Do you ever feel judged by your peers because your work/life balancing scale seems completely lopsided compared to theirs? For me, work is my life. I know, now you’re thinking of the movie The Shining and the words that were typed over and over again: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Don’t get me wrong; I love being around my family and friends, who fill up my tank of joy, but my career encompasses much of my time and I am okay with that.
I must admit though that this is an area I’ve struggled with when interacting with others at work. The thought of tipping someone else’s work-life balance scale or even the appearance of that expectation tends to be the stress that gets to me most. Although I enjoy working at night in front of the television and sending off emails in rapid fire, I know for others this can be seen as an unwelcome intrusion into their personal time and can even lead to a feeling of inadequacy if they don’t respond promptly.
Going through Coaching for Greater Effectiveness, students learn that if you want a high performing team with meaningful relationships, you need to have both trust and candor. If someone on my team feels inadequate for not responding to my email at 10:00 at night, I haven’t been an effective coach. I need to be sensitive to my team members by letting them know I do not expect responses outside of normal business days/hours and then prove they can trust that statement by my subsequent actions.
The weights we put on our work-life scale are different for each of us and we must listen to our co-workers’ voices on what works best for them and the people depending on them. Building a foundation of trust begins by respecting your teammates’ decisions when it comes to their well-being.