavor of personal cultivation, which includes moral and talent cultivation. Those who are dedicated can essentially achieve both moral and talent cultivation. While the emphasis on professional ethics and dedication does not directly impact work-life balance, in practice there may be indirect factors at play. For instance, some employers or managers may overly emphasize work performance and employee dedication so that they neglect their personal lives and well-being. To this end, employees may feel immense pressure, struggling to find the ideal balance.
Moreover, a competitive job environment can also affect work-life balance. The job market—and its lopsided pockets of supply and demand—presents a critical test for China as the number of university graduates continues to rise while the growth rate of job positions is relatively lower. Additionally, with the technological advancements and changes in industry structure, employees must equip themselves with higher skills. Job seekers need to continuously acquire new knowledge and skills to meet these demands, which adds to their learning burden and time costs, subsequently impacting their free time.
Take the well-known “996” working hour system (9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week) as an example. Although this system has sparked controversy in China and is gradually being regulated, it reflects some industries’ intense pursuit of high output efficiency and rapid response. Such high-intensity work patterns impose significant mental and physical pressure on professionals.
CEIBS Business Review once published an article titled “Over 88% of Employees Are ‘Under Great Pressure,’ How to Manage Stress Effectively?” The article mentioned that the stress incidence rate among Chinese professionals has reached 88.1%, with the stress incidence rate among Generation Z professionals soaring to 94.1%, far exceeding other groups (1). This data directly reflects the high stress levels among Chinese professionals, especially the younger generation.
How to Achieve Work-life Balance?
“How to achieve work-life balance” is an important topic. It not only affects personal happiness and health but also has an impact on work efficiency and creativity. Here are some practical suggestions on how to improve it:
Draw the line between work and life
Communicate effectively with your employer to establish boundaries regarding working hours and job requirements. Whether full-time or part-time, both the employer and employee should come to an agreement on working hours, overtime policies, and job expectations. This helps you plan your time effectively, preventing endless work from intruding into your personal life.
Time management
Maximize the effectiveness of time management techniques by creating daily and weekly work plans, and by prioritizing tasks that need to be completed. Ensure that you tackle the most important and urgent tasks first, gradually moving on to other items. Learn to delegate effectively. That means you should assign tasks to team members or colleagues. This not only lightens your workload but also promotes teamwork and trust.
Rest and relaxation
Make sure to schedule breaks appropriately, even on workdays. Short breaks can enhance work efficiency and focus, preventing fatigue and decreased productivity from prolonged periods of uninterrupted work. Make the most of vacations for relaxation. Vacations not only give your body a break but also provide relaxation for your mind, allowing you to return to work feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.
Separation after work
After work, refrain from checking work emails or answering work calls to ensure that your free time belongs entirely to yourself and your family. This way, you will have more time to spend with loved ones and friends, nurturing your interests and hobbies.
Care for yourself
Undeniably, while we showcase our social value through work, “honoring our true selves and going with the flow” is the right way to go to achieve long-term sustainable development. We can also relax the mind and body and ease our pressure by engaging in such activities as sports, hobbies and socializing with family and friends. Pay attention to your physical and mental health. If you feel unable to manage stress, seek professional assistance. Remember, taking care of yourself enables you to better care for others and handle work responsibilities.
To achieve this, we must be willing to change our perspectives and seek assistance.
Change perspectives
In the workplace, voicing your needs and ideas is crucial for safeguarding your rights and advancing your career. When we can openly discuss our workload and potential adjustments with the management, it not only helps alleviate personal work pressure but also fosters team harmony and efficiency.
First, actively communicate with your managers about workload. In fast-paced work environments workloads may continuously increase. Failure to communicate promptly can lead to employees getting caught in a cycle of overwork, impacting efficiency and overall well-being. Through candid discussions with your managers, we can collaboratively explore reasonable task distribution plans, seek a balance between work and life, and ensure the sustainability of workloads.
Balancing work and life are beneficial for both employees and companies. For employees, reasonable workload arrangements and adequate work support help them maintain enthusiasm, enhance work efficiency, and reduce health issues arising from overwork. For companies, a team capable of balancing work and life contributes to overall performance improvement, reduces employee turnover rates, cuts recruitment and training costs, and fosters long-term business development.
Let us consider young people born between 1990 and 2000 as an example. The persistent high pressure in the workplace has taught them more efficient and effective communication strategies. In their interactions with employers, they exhibit unique strengths and characteristics. They utilize technology and social media adeptly, seek clear and concise communication styles, respect individual differences and diversity, prioritize work-life balance, and expect efficient feedback and responses. These attributes help them establish better connections with employers and articulate their needs, thereby fostering cooperation and development between both parties.
Seek help
Many companies are increasingly aware of the prevalent workplace stress in today’s society. To safeguard employees’ physical and mental wellness, many companies offer a diverse range of free resources, including employee wellness programs, mental health counsellors, and support groups or online communities. You can utilize these free resources provided by your company based on your individual needs to help balance work and life.
For instance, you can exercise at the company gym during your free time, seek help from a mental health counsellor when feeling overwhelmed, or engage with others through support groups or online communities to share your thoughts and receive additional support and assistance.
Conclusion
We understand balancing work and life in today’s fast-paced modern life is no easy feat, yet it is a crucial way for professionals to maintain both physical and mental well-being, enhance work efficiency, and lead fulfilling lives.
We recommend that you reassess your life and work arrangements, identify factors that affect the balance between your personal and professional life, and take steps to find equilibrium. To achieve this, professionals can proactively seek out more useful resources and methods, such as reading relevant books, participating in online or offline seminars or workshops, and learning practical skills from these experiences.
If you encounter difficulties that are challenging to resolve while striving to balance work and life, and require more professional support and assistance, consider enrolling in professional training courses, seeking help from experts, or contacting recruitment agencies like Robert Half to find employers who prioritize this balance.
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