Work/Life Balance Post COVID - Adjusting To The New Normal
According to Dentistry today (2020), half of the dentists 50% are dissatisfied with their work life balance.
How can we assist them to have a positive work life balance?
One may ask what is the difference between a positive work life balance and a negative work life balance?
Personally it is having the flexibility to manage time between your work and your personal life.
I love poetry and write poems, drawing, gardening, creating recipes, cooking, voluntary work and making a difference which becomes a ripple effect to inspire the next generation.
The best way to discuss this topic is for you to set time aside and engage with the activity enclosed. Carry out a SWOT analysis, self-appraisal such as what went well, what did not go well, what lessons have you learnt and how can you improve.
Take an A4 piece of paper and draw a big circle. Divide the circle into 10 segments.
Each segment represent an aspect of your life that you will like to explore. An example enclosed but you know which ones you wish to pick or add. On the outer side of the circle give it a score of 10 which stands for happy and towards the centre of the circle the score is 0 which stands for not happy.
After scoring each aspect of your life draw a line through all the points and shade it using different colours. Does the picture look balanced to you? If it does not what are you going to do about it? Remember one life, Live it!
There are times some people are on holiday with their family but still working. Is that you? Post Covid, it is now known you can work from home e.g if you wish to have a meeting with your staff, it can be done online using zoom, teams, google etc. There is a new way of working and can only be approached with flexibility and kindness. Most people understand the journey post Covid and trying to find new ways of doing things that spark joy.
Will be sharing some tips which you can adapt for your work life balance.
TIPS
1. Make time to do things you enjoy. Working long hours can affect your ability to make time since it flies so quickly. Remember time waits for no man. It is okay to rest and feel fresh to face another day. Think of your hobbies and how you can make time for them
2. At work delegate some of your activities to your colleagues and staff by sharing your vision that you have journaled.
3. Try to value your staff by taking them out for a meal and giving them gifts to appreciate their hard work.
4. Try and create a positive supportive environment for all to strive and flourish.
5. Remember the “staff” are the heartbeat of any organisation. Introduce reverse mentoring. Your dental nurse can mentor you and you will be surprised what you can learn from each other.
6. Staff that are valued, respected and treated with kindness go the extra mile to support you. Win win situation for all of a happy environment.
7. Appreciate your staff and give them career pathways to develop and learn from one another. Set SMART goals that your team can relate to and engage with them and you will be surprised how quickly you can deal with anything. Set up action learning set to resolve issues when they present themselves. Remember two heads are better than one.
8. Give your staff a voice to give you ideas that you can use to improve their experiences at work
9. Delegate activities by sharing your vision and you will be surprised by some of the good ideas that you did not know existed. The staff thrives when their contributions are taken seriously, it makes them happy and increases moral.
10. Once a year create a gratitude day and celebrate your achievements as a team together.
It is possible to have a positive work life balance. Be kind to yourself and others in the workplace. A happy supportive environment makes everyone feel special. We all need to be flexible, adapt to all solutions offered to make it better. It can only get better.
DISCLAIMER - if anything discussed resonates with you it is okay to seek suitable support according to your needs.
REFERENCES:
2. https://hbr.org/2016/04/an-antidote-to-incivility
3. https://www.eliinc.com/five-cpommon-examples-workplace-incivility/
5. https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2009.901
6. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/kings-global-day-of-service-2020
7. https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2020/02/2019-nhs-staff-survey-are-staff-needs-being-met