Why We Complain About Work & How To Stop
Researchers say we complain about 15 to 30 times a day, and a lot of those complaints are about our job. Why do we complain about work? Let's take a look at what complaining is, why you do it, and how to get past it to lead a more positive life.
Working for a Workaholic: 10 Tips to Reclaim Your Work-Life Balance (Infographic)
It’s not a bad thing to be dedicated to your work. If you love your job, seeing the results of your efforts successfully move the needle is hugely satisfying. But spending every waking hour focused on work simply isn’t for everybody, and if you’re one of those people who needs a clear separation between their professional and personal lives, working for a workaholic can be stressful. It’s easy to feel like you have to mirror their habits and constantly be available. How often do you find yourself feeling pressured to check work emails at all hours, or respond to requests on Sunday afternoons? Use these 10 strategies for impressing your workaholic boss — without becoming one yourself. Help your friends reclaim their work-life balance! Share this infographic on social media, or on your own site with this embed code: Infographic brought to you by Wrike Get More Done from 9 to 5 Browse our collection of productivity tips to power through your to-do list and enjoy your well-earned personal time.
6 Strategies for Dealing with a Toxic Work Environment
Constantly chewing on Tums to get through a bad day at the office? Sounds like you may be dealing with a toxic work environment. All joking aside, negativity at work can have serious consequences for your health and personal life. If you think that you're dealing with a toxic environment, you need to come up with permanent solutions to make your office a better place to work. Ignoring the problem or telling yourself it will sort itself out eventually isn't good enough when your health is involved. Here are some tips to help you toss the Tums in the trash and turn your situation around: 1. Anticipate problems and solutions If you are regularly stressed at work, learn to predict what creates the problem. Is it that daily 1:00 PM meeting that always causes arguments? Is it working with a specific person? If you can anticipate stressful situations, then you can walk into them prepared to engage extra willpower in order to remain calm and collected. 2. Talk it out If there is an identifiable problem, create a constructive environment with someone who can help remedy the situation. Micromanaging boss? Underperforming teammate? Set up a meeting to exchange feedback. To make sure it doesn't feel like a one-sided attack, share what you think is working well, what you think could be improved, and allow them to do the same for your performance. Since you expect them to take your feedback seriously, take theirs seriously too. And pick your battles carefully — not everyone will be open to your mature conversation. 3. Don't complain in the office Fruitlessly venting can put you in one of a few situations: (1) your boss overhears you complaining, (2) your team thinks you're whining or dislike your negative attitude, which makes it harder to work together, or (3) your coworkers also start engaging in the negativity, which just feeds the toxicity of your environment. When you're in the office, the best thing you can do is to remain positive in the face of hardship. If your coworkers are the ones who start complaining, try not to engage. Put on headphones or take a well-timed bathroom break. 4. Find an outside support system Finding that "talking it out" is too difficult, either due to the person you're having a problem with or your own shyness? That's fine. Always closing your eyes to prevent yourself from rolling them while you're in the office? We can't always help it. If you're boiling in the negativity, release your emotions outside of the office. Confide in your patient spouse, a friend and a glass of wine, your dog, a counselor, or your diary. Finding a supportive outlet for your frustration — not someone you work with — will help you tame the itch to lash out at your toxic colleague(s). 5. Learn to let it go You can't control other people, their actions, or the outcome of a dinner with multiple cooks in the kitchen. When things go awry, learn to take a deep breath, tell yourself that things could be worse, and help yourself move on. Holding onto negative thoughts builds up in your brain and can make a bad situation feel much, much worse. Remember to let go of the negativity, and you might realize your environment is not as toxic as you thought. 6. Make sure you're not the problem This is a hard one to confront. Before you throw up your hands and quit your job, make sure that you aren't the main source of toxins at work — or the negativity could follow you forever. A good way to do this is to ask your boss or a trusted colleague for specific feedback on ways to improve your performance. If they seem to think that you have significant room to improve, it might be time to reflect on how you can improve your work demeanor. Is it time to move on? Not every job is a perfect fit, so if you have already tried our tips above and nothing is working, it's time to move on. Learn what you can from your current company and go find a job that makes you feel healthy again. Make sure to let your contacts (outside of your current company, of course) know that you are on the market, update your LinkedIn profile, and start searching for an escape. Ever worked in a toxic work environment? What did you do to improve the situation? Share your wisdom in the comments and help out everyone who is struggling right now. Related Reads: How to Communicate Like Super Bowl Champions Team Conflict & Resolution: The 2-Minute Guide 4 Strategies for Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders Top image credit: Nicolas Raymond on Freepik. Changes made. Some rights reserved.
