The juggling act is difficult but needed

NEGLECTING work-life balance can have dire consequences for individuals, their families and their relationships, according to work-life expert Barbara Holmes.

“Work-life imbalance absolutely has the potential to create mental and physical health issues,” Barbara tells Australian Conveyancer Magazine. “It results in people not sleeping, people having substance abuse issues, impacts on relationships, impact on work relationships, missing deadlines, the ability to be able to deliver, and making mistakes on contracts, etc.”

With 35 years experience, consulting with companies and individuals about work-life balance, Barbara says the first step to creating a less stressful and more impactful work-life balance is to first clarify what is most important to you.

“Work-life balance for each person is very different,” she explains. “It’s important that people define what it means for them, and to ask themselves what will happen when they have achieved a work-life balance that they personally want. They can then develop their personal plan to achieve that goal.

“So, it could be someone who likes to spend time with family and friends and also likes to have a fulfilling job, for other people they may want to make time for sports, culture, arts, whatever matters to them.”

Barbara believes community attitudes towards work-life balance have shifted in the past 20-30 years with employees, employers and sole traders now recognising its significance in creating a healthy workplace environment.

“When I first started in the space, we would talk about work-life balance and people would have this weird look on their faces. Now it is an accepted practice,” she says. “There is more awareness about the need for employees to achieve what it is that gives them satisfaction. 

“And legislation has changed to accommodate people’s needs, things like workplace flexibility, parental leave, all of those things have improved people’s ability to achieve balance. And that’s great news.”

So how does Barbara advise her clients when they start examining their work-life balance?

“I will get them to do a time diary for a few weeks to look at how they are spending their time,” she says. “And then I compare that with their values, by doing a value clarification exercise where they may say that family is number one but we would then look at their time diary and see that 90% of their time is spent at work. 

“From there we will develop an action plan. And they can renegotiate and reassess how they spend their time and match that with their values. 

“This change doesn’t happen overnight, change takes quite a long time to achieve, but at least if we can eat the elephant in bite size chunks then it can help.”

Barbara says learning how to say ‘no’ is key to any long-lasting work-life balance and knowing how to prioritise will help relieve the stress.

“Creating your own boundaries and renegotiating is paramount,” she says. “If there are unreasonable expectations – or even if they are reasonable but they are unachievable – then you need to have the assertiveness skills and the strengths to ask to renegotiate.

“And if you put it in an objective way that reflects on your ability to deliver the service or product or the accuracy of the material you are working with in conveyancing then I think you have a better chance of achieving an outcome that suits you.”

And, once people are on track to achieving work-life balance, Barbara says the results are measurable.

“You do see a difference in behaviour and health and you do see things improve for them,” she says. “Work life balance is like an ongoing quest. Once you have have reached one level, you think, oh, I could do more!”