The Art of a Work-Life Balance (Without Compromising on Ambition)

It’s not about talking the talk, it’s about walking the walk

https://campaignme.com/the-art-of-a-work-life-balance-by-attelines-sophie-simpson/

 

This year marked the 15th anniversary of Tim Ferris’ New York Times bestseller The Four-Hour Workweek, and while its unconventional position at that time affected many of us like a moreish cocktail of fervour, we’re now living in an era where hybrid and remote work have become a universal norm. In simple terms, Ferris’ premise was that work-life balance truly was attainable, and today, this once enigmatic concept has become more realizable than ever to many of those who had long ago shelved it as a cobwebbed pipe dream. So much so, that household names like 3M, Reddit, Twitter and Spotify are but a snapshot of huge companies opting to both adopt and champion more flexible employee work models in 2022.

Personally, I am a huge advocate for work-life balance and believe its entrenchment in corporate culture is paramount to business success. Legendary management consultant and writer Peter Drucker said “culture eats strategy for breakfast” – and in this spirit, I am particularly fussy that my team and I don’t merely “talk the talk”, but we “walk the walk”, even when it might feel like a tightrope at times. To be clear on Drucker’s meaning, he wasn’t suggesting that strategy was unimportant – rather, that a powerful and empowering culture was a surer route to organisational success, promoting the welcomed knock-on effect of work-life balance.

My team at Atteline is split in hybrid work arrangements between our Dubai and Manila offices, alongside contractors, clients and collaborators based all around the world. This has meant we have had to think long and hard about the best ways to maintain strong motivation, healthy communication, high performance and actual (not mere buzz-word) work-life balance.

In our pursuit of the “perfect formula” for a hybrid model at Atteline, we surveyed our team to ensure our hybrid design was thoughtfully engineered on individuals’ personally articulated needs, wants and desires, and not merely on our theory-based assumptions. Upon arriving at those findings, we discussed them at length, strategised and problem-solved, and then made the appropriate organisational changes. And those changes, we stuck to.

One of those changes we made was in response to an expressed desire amongst staff to perform three days in the office and two days from home. We saw supporting this change as important in helping our team more easily strike a balance between time at work and that spent with children, nurturing hobbies and interests, or taking long weekends away for a change of environment.

From a top-down perspective, we can’t ever forget that running a business and a team is a full-time job, and running a hybrid team is equally so. “Out of sight” should never mean “out of mind”. Research has shown one of the greater work-from-home challenges is team cohesion and innovation.

Most of us will remember when Yahoo! chief executive Marissa Meyer banned working from home in 2013, she argues that in order “to become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices.”Harvard Business Review also published a study that showed face-to-face interactions were by far the most important activity in an office, whereby “creating chance encounters between knowledge workers, both inside and outside the organization, improved performance”.

Within that same study, it was learned that workers who shared a physical office space were 20 per cent more likely to communicate digitally, versus their remote counterparts. Further, staff who worked in the office collaborated on shared projects far more efficiently and effectively, emailing each other four times as often, and with 32 per cent faster project completion times.

Other research supports this, finding face-to-face interaction is essential for identifying opportunities for collaboration, innovation and developing relationships and networks. So what is the perfect solution? I believe we can navigate our way to a winning formula by being guided by company culture and founding principles, alongside drawing primary research from the people who count, before carefully curating a methodology that is good for our respective teams, and good for the bottom line. For Atteline, we offer our people a work-from-home option two to three days per week, depending on the needs and preferences of the individual team member.

In supporting our efforts to understand what our team needs and wants, and how they perform their best work, we keep on listening and run bi-annual surveys to ensure we keep learning, as they keep learning. We’ve come far enough to know without hesitation that you can’t just think you know what people think. You need to ask, and you need to listen. On top of that, you need to care, which you can demonstrate by actively communicating your shared corporate values (the ones you action and don’t just talk about!) with your team, and supporting them closely as they too learn to navigate the ever-evolving hybrid landscape.

Ultimately, a work-from-home model is built on trust, and we trust our teams to work hard. If that trust isn’t there, it begs that we address several, deeper, more uncomfortable questions. In my experience, however, most question marks and frustrations can be reduced or avoided altogether when all team members make a commitment – a real commitment – to communicating proactively.