![Who Works More? The Secrets of Male and Female Working Habits [Infographic]](https://web-static.wrike.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=900,format=auto/blog/content/themes/blog-v4-theme/dist/img/featured-image-placeholder.png?av=1e59a781eae484feae8c711131bb7991)
Who Works More? The Secrets of Male and Female Working Habits [Infographic]
It's late at night. The office building has long gone dark and quiet, yet the lights are on in one of the windows. Two figures are arguing over something in front of a computer screen. No, it’s not a secret lab. These guys just need to finish that very important and urgent “thing” for tomorrow. According to our recent survey with almost 2,000 respondents, 88% of men and 85% of women regularly overwork. But who feels more stressed about this matter? What are the other remarkable differences between men’s and women’s work styles? Overworking isn’t overwhelming The “anti-stress champion” title goes to men. While 45% of them overwork more than 5 hours a week, that doesn’t seem to damage their work-life balance. The figures in this chart speak for themselves: The headache grows with power Juggling work and personal life is never an easy task. According to our survey, the more responsibility you have, the harder it gets. Only 14% of female business owners say they are satisfied with their work-life balance. Want it done well, do it yourself. Huh? Delegation is known as one of those mission-critical, yet rather challenging, management skills. We discovered that 18.4% of women and only 12.8% of men still prefer to do everything by themselves — even when they have the authority to delegate. Diamonds are a… man’s best friend? We all wouldn’t mind some motivation to get things done. If you haven’t seen our previous infographic yet, we’ll remind you that a sense of responsibility, a good mood, and a possible reward were cited as the leading productivity triggers. Interestingly enough, it appears that a prospective reward inspires 45.8% of men and only 35.6% of women. The biggest productivity killer is interrup-- After a good lunch, the tricky task that bothered you all morning seems to crack at last. And that’s when your colleague calls an impromptu brainstorm for his puppy-clothes campaign. BAM! The concentration is gone, and so is the flow. We all know the feeling. That’s why men and women for once agree when they name the biggest productivity threat. The Razzie goes to… interruptions. That’s an impressive win over procrastination, a strong opponent. For a more extensive overview of men’s and women’s work styles, check out our brand new infographic. Overwork doesn’t seem so dreadful with these bright colors. ;-)
How Operational Inefficiencies Result In Employee Burnout (UK Survey)
The results from our latest survey across Europe shows that 33% of UK workers have gone as far as looking for a new job due to frustrations around operational inefficiency. We talked to 3,000 workers from across the UK, France, and Germany. The findings highlight frustrations over inefficiencies at work and the worrying impact this is having on how engaged, productive, and happy employees are in their roles. We conducted the Wrike Digital Work Report 2018 to better understand the knock-on effect of operational inefficiencies on workers, and ultimately businesses. Nearly a third (29%) of UK workers say that they have become disengaged due to inefficiencies at work. Of those who were feeling most stressed, 66% said that over the last two years they’ve seen increased expectations around the speed at which they must deliver work. Added to that, 59% of all UK workers said that their workload has gone up since 2016, with a negative impact on stress levels (69% said it had increased). With an ever-increasing workload and a seemingly endless desire to have work completed ‘yesterday,’ here are the reasons UK workers are citing for their frustrations: No clear direction on projects or tasks (31%) Using slow or outdated technology (38%) The company’s way of working demonstrates outdated thinking (39%) New processes and changes to processes spark anxiety (34%) For those who are already stressed, lengthy approval cycles are adding to the frustration (45%) In addition to these functional frustrations, 50% of the most stressed UK workers said that they felt undervalued by their boss, despite the fact that 67% of them are doing more hours in the office, 46% are working more on weekends, and 56% are taking fewer breaks. 47% of the most stressed respondents believed, given the opportunity, they could do a better job than their managers. Demands on businesses to offer top-rate services or products, personalised to individual requirements, and delivered in real time are the reality of today’s business environment. It’s down to leadership within companies to figure out how to keep up with these demands without burning their employees out. Of UK workers who’ve admitted to looking for another job, 81% also experienced rising stress levels (this figure was 77% in France and 76% in Germany), suggesting there is clearly an emerging issue that needs to be addressed immediately. So, if you’re aware that your team is super stressed, maybe the starting point is to look at ways to genuinely help them be more efficient – simplifying approval processes, using the latest technology and ensuring they have crystal clear direction. Share this infographic with your colleagues on social media, or post it on your site using this embed code:
How to De-Stress by Building Relationships & Deleting Apps (Work Management Roundup)
In this week's Work Management Roundup where we bring together the best reads in the last seven days (or beyond) concerning productivity, working more effectively, mindfulness, management, and more. This week, we look at how to get rid of stress by deleting addictive apps and making time for nurturing relationships — whether it's with friends or your direct reports. Read on! How I Cleared My Mind and Became Less Stressed: Deleting All My Apps (The Next Web): Sound too extreme for you? If you can't delete them, here are some concrete steps to disentangle yourself from your apps. Hint: use the mobile browser. Happiness Hack: This One Ritual Made Me Much Happier (Nir and Far): Science proves it: having high quality friendships keeps you healthy. But how do you make the time for nurturing these relationships instead of simply giving them what's left over after your to-dos are done? Productivity author Nir Eyal shares his answer, and it lies in the Hebrew word: kibbutz. A Brief Guide to Better 1:1’s — For Makers and Managers Alike (Medium): If you keep canceling or moving your 1:1, you're sending the message that work is more important than your people. Here are 8 tips to starting, and sustaining your one-on-ones with your direct reports. How to Keep a Bullet Journal (YouTube): This analog method of journalling or keeping your to-dos needs only 2 things: a pen and a notebook. But what it gives you is an effective way to capture your tasks on paper rapidly, record work done for the day, and organize items for future action. In short, it's an analog version of Wrike for people who like working offline. Tech Companies Need English Majors Just As Much As They Need Engineers (LinkedIn): In this interview with LinkedIn New Economy Editor Caroline Fairchild, she says that you need both liberal arts graduates as well as technology experts to build and sell products people want to use. More Work Management Reads Think About This: 4 Common Mistakes New Employers Make (AllTopStartups) 5 Great Invisible Apps - Apps with no UI (Medium) Building a Growth Machine - The Scientific Method: How to Design & Track Viral Growth Experiments (Slideshare) Go Try This: How To Manage Your Time: 5 Secrets Backed By Research (Bakadesuyo) How to Pull Employees Out of Hibernation this Winter (HCM Essentials) Browse The Work Management Roundup on Flipboard If you use Flipboard on your mobile device, then you can check out these links via The Work Management Roundup magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine.
Do 'Work Martyrs' Actually Get More Done? The Hunger for a Healthy Work-Life Balance
The average US workweek is 41 hours, however, more than 30% of American workers work 45 or more hours a week, compared with Germany (18%) and France (4%). The fact is, many Americans wear this as a badge of honor, which has led to a new term for the common office workaholic: "work martyrs”.
Why Do Americans Continue to Work Such Long Hours? (Work Management Roundup)
Welcome back to the weekly Work Management Roundup, where we link to the best reads in business, productivity, marketing, and management! This week, we look at what it means to live and work in a future where we have technological marvels, but way less free time. And we look at tools and technologies that can help you research blog posts to write, how best to learn new skills, and how to disrupt existing platforms. Read on! Why Do Americans Work So Much? (The Atlantic): A hundred years ago, when economist John Maynard Keynes predicted the rise in productivity of a future America, he envisioned a time when people would be working less due to technological advances. The tech is here, but the work ethic hasn't changed since the 1970s. Americans are still working 40+ hours a week. Three theories as to why Americans continue to work so much. How to Use Twitter to Predict Popular Blog Posts You Should Write (AndrewChen.co): Advisor and investor Andrew Chen suggests a simple way to test whether you should write a blog post on a topic: tweet the headline and see if it gets any retweets. It's quick and shows if there's any interest in a longer piece of content. Technology Doesn’t Disrupt Industries, People Do (Medium): In every 'new tech disrupts old tech' story, the real change lies in the people using the new technology to solve an old pain point. How To Invest In Yourself (Medium): This is no feel-good puff piece, it's an actionable 4-step plan on mapping out 100 projects you want to do including skills you want to learn, and setting up next steps. Read it and change your life. 48 Experts Share Their #1 Tip for New Project Managers (Wrike): We asked the Project Management 2.0 group on LinkedIn to divulge their #1 tip for new project managers. Not surprisingly, these process fanatics shared a plethora of great tips to help newcomers succeed in this ever-changing area of work. A photo posted by Wrike (@wriketeam) on Feb 9, 2016 at 1:00pm PST More Work Management Reads Think About This: Pursuit of a Mutual Goal Can Turn Friends into Foes (Stanford Business) Reading Fiction Improves Brain Connectivity and Function (Psychology Today) 5 Things You Don't Understand About Productivity (Inc) Go Try This: The Demand for eBooks is Rapidly Growing – Here’s How You Can Take Advantage (ProBlogger) The Power of the Outdoor Office (Cal Newport) 15 Productivity Tools Successful People Use to Work Less (Employee Scheduling Pro) Browse Marketing Speak on Flipboard If you use Flipboard on your mobile device, then you might enjoy our links to all things digital marketing via our Marketing Speak magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine.
Married to Mobile: Our Eternal Bond with Working On the Go
With Valentine's Day coming up, I'm sure we've all had the opportunity to reflect on who and what mean the most to us. The people we see, talk to, and check up on throughout the day play a big role in our lives. However, today I'm not talking about your relationship with your spouse, family member, or best friend. I'm talking about how you interact with technology. Our 2016 Mobile Productivity Survey says that 44% of workers check their mobile device over 20 times a day. (Now that's what I call a codependent relationship!) 82% of survey respondents claim that their mobile device improves their productivity, and 37% say it actually improves their work-life balance. What is telecommuting? Is our reliance on mobile devices getting out of hand? Or is the flexibility of working on-the-go lengthening our leisure time? Take a look at the Slideshare below and find out for yourself: Are You Married to Mobile? How is your relationship with your mobile device? Do you think using your mobile device for work is helping your productivity or harming your work-life balance? Share your opinion with us in the comments. Looking to join the 82% of people who have improved their productivity by using their phone and/or tablet for work? Download the free Wrike app now and start getting things done while you're on-the-go.
The Greatest Productivity Tip: Get More Sleep (Infographic)
The infographic below lists some important reminders and crucial stats about how sleep can positively affect the way we work on a daily basis. Read the tips and put them into practice to start catching some quality Zzzs!
UK Survey says: Older Workers Less Stressed Than Millennials (Infographic)
Digging deeper into the data from the Wrike Digital Work Report 2016, we found something unexpected: the suggestion that with age not only comes wisdom, but also — potentially — greater resilience to the stress of extra work demands while maintaining higher levels of productivity.
The Unexpected Benefits of Shaking Up Your Work Routine
Can a routine ever get in your own way? Can you fall into the trap of doing things just for the sake of doing them—whether they benefit you or not? Well, to put it simply, yes. And when it happens, your routine isn’t doing you any favors. Here's why we lean on these predictable systems, plus the unexpected positive effects of shaking things up.
Working for a Workaholic: 10 Strategies to Save Your Sanity
Ever had a workaholic boss? You're glued to your phone, compulsively checking email notifications at 3 AM, and have long given up making weekend plans you'll only have to cancel last minute. While some people love giving their all to their jobs and thrive off of setting and achieving aggressive goals, that always-on mentality isn’t for everyone. If you’re the type of person who needs a firm separation between office and home, working for a workaholic can be stressful, as you feel obligated to adopt their mindset and habits at the risk of your own sanity. If you're feeling pressured to skip your lunch break, answer emails at midnight, and take stacks of work home with you, skip the Irish coffee and read our 10 tips for working for a workaholic instead. 1. Remember that your work style is valid. Even if you give 100% when you’re at the office, you can start to feel like you’re not doing enough just because you’re not answering emails at all hours, or because you leave your work laptop behind when you go on vacation. Remember that your value is based on the quality of your contributions, not just the quantity, and that you don't need to put in 80 hours a week to be a good employee. 2. Don’t assume that just because your manager is a workaholic, they expect the same from you. Chances are, they understand their work style isn't for everyone. So communicate! Talk about how and when you can be reached when you aren’t in the office and under what circumstances. If your manager knows they can get ahold of you when it really counts, they might feel less anxious about having you available all the time. 3. Decide what your limits are and communicate them. If your boss really does expect you to be available 24/7, you'll need to be proactive about protecting your personal time. A good manager will understand that if the work (and worker) is suffering, a change needs to be made. If you’re taking on so much that you can’t be effective at your job, tell your boss that you're spread too thin, and come prepared with solutions to propose. Have a list of projects you think a teammate would be better suited to handle, or suggestions for how to improve processes and make tedious work less time consuming. 4. Once you've set your limits, stick to them. Even if you’ve had “the talk” about work/life balance, old habits die hard, so you may have to remind your boss a few times about your agreement. If you're still regularly getting assignments on Friday evening that are due Monday morning, don’t be afraid to say, “I’m sorry, but I have a prior commitment this weekend.” 5. Schedule an after-hours commitment. Sign up for a 6 PM spin class, or make it known you have to catch the 5:25 train. By having a definite "hard stop" scheduled, you won't end up staying progressively later because you feel pressured to, or because you keep getting handed tasks to complete. Plus, your co-workers and boss will learn to anticipate and accept when you’ll be off for the night. 6. Consider shifting your hours. Will working 10 AM to 7 PM get you more face time? People are more likely to notice those who stay a few hours late more than those who come in early, even though the number of hours worked is the same. 7. Be willing to step up when it counts. It's good to set healthy boundaries, just don't be stubborn when your team really needs you. Chances are, you'll have a few late nights at the office or a big project that eats up a Sunday evening now and again. As long as it's not every weekend, be willing and gracious about stepping up to help out your team when it's important. 