Work-life balance: choose wisely

The American Author Gary Keller once said, ‘Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls – family, health, friends, integrity are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered’. The COVID-19 pandemic has given us another opportunity to reflect on our work-life balance (WLB) arrangements. The term WLB connotes relative allocation of time and resources to professional and personal activities. A ‘poor WLB’ generally implies a heavy emphasis on work-related activities over others like relationships, caregiving, activities for one’s physical fitness, mental health, and hobbies/relaxing time. The definition and the extent of what constitutes a good or bad WLB are subjective. The WLB, however, does not imply efforts to maintain an exact equilibrium or that you can have it all. It simply means efforts to create a dynamic equilibrium. The WLB can be assessed through many of its subsets like work-family balance (WFB) and work-health balance (WHB).¹

Several surveys from the West have shown how the majority (50–80%) of the workers prefer a job that promotes a better work-life balance over attractive salaries or perks.² The concept of WLB arrangements (WLBA) at the workplace signifies the presence of individual or combination of programs like family-friendly policies, workplace-health programs, and flexible schedules. Meta-analysis has suggested a positive influence of WLBA on organizational performance, career motivation, attendance, employee recruitment, and retention.² The NHS advocates a WLB as reflected in its handbook, where a section is dedicated to ‘Balancing work and personal life’.³ Since January 2021, jobs advertised by NHS England have been ‘flexible’.⁴ Various healthcare employers are considering several measures, including flexibility from day one, role modelling from the top, and management support to employees with caregiving responsibilities.

Creating and customising the balance

The author Jana Kingsford once said, ‘Balance is not something you find, it’s something you create’. Every individual’s needs, commitments, and satisfaction levels are different. Hence, measures should be tailored and directed to find fulfilment from work and life. This is a continuous process and varies significantly with varying phases of life and career. It is natural for the balance to keep tipping one or the other side and not be sustained. Hence, WLB would be a dynamic equilibrium, and a constant watch and effort is needed to avoid individually unacceptable mismatch of either components. The following are the broad general guidelines that have been documented in the literature for promoting a healthy work-life balance.^1–10

1. Learn to say ‘NO’. This prevents the scourge of ‘overcommitment’ and the subsequent exceptional stress that it can bring in. Say ‘Yes’ to things that interest you and are also helpful to your career or where you have an obligation to do it.

2. Never be hesitant to admit that your family takes priority.

3. Focus on what interests you at work and enjoy the work.

4. Ask for help when needed, both at the workplace and home.

5. Before expecting others to respect your vacation time, appreciate it yourself. Cultivate the discipline of not taking work home or letting work spill over your other times. It could be as simple a measure as not checking emails once the work time is over.

6. Productivity at the workplace does not necessarily relate to the work hours spent. Analyse your day and work out schedules to increase efficiency.

7. Keep a watch on the time required for targeted commitments and schedule your priorities.

8. It is as essential to work smarter as it is to work harder.

9. Pace your life for sustainable long-term work to avoid burnout.

10. Take leaves from work at regular intervals.

11. ‘Career breaks’ can be an option for those who deem it necessary at certain stages of their careers.

12. Struggling to achieve a WLB is not a weakness. Reject the assumption of it being a weakness. It is an indicator that you are on the path to finding your spot of happiness.

13. Be helpful to your colleagues. They very much deserve the respectable mixture of sympathy and empathy that we usually reserve for our patients.

14. Take time out regularly for your physical and mental well-being.

15. Pursue hobbies or passions outside your work area and steadily make a decent room for them.

In summary, physician wellness and professional satisfaction can impact several areas, including patient care. A poor WLB can result in burnout. WLB is not about work versus life but a customized integration of both to appreciate the joys of both work and non-work activities. It is essential to realize that to take care of others; the physicians must take care of themselves first. Remember that ‘end of career regrets’ or ‘end of life regrets’ would rarely be ‘I wish I had more grants’, ‘I wish I had more publications’, and ‘I wish I had spent more time at work’. While medicine is a crucial part of our lives, it is not the whole of it. There is much more to life than a career alone.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation.