WORK-life balance

Do you ever feel there is a major movement in our society steering away from socialization? We had the pandemic which wreaked havoc on folks’ ability to be social. And now people are showing preference to working from home. In fact, many places of employment no longer have office space and prefer their employees to work from home. This immediately infringes on the social aspect of work, a sense of isolation and the beloved “water cooler” moments. In addition to this, social media impacts the ability to socialize comfortably in person. Some of us have become “addicted” to perusing social media and what begins as a few minutes turns quickly into hours. When socializing, many people are on their devices separately when together. And when there is a moment of being alone even in public, the phones come out perhaps as a social anxiety but the result is that it intrudes on the spontaneity of social interaction. I think we all know these things. However, my thought of the day is also on workload demand. When there is so much to do behind the scenes of natural work interaction ie: paperwork, research, publishing, documentation, etc. that requires solitary dedication it can impact socialization:

• not being able to get the amount of work accomplished in the workday and needing to work overtime or at night
• being too tired to socialize
• finding socialization intrusive on the time needed to produce the “behind the scenes” work

This is problematic to emotional well-being. We all desire connection and the need to build social capital. All of us want friends, we want to have fun and we want to balance work with “life”. When the work environment provides or has limited resources and there is an inequitable distribution of workload, a social interaction (even during the work day) can feel burdensome and the infringement on social opportunities can create apathy and even depression. Here’s what you can do:

• If you are working in an office, make sure to take a walk inside or outside on the grounds at least twice a day. You may need to physically separate yourself from your work.
• Make at least one social engagement a week.
• Make a point of taking lunch (without taking out your phone) - be open to spontaneity or invite someone to lunch. Do not eat at your desk.
• Reach out to at least one person a day for a social call.
• Reach out to at least one person a day in your work environment even for small talk.

We have to create our own experiences. We have to open ourselves up to opportunities that we may not even know exist.

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