8. Keep track of your achievements and productivity. Every time you cross an item off your to-do list or successfully complete a big project, make a note so you can prove that you’ve earned your evenings and weekends. If you’re committed to your work, efficient, and deliver good results, eventually your hours will become a non-issue. 9. Ask for advice. Workaholics spend a lot of time at the office and have likely learned all the ins and outs of your field, which makes them a valuable learning and mentoring resource for you. Take advantage of their knowledge by asking them for advice, particularly on projects that you find challenging. 10. Focus on the positives. Working for a workaholic boss can be a good thing — it can push you to pick up new skills, give you the opportunity to tackle high-profile projects, and put you in the spotlight for promotions. If you’re willing to buckle up and put in a few extra hours, you could be along for an exciting ride! Reclaim Your Work-Life Balance The good news is you don't have to work 24/7 to impress your workaholic boss. Browse our archive of productivity tips and tools to get more done from 9-5, then check out our Q&A with Overwhelmed author Brigid Schulte for the secret to a healthy work/life balance. Sources: Forbes.com, Fortune.com, TheProductivityPro.com, The Wall Street Journal
The Secrets to Work-Life Balance: Interview with <i>Overwhelmed</i> Author Brigid Schulte
Most Americans consider a 37.5-hour work week short, and respond to days of low productivity by multitasking. We may be working hard, but are we working smart? Research shows America is not the most productive country; Norway takes the cake for that one. America is actually tied with France for most productive countrymen — and they have 30 days of paid vacation, paid parental leave, and after-hours email is outlawed. Compare that to the fact that 1 in 4 working Americans has no access to PTO of any kind, and it seems we're actually losing to France as well. What are we doing wrong? We spoke with author and retired workaholic, Brigid Schulte, about her book Overwhelmed and asked her to share some work-life balance tips she's picked up that can help you, and why remote work is so hard for many to embrace, but why it's worth it. Her research studying workplaces around the world proves that the U.S. is driving their employees to burn out, resent employers, and hate their jobs. Read our Q&A with her to learn how to take back leisure time, find out which companies are the most/least productive, and why multitasking does not exist. 1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your book Overwhelmed. I’m a writer and long-time journalist. I’m a wife, mother of two, sister, daughter, and friend. I love Spock, decaf nonfat lattes, and any day I can get outside where there’s more green than concrete. The book is really an accidental book. It stemmed from leading a crazy busy life, stressed out all the time, never sleeping, feeling that life was passing me by, not knowing why, and thinking things couldn't change. It all started when I’d broken out in a wicked case of stress eczema and had packed on about 30 extra pounds because I never felt I had time to get to the gym. A time-use researcher told me I had 30 hours of leisure a week, like all women, and men had 40. I about fell out of my chair. I told him he was nuts. He challenged me to keep a time diary, and Overwhelmed was born. I wrote a Washington Post magazine story about the attempt to find my elusive leisure time — and thought I’d be exposing myself as a disorganized neurotic underneath a somewhat professional, put-together veneer. I was bowled over by the response; hundreds and hundreds of people wrote me and said things like, 'You climbed into my head and wrote about my life.' That’s when I decided to look deeply into the way we’re living now. The book asks two questions: Why are things the way they are? And how can they be better? The book is really a journey from what I call "Time Confetti" toward "Time Serenity" — that space where you feel that there is enough time to do what you both need and most want to do. I was hit early on by something the Harvard psychologist Erik Erikson said: 'The richest and fullest lives make time for the three great arenas of life — work, love, and play.' So I decided to ask my two questions in each of these great arenas. And that became the basis for the subtitle of the book. It’s really in search of The Good Life in the modern age. 2. Why is "leisure time" so important? To be perfectly honest, when I began this journey, I didn’t think it was. I was like most Americans, I thought time always had to be productive — that I had to be doing something, anything, always driving forward, on the way to somewhere else, somewhere undoubtedly better. Leisure was for lazy people, losers, and slackers. The word even conjures up slick, sleezy, leisure suits. I definitely think we need a better word to describe what I’ve come to see is really the essence of being human. The Greek philosophers like Aristotle said, 'We work to have leisure, upon which happiness is based.' Which was all well and good if you were a man of high status. They’re the ones who’ve had access to this kind of uninterrupted space to think, dream, imagine, contemplate, daydream, experiment. Psychologists now call this kind of time “flow”, or peak human experience. And it wasn’t until I read a book by the philosopher Josef Pieper, Leisure, the Basis of Culture, that I realized that it is in this third space, if you will, away from the drudgery of work and the pressures and joys of family, that civilization has been created. Art, music, literature, philosophy, scientific discoveries and breakthroughs, and inventions all happen in this time out of time. And when you think about it that way — that creativity and innovation require time — it’s not hard to see why all the museums and great libraries are filled with the works of those high-status men who had access to this kind of time. I think that’s really important to remember. Now that we’re in an age of information overload, and everyone’s time is becoming interrupted and fragmented, we have to not only preserve this kind of timeless flow space, but broaden it so that everyone can experience it. Neuroscience now is making the case even more imperative. We’re discovering the high cost of multitasking and distraction for our brains. Emerging research is finding that to create the conditions for the "A-ha!" moment, we need to be calm and relaxed, not overwhelmed. We need to allow our brains to be idle and daydream before flipping back into a more focused mode. And that takes uninterrupted, concentrated time. [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix="—@BrigidSchulte via @Wrike"]"In an age where time is fragmented, we need to preserve&broaden it so it's enjoyable."[/inlinetweet] 3. What's happening to "leisure time" in the U.S.? Are we getting more or less, and why? It’s funny, as I was reading about leisure (something I’d never, ever thought I’d ever do) — I came across articles in the Harvard Business Review and other publications in the 1950s predicting a coming age of leisure, where we’d work six months out of the year, four days a week, and retire at age 38. Some prognosticators of the day were worried about it! They didn’t know what people would do with all this abundant leisure time. Others said it would usher in a golden age where people would have the time and space to become most fully human, and a version of their best selves. I interviewed one leisure researcher for the book who said he’s spent his entire career trying to answer one simple question: What happened?! If you look at averages in time diary data, (collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) you could argue that work hours have been falling and leisure time is on the rise. But if you talk to just about every person in the country, they’ll laugh at you and say that’s not their experience at all. What’s really happening is that people’s time and experience of work and leisure is dividing. College-educated professionals are working longer hours than ever; even more extreme hours than professionals in other countries. They have virtually no leisure time, and research has shown that when they do they often will choose to work. Some say they work on weekends, evenings, and vacations because they’re anxious they’ll be seen as expendable if they don’t. Some work because they dread seeing their overstuffed email inboxes upon their return. And some work because it’s become a habit, an identity like a second skin, and they’ve lost the ability to imagine doing anything else. At the same time, work hours for low wage workers have indeed dropped off, so they scramble around cobbling together several different unpredictable jobs trying to make ends meet. They do have more leisure time, but it’s unwanted leisure, because they’d rather be working, because there’s the stress of not being able to pay the bills. Economists are finding that our culture, starting in the 1980s, began glorifying not just hard work, but overwork, and that’s when overwork hours — and the financial reward for them — started to climb. We’re the only advanced economy with no paid vacation policy. One in four Americans has no access to paid vacation. Those of us who do, have about 10 to 14 days on average. We don’t take them all, we leave among the most unused vacation days on the table, even though we don’t have that many to begin with. And surveys show that many of us take work along with us, so we’re never truly away, never unplugged, never not thinking about work, never giving ourselves the opportunity to find out what would happen if we sank into a flow state. So it’s not surprising that we have polls showing high rates of disengagement and burnout. We are. And we don’t value taking the time to refresh not only our energy, but our souls. [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix="—@BrigidSchulte via @Wrike #worklifebalance "]"1 in 4 Americans has no access to paid vacation."[/inlinetweet] 4. How do you think "leisure time" differs between women and men? Between managers and employees? It’s interesting, the very first research study done looking at men and women’s experience of time was called Divergent Realities. And a lot of that has to do with our cultural conditioning, and what we still expect men and women to do to conform with traditional gender roles. That was surprising to me, as I was researching the book, how much I had automatically bought into what I intellectually knew were outdated stereotypes. Yet I didn’t even realize how much I was automatically following them. Why did I just automatically assume I had to make all the kids’ doctor’s appointments, take them to the dentist, stay home when they were sick, find child care and summer camps, buy the clothes, clean out their closets, make the Holiday magic, etc.? Was I was afraid the Bad Mommy Police would show up? I guess I was. I’ve met the Bad Mommy Police, and it is us. We police each other in so many subtle ways. The snarky comments on the playground, the disapproving looks... it can be hard to see past that. What I didn’t realize was that I was trying to work the way my Dad did, because he was my only role model. And I was trying to be an at-home mother (like my mother) because that’s all I knew. I found out it’s impossible to live both of those lives at once, but by insisting that I had to, and feeling guilty and inadequate when I couldn’t, I was also keeping my husband at arm’s length; not letting him become the full