Purpose and Value: Your work life balance
The last few years have been unprecedented in our modern working world. The covid pandemic has changed how we work, live, and play. Our view of what work looks like, how we can do our work, where it has changed our expectations of our employers, and where work fits into our lives.
Alongside this, there has been a shift of expectations on where we travel, where we buy our food from, and even down to the organisations we interact with. There is a groundswell of change; of making choices in all parts of our lives to make more of our time, who we spend our time with, and how we spend our time.
The pandemic created a space where we were isolated, some of us for months, in our homes, with our families, or in some cases, on our own. We pivoted our working life online, we found that in a lot of cases, we can do our job from wherever. The uptake of remote working, Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and countless other platforms facilitated us being able to stay connected while we sat in our living room in our slippers. Admittedly this time also smudged the edges of our working life. Going from Zoom meetings to Netflix bingeing in but a few steps, and maybe helping our kids with their schooling in between.
With this shuffle of life and working, we also took a moment to breathe and assess our priorities. To see there were other ways to be busy or even to define ourselves. Some learned to play an instrument or bake. Others took to exercise to get outside and enjoy the quiet streets. What is consistent is that most people are unwilling to go back to ‘before’, to where work was how they defined themselves and what they lived for. Most are unwilling to return to the commute every day and work all the hours. There has been a recognition that work serves a place in life, but it isn’t all there is. And it is quite possible to be a great employee and achieve expectations without being in an office all the time.
So, what else are workers looking for?
The last two years have also seen a shuffle in what people want from their work. Monetary remuneration isn’t all they’re looking for - though being paid well is still appreciated. A sense of purpose, a sense of value from employers; being seen as a whole person, and all the benefits and complications that come with it. Gear shifts to flexible working, hybrid working, and even reducing hours to allow space for more from life or to balance responsibilities easier. With the attitude that workers will be more loyal and productive to employers that meet them part way and value their contribution.
I recently read this article from Gartner about this international shift in employees’ expectations in seeking personal value and purpose at work. This article has some very interesting stats about workers’ feelings and changes in how they want to work through and beyond the pandemic. With an overwhelming majority of employees shifting their attitudes to more value of life outside work and realising how important it is to put work into the right context for their life.
Shift in perspective
The biggest thing is the shift in perspective, how this sense of value extends beyond where or who you work for, but how they value employees as people and reflect this in the way they manage the work-life balance. There is a huge surge of people making the move to new employment opportunities if they aren’t getting what they want. What this means for employers is that they are now having to be aware of what employees are wanting outside of perks like great coffee, a nice environment, good pay, and meeting them part way. Great businesses are looking at other ways to keep employees and attract new ones.
Leadership Training
If this resonates with you and where you are, it might be time to take a look at my Self-Leadership Course. We’ll work together to help you understand your own expectations of yourself in the context of work and how to rebalance things. It might just shift your own perspective and where work fits into your life.