Proving structure, accountability, a clear reporting system and protocols provide teams with confidence, ease of communication and prompt receipt of feedback. Regardless of what systems or programs your company or team has in place to keep in touch and stay across projects, make sure your team treats them like a blood supply. Be it Zoom, Microsoft Teams or simple supporting tools such as Google documents and WhatsApp groups, cut no slack in enforcing that team members keep their counterparts updated on progress and work status, based on whatever the “healthy communication” model looks like within your own organisation.

Not only is communication flow important, but so is the consistency of standard work hours. At Atteline, whether in the physical office or at home, team members are clocked in from 9.30 am to 5.30 am. We allow that little bit of extra time to fit in exercise, evening routines with children and pursue personal passions. We are also flexible if people have appointments or offer the chance to work with their managers on formulating individualised work schedules on particular days if they need to.

Like any “normal” day in the office, whatever the agreed structure, I see such consistency in a hybrid setting as being key to fostering healthy team workflow and alignment, as well as to the team’s sense of structure day to day. One of the obvious benefits of work-from-home days is also eliminating transport time for teams and the ever-increasing associated costs of going to work, so jumping online to kick off at the same time each day should be less complicated than ever.

With that said, it is equally important to enforce that people don’t get in the habit of drawing out tasks hours long after their day should technically be a wrap. It’s a prerequisite for long-term productivity and a sense of balance that teams finish their day on time and reset.

It’s also important for their physical and mental health. A study of 143,000 people found that those who worked 10 or more hours a day for at least 50 days a year had a 29% greater risk of stroke. Other research of over 380,000 employee exit interviews found that reports of employee burnout have almost doubled in the past year. With this in mind, we ensure mental health is always included in our employee insurance packages, and count “mental health” days as sick days – without the need for a doctor’s note.

The way we see it, if members of our team are working out of hours, it either indicates they are struggling with the work and require training and support, or that we have managed our team distribution and workload incorrectly at a management level. In any case, with work-life balance among our cultural values, we take overstretching very seriously.

We also enforce a golden rule that no emails can be sent prior to 9.30 am or after 6.00 pm, and ask workers to schedule them out instead if it helps them feel organised. A holding statement in our email signatures makes sure to advise we work flexible hours and across a number of timezones, not only to excuse emails that may hit overseas client inboxes late at night or in the early hours of the morning but to also relieve any anxiety or pressure team members might feel to immediately respond to emails received outside of work hours.

Lastly, if you’re like us and are still encouraging a few days a week to work from the office, understand what environment your team works best in.

Prior to opening our newly designed Dubai office in October this year, we performed a survey on the areas the team would like to see incorporated – quiet corners, huddle desks, a balcony for outside time, desks with ergonomic support, plenty of natural light, modern and friendly –  we connected the dots then spent money on design. We also made sure we chose a new office location in even closer proximity to public transport stations and major footbridges for those who walked to work.

While we have control over the design of Atteline’s physical team office space, when team members are WFH, we also want to ensure their work environment is “healthy” and supports efficiency. If you are tabling WFH as optional, I suggest it is as much your responsibility as it is that of your team members to ensure they understand the prerequisites for creating home environments which promote consistency, productivity and positivity around work.

While WFH arrangements of course do not necessitate entire rooms dedicated to at-home offices, I believe it’s important to encourage staff to avoid the near-horizontal “comfort” of a work day on the sofa – if for no other reason than promoting a healthy posture! Indeed, there is little doubt changes of scenery around the home can be beneficial for a mental “reset”.

Whether their “at-home” desk is a kitchen bench, dining table, or a desk set up in the corner of a living room or courtyard, add whatever input and support you can to ensure all the elements are in place for staff to feel comfortable and work-oriented when performing WFH. This means good lighting, a high-speed internet connection, an ergonomic chair or standing desk, and all the necessary work tools within arm’s reach. The personal touches you can leave to the individual.

Ultimately, the “naturalizing” of remote and hybrid work arrangements has changed the face of the modern workplace, and it is my opinion that we will only get the most out of this more relaxed and trust-centred approach to work by instilling an overarching premise of structure and accountability into our days. Thinking back to Ferris’ once mind-bending proposition, we are near-unfathomably privileged to be able to work across hybrid teams from the comfort of our homes, and alongside colleagues who share in our same “new-age” yet fundamental work ethics. So to keep teams working at their best, and feeling at their best, become informed and flexible, but never compromise on your rules of thumb.

 

Words By: Sophie Simpson, Founder & Managing Director at Atteline