partner and parent that we’d promised each other we’d be — keeping me in a perpetual state of overwhelmed. It wasn’t good for our kids, either, having such a stressed out parent, always slightly resentful of having to do it all, without realizing how I’d created part of that. These cultural expectations are strong and often unconscious. And the first step toward change is to pause, become aware of them, and how they play on you. Begin to disrupt the automatic thoughts and behaviors, and practice taking a breath so you can begin to hear your own voice, and follow your own internal compass. When it comes to leisure, Americans tend to distrust it. The Protestant Work Ethic and 'idle hands are the devil’s workshop' are a strong undercurrent. But interestingly, women in particular feel they don’t deserve it, research has shown. They feel they have to earn it. And the only way to earn it is to get through a very long to-do list. Which, let’s face it, never ends. 5. What are the 3 biggest roadblocks to having "leisure time"? Work Mindset The Culture of Busyness Work: Americans not only value hard work, which is essential, but we’ve come to value overwork. We financially and psychologically reward those who sacrifice all for work. In such a work-devoted culture, leisure loses all value. It becomes something almost to be ashamed of. Something only weak people require. Mindset: Because of that work-first attitude, our mindsets are firmly set against the importance of leisure and play. Even when we want it, we don’t think we deserve it, or that we haven’t earned it, or somehow can’t give ourselves permission to have this kind of time. And even when we do, because we’re so uneasy about it, we don’t fully enjoy and embrace the time. Which ensures we won’t reap the full benefit of having that third space that can refresh the soul. The Culture of Busyness: We’ve made busyness a competitive sport in our busyness as a badge of honor culture. We brag about how tired and exhausted we are, how much stuff we cram onto our calendars, how we’ve run around and been so productive and crossed so much stuff off our to-do lists, and yet have so much more to do. It’s become so ingrained, we don’t realize we’re doing it! In that kind of culture, leisure is for losers, and people who can’t keep up with the Busy Joneses. 6. You argue in one of your articles that the more fluid and flexible work hours a workplace provides, the happier and more productive the employees are. However, people argue that when they have more flexible work hours, they tend to work more. What are your thoughts on this? This is why culture, not just policy, is so important. In a work-first culture and a work-first organization, of course people are going to use any flex time to work more. The interesting thing is, this tendency is really prevalent among white collar workers. And it tends to reinforce traditional gender roles. There was a fascinating study done that found that nurses tended to use their flexible work hours to do all the traditional “women’s work” of caregiving and housekeeping. And doctors who had flexibility tended to use that time to work more, thus solidifying their traditional breadwinner/distant provider role. At the same time, EMTs, other blue collar workers, and shift workers use their flexibility to be more available at home. Men were organizing and driving the carpools on their off hours, making dinner, and doing laundry while their wives were working. So I think we can all learn a lot from blue collar families who may not be talking the talk of gender equality, like white collar workers do, but are certainly walking the walk. 7. Are companies and individuals naturally at odds on the topic of work-life balance? Is this just a tug-of-war and the companies are winning? Companies and individuals are, truthfully, on the same side of this. And you don’t have to go much farther than the research that Henry Ford did on his factory floors to understand that: healthy, well-rested, happy employees treated fairly do good. I was reading an interesting paper by Stanford economist John Pencavel on the rise in work hours, and how employers continue to think that if only workers just put in more hours, they’d be more productive and make employers more money, and how utterly irrational that is. His research found what he called a “productivity cliff” — the longer we work beyond 40 hours a week, the steeper the productivity drops. We become burned out, exhausted, make more mistakes, and take two and three times as long to get anything done. Research has found that people who continuously work more than 60 hours a week make more mistakes, sometimes life threatening ones, they’re more likely to be injured. They take two and three times as long to perform simple tasks and they become burned out, fried, crispy around the edges and are unable to come up with a fresh idea. You are basically a butt in a chair. Not a great position to be in for a knowledge economy where you’re only as good as your next idea. A recent survey found that more than half of all workers feel burned out. Gallup reports that about 70% of all US workers are disengaged at work or actively HATE their jobs. This blew my mind because I am a recovering workaholic. International comparisons of productivity per hour finds that, despite all those long hours of work, the U.S. is NOT the most productive per hour. That’s Norway. Want to know a country about as productive per hour as we are? France. With their 30 days of paid vacation, paid parental leave, subsidized child care system, short work hours by law, after hours emails outlawed and their, heaven forbid, café culture. And you know who’s at the bottom of the list? Japan and South Korea, countries traditionally known to be full of hard workers. The research is compelling. Healthy, happy workers are more productive. Just being in a positive mood triples creativity, research has found. Productive energy rises 31%, the likelihood of promotion rises 40%, sales by 37%, and doctors make better and faster diagnoses. So it is in employers’ best interests to make sure that workers are primed for optimal performance. And to be primed for optimal performance, you need to create a culture of flexible, but bounded work hours that values time off. [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix="—@BrigidSchulte via @Wrike"]"People who continuously work more than 60 hrs/week make more mistakes."