Introduction
Did you know a work life balance is necessary to stay healthy and fit? Knowing the work-life balance problems and solutions is necessary to avoid working yourself to an early grave.
According to recent research, individuals who consistently experience an unbalanced work-life are at a 33% higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, a 42% higher risk of developing mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, and face a 23% higher likelihood of premature mortality.
About 57% of job seekers said that a poor work-life balance is a deal breaker when it comes to jobs. This means that finding solutions to your employees’ work-life balance problems is more important than ever.
If you’re wondering “What is work-life balance?” it’s the ever-changing balance between prioritizing personal and work life.
Everyone has days when they need to work overtime or stay up late working on a project. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance means that you can work hard and build your career without letting work take over your life.
Here are some common work-life balance problems and solutions to help manage or reduce those issues.
Work-Life Balance Problems and Solutions
1. You Always Feel Tired
If you constantly feel fatigued, it could be one of the most glaringly obvious signs that you are working too much daily. When you have a mountain of tasks and reminders to juggle in a single day, you will feel physically and mentally exhausted.
Since you are tired, you will also find yourself falling behind because it becomes too hard to function. Then you may risk spending even more time completing all your tasks and will risk staying up late to finish everything.
This will cause an unhealthy work life balance that will also result in you sleeping poorly.
The exhaustion will become too much, and you could struggle to get to bed or stay asleep until the alarm goes off. You may also find it challenging to switch the brain off after work.
This could significantly impact your sleep because you will never get a moment’s rest if you are constantly thinking about things at the office instead of counting sheep.
Solution
Remember that many adults need at least 7 hours of sleep each night to feel well-rested. It is the only way you will fully function properly to go back to work for the rest of the week.
Ensure you find a relaxing bedtime routine that will help you fall asleep so much faster and be more restful the next day. Cut out some screentime before bed to practice meditation.
If you keep thinking about your tasks for the next day, you should try writing them down to help clear your mind for a good night’s sleep.
2. Frequently Working Overtime
Are you working too much for too long with hardly any time off? This is one of the most significant signs of an unhealthy work life balance.
Although you can sometimes need more time to finish tasks before deadlines, you should take a step back if you are too pressured to take on more work.
Remember that working from home can also increase the risk of you staying at the computer for much longer than planned.
When you blur the separation between your work and home life, you could end up working on projects, checking emails, and doing all-nighters.
Solution
Always ensure that you are only working your assigned hours. Take the chance to break from work and spend time on yourself.
If you struggle to fit all your tasks a day before your sign-off time, you may need to manage these better. Talk to your mentor and find out ways that you can fix your to-do lists to prioritize the tasks more efficiently.
3. Feeling Irritable
Do you find that you always lose your patience with colleagues or other friends and family members? Are you yelling a lot more these days and feeling as though you have no patience left for anyone?
This is a sign of stress from working too much. If you feel angry over little things that do not deserve such attention, you might need a break from everyone because the pressure is getting too much.
Solution
It helps to take a little bit of time each day to do something you enjoy. This way, you are not always doing things for other people.
Pamper yourself and go out for a nice meal occasionally. It will be the best experience when you are not around colleagues who keep breathing down your neck.
4. Messy Personal Space
When you are overloaded with work, you may have very messy work and personal spaces. This is because you may be too tired and overworked to tidy up. Or you may have a lot of projects and paperwork strewn across your desk that you cannot manage.
Having a cluttered workspace will make you feel less productive and focused. Then you will lead to more burnout and stress if you do not keep a tidy workspace.
Solution
It helps to get letter trays to organize your paperwork into things you need urgently. When you stay clean and organized, you will feel more relaxed.
Take a few minutes daily to pick up clothes from the ground or tidy up your clutter to help your mind feel calmer. Grab some storage boxes to organize belongings and keep your home and office clutter-free.
5. Neglecting Personal Relationships
Social support and personal relationships are what make our worlds go round. Humans have a natural desire to connect to others and build relationships and having encouraging, supportive relationships keep life healthier.
This is one of the biggest areas that can be impacted by forgetting the importance of work-life balance.
All relationships need time and effort to grow and continue, and if work is continuously getting in the way of yours, it’s time to make changes.
If you find yourself buried in work, it is impossible to nurture your outside relationships.
Solution
It’s important to leave work at work. It’s fine to occasionally take work home for important deadlines or projects that require more time. Overall though, weekends and time after work should be spent enjoying your life.
- You should mix work with fun by carving out special times and events with your colleagues to have fun without the pressures of work looming.
- Ask your employer to create a wellness event that everyone can enjoy, like a mixer, movie night, or even a mid-workday yoga session to help everyone relax before they get back to the grind.
6. A Dip in Productivity
A poor work-life balance affects everyone, including the company. When you overwork, you may start to notice a dip in your quality of work.
If many of your colleagues are overworked that’s the kind of issue that could potentially echo through the whole company.
Income might drop as a result of your working less efficiently or having to work longer to correct mistakes made.
Solution
- Treat yourself to a 10 or 15-minute break. Going outside to get fresh air or sitting in the sun for some time can be a welcomed break from an office environment.
- You can also have healthy brain food snacks in the break room.
- Setting daily or weekly goals gives you something to look forward to and keeps yourself engaged in your tasks.
- Employers can offer rewards to employees, like gift cards to restaurants and large retail stores. They can even make rewards work related by offering additional sick days, paid time off, or bonus vacation requests.
7. High Levels of Stress
A common response to a poor work-life balance is feeling stressed. Stressed about not finishing enough work, working too much, working too little, not seeing friends and family enough, and many other things.
Having a healthy work-life balance benefits your mind, body, and mood as all three can be affected by stress. A stressed person will likely be unpleasant, inefficient, and moody, and may keep to themselves instead of socializing.
Solution
You can tackle this several ways.
- You can choose physical solutions, like stretching or a small workout. Moving the body during the workday may help you feeling more refreshed throughout the day.
- You can also make small adjustments like listening to music.
8. Higher Turnover, Absences, and Sick Leave
One unfortunate side effect of having a poor work-life balance is that employees may be taking time off for more sick days or mental health days.
The less often employees are coming to work, the less successful a company can be.
This may also cause more work to be pushed on the remaining employees, which exacerbates the original problem of having a poor work-life balance.
If the work-life balance at your business is poor enough, employees may even consider finding a new job.
The fact is that some employees who value their free time enough will be willing to go through the trouble of finding new jobs with work-life balance. Even if it means potentially giving up perks at their current job.
Higher stress from a poor work-life balance may also lead to your employees getting sick more often. There’s no denying that stress can take a toll on health, which means more employees calling out regularly.
Solution
You can think of ideas to encourage employees to come to work each day. Give rewards to employees who dutifully show up to work most or all days.
This can be tangible gifts, like a gift card, or something like getting to leave early at the end of the week. You can also use employee recognition software to help with rewards.
It will also help to ensure employees who might feel sick are comfortable at work. Provide cough drops, disposable masks, tea, and other small items.
9. A Loss of Love for the Job
If there is a long period where poor work-life balance affects employees, employees may begin to view their jobs differently.
Consistently feeling overworked can lead to negative feelings about the job, their superiors, and the whole mission of the company. When employees lose sight of why they like their job, their work may become lackluster.
Companies with best work-life balance practices know they must keep their employees engaged and comfortable. This is even more true during times when the workload is bigger than usual.
Solution
What does employee engagement look like? It looks like happy employees who are proud of their jobs, take an interest in their work, and have can-do attitudes.
Are your employees engaged in their work? If you’re wondering how to measure employee engagement, there is software for employee engagement that can help. This will help you gauge how your employees are feeling.
You can find out what issues your employees are having and address them head-on.
You can also remind your employees what your company’s values and mission are and how important their job and the whole team are. Make sure all upper management is committed to bettering company culture.
Taking care of your employee’s mental and physical well-being can make a difference in attitudes at work.
Final Thoughts
Now you know how important it is to address work-life balance problems and solutions. When employees are overworked there can be plenty of consequences that affect the whole business.
Better your company culture by looking into ways to personalize wellness for your employees. After all, there is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution when everyone is unique.
Check out how at Woliba we make wellness feel personal and easy for employees. Learn about our wellness program today.
