Work-life balance is one of those things that is an actual win-win-win situation. It is best for the individual, the company, and humanity.
However, many companies think that the only way to achieve high performance is to have their employees work extremely hard and many hours. Late e-mails, short deadlines, and weekend work are built into many cultures.
Why is that? Because it actually works. People do perform, you get much output, and you get some short-term results. But are you building a winning company in the long term? Nope. And that's the problem.
Instead, you are creating norms that will cause you much trouble later. Basically, you will end up dealing with symptoms such as:
(Not to mention the negative impact stress, high workload, and "not having a life" have on people's lives.)
I believe the problem is that most companies frame work-life balance as a "well-being-thing" when, in fact, it is performance-related and can easily be connected to business impact (while also improving well-being).
I do see that most companies see the downside of poor well-being (but it is not enough to make them do things differently) but should instead look towards all the upsides—of working smarter and having employees with great mental fitness.
If we connect it to performance and business impact, things will start to happen.
At Mentimeter, we believe in the opposite and express our way of thinking through our core value, “Work Smart.” For us, working smart means:
There will always be 100 things you could do, and your job is to focus on what will have the highest impact.
And avoid ending up in the hamster wheel where you only put out fires.
Building on the idea that when you did 20%, you already gained 80% of the impact.
Seeking a multiplying effect through automation, scaling, or building structure capital that others can use.
Plan your work and put the effort in.
Your emotional, physical and mental needs, at work and outside work.
We have discovered that when you limit time, you get more out of it. We clarify that we expect people to perform within a 40-hour workweek, using the working smart principles.
And it works.
Because when work time is limited, people start to care about how they spend their time.
And when work time is limited, people start reflecting on what they need in their lives to be happy.
Guess what - happy people perform better. 🤗
So, how do we make this happen in reality?
But primarily by having senior leaders talk about stress and workload: How is your workload? How is your stress level? How can I support you?
And by having senior leaders acknowledge stress symptoms early on, in themselves and others, and act on them.
Because even in an environment that honors work-life balance, this is a struggle. We operate in an industry where change is the only constant, competition is fierce, customer expectations are high, and opportunities are everywhere.
We recruit high performers with high ambitions, putting much pressure on themself.
The only solution is to keep the conversation going.
And connect work-life balance to business impact, where it belongs.