[/inlinetweet] 8. After traveling around the world and observing different work cultures, have you found the secret to a healthy work-life balance? Where do they do this best? I spent time in Denmark and, though a vastly different country, there are two lessons: They are about as productive per hour as we are in the U.S., yet they work what we would consider short work hours — 37.5 hours a week. But when I went to work places, you don’t see people surfing Facebook at work. You don’t hear a lot of chit chat around the water cooler. People do their work. If you work long hours, the culture doesn’t reward you, everyone just thinks you’re inefficient. They truly value gender equality. So much so that they have a Minister of Gender Equality in the government in the cabinet, held in the same regard as the Minister of Defense and other cabinet members. The entire country recognizes that when the entire population is engaged in both the business, or work of the nation, and the caregiving of the next generation at home, it makes for a happier, healthier more productive economy and life. It’s no surprise that Denmark is often rated first or in the top rungs of international indices of happiness, well-being, gender equality, and productivity. And people really do value leisure time for both men and women. In the U.K., one of the very first studies of leisure was called, “Women’s Leisure, What Leisure?” In it, men said it was perfectly natural for men to enjoy leisure, to get together with their mates at the pub, or have outings. But if women were to try to do something with their friends, or on their own, the general sense was something was wrong. That was not at all the case in Denmark. Instead of beginning sentences with, 'What do you do?' they ask, 'What do you do for fun?' They belong to sports clubs. They swim in the ocean before work. They spend time out in the country, not in fancy houses, but rustic little cabins. And every fall, every house receives a host of catalogues of free or inexpensive classes on just about any subject you can imagine — languages, getting a hunting license, swimming, public speaking, cooking. And on the top of one of the catalogues read the mission: “For the Wisdom and Enjoyment of Humanity.” What’s not to like about that!? 9. What are 3 tips you would give someone who struggles with productivity at work? Pause. Disrupt the cycle of busyness and reactivity and really get a sense of what’s most important — both to the mission of the job, and to YOU. Burn your to-do list. Think of it as a brain dump. Get all those stray thoughts running around your brain down on paper. That gives your brain a rest. Then give yourself permission, in your pause, to look at what you’ve written, and with your top priorities in mind — for the day, for your life — choose ONE thing that’s most important to do. And do it first thing in the morning. Shut off your email. Do NOT start your day answering email, or you’ll spend your day in reactive mode putting out fires. Turn off your phone. Set your timer for 30, 45, or 90 minutes and do that ONE thing. The rest of the day is a win, rather than feeling behind. DO NOT MULTITASK. You are not multitasking. You are task-switching. The brain can only pay attention to one thing at a time. And every time you switch tasks, you deplete your energy, willpower, and hit decision fatigue. A study at King’s College, London University found that multitasking makes us as stupid as being stoned. We lose 10 IQ points. So ONE THING at a time! [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix="—@BrigidSchulte via @Wrike"]"@KingsCollegeLon found that #multitasking makes us lose 10 IQ pts."[/inlinetweet] 10. How do you think work-life balance will change (or stay the same) in 2020? If it gets worse, what should we be doing to preserve our precious leisure time? By 2020, we’ll be that much closer to Millennials, now the largest living generation, making up the majority in the workplace. And Millennials, survey after survey shows, want flexible work hours and time for life. Technology will continue evolving, giving all of us more opportunity to control the time, manner, and place of how we work, and coordinate more creatively with team members, not just for blue collar workers, but for low-wage workers as well. At the same time, Baby Boomers who’ve worked like maniacs most of their adult lives, are living longer, are healthier, working longer, but they want something different. There’s a new life phase between retirement and death that’s emerging where meaning and purpose are becoming paramount. And in this new life phase, people, too, are searching for ways to work differently to have time for life. And neuroscience and human performance science will continue to show how to optimize productivity, as well as the importance of mindfulness and deliberate rest. I have hope! 11. What's big new trend that you see coming that people aren't paying enough attention to? Work-life enrichment. We hear all the time about the negative consequences of work-life conflict. They are many, and they are real. But there is a growing body of research on work-life enrichment — on the very real benefits of both men and women having multiple roles in the public and private spheres, from skills that transfer from one dimension to the other, to positive mood, greