I have been asked to give a presentation on Work Life Balance for a group of women. The group will include, employed, self-employed and those thinking of become self-employed. It is expected to be for approx 45mins including questions. I obviously want to ensure it is interactive with a questionnaire/quiz if possible. Any ideas/suggestions are very welcome.
Wendy Hill
8 Responses
WLB
Hi Wendy
An idea to get them thinking is to give them some scenarios where there are choices so for example
“you are working on X project and you have a crucial piece of work to finish by X date, which means you will need to work very late today. However you have your parents anniversary party tonight”
Or
“You arrange your working hours so that you can pick up your child from school. However you have some contacts who are unhappy that you are not availble when THEY want you.”
Ask them as a group for their thoughts and feelings.
The feeling element is important as a lot of the WLB struggles are about how you manage the emotions (guilt, resentment etc) associated with trying to maintain that balance.
Hope this helps
Good Time Management
Hi Wendy
I agree that emotions play a big part. I’ve always found a good way to promote good WLB is to give a tool to manage their time, The one I give out is the Target, Maintain and rest. You categorise the work bit with the target (Important stuff) Maintainence (self delegation. Then you use the rest part for life balance. You can put in things like watching a TV program, help kids with homework, do yoga etc. Seems to work quite well
Best wishes
Rich Lucas
http://www.supremacytraining.com
Dinosaur
Hi Wendy,
The last time i commented on this .. in some management magazine, i had a reply saying i was a dinosaur and people ought to be protected from work and not made to enjoy it.
At the risk of the same result, i would ask that you include a little smidgen of a bit of a fraction on how work can provide a positive balance to life.
I regularly get a good sense of satisfaction from my job – it improves my life and wellbeing – not always, but enough for comment on.
I suppose one of the key areas of focus for self employed / contract is that you can do too many hours – the plus is the flexibility of when you do them.
Yours
Neil(osaurus rex)
dinosaurs of the world unite
Wendy
Neil is not a dinosaur but a fellow visionary….if you start with the foundation stone of a career or job you love; then the work/life balance is more straightforward….if, however, you are one of those people who believe that work MUST be a four letter word then the W/L balance becomes a difficult act to manage.
I was given three pieces of advice by one of my first managers…numbers 1 and 2 I will not bore you with but number three was “As soon as you go a week without smiling pack up and get out”.
By cracky, that is a good piece of advice!
(I’ll now get off my soapbox!)
Rus
PS Please don’t be put off by the fact that the Neil and I are both men whilst your presentation is to an exclusively female audience…I can’t see that it will actually make a difference
Drop the term “work/Life Balance”
Work is part of life, so why do we separate it by the linguistic trick of seeking Work/Life balance? The linguistics are more important than many people think.
I would rather refer to simply “Life Balance” or, if you must “Work/Home Balance”.
As your audience is women, you might like to look upo a Springboard Trainer in your area – this is a fabulous programme which addresses, inter alia, the issue you mention. You may find a trainer willing to either help you or come along and give a taster… look on http://www.springboardconsultancy.com/trainers.asp
(Now I’ll declare the interest that we deliver the programme – so if you are in Yorkshire, give me a bell…).
Thank You
Many thanks for all your comments.
They are all very useful.
Wendy
balance
wendy
you could start by asking whther/why th e issue is a male/female thing and if so how to change it
You have not been very clear about your objective or more imprtantly their objective. If they are self employed then I would venture to suggest that it is a very different issue than for mere employees. Perhaps you could ask them that question as well
Difference in mindset
I agree its important to understand the difference in approach and mindset of those who are self employed and those who are employed.
The self employed often have autonomy and the ability to define their hours and refuse work.
This means that they may feel more ‘in control’ of their WL balance.
Their mindset is significantly different and many have other things in their life. For the self employed the ‘work to live’ philosophy is frequently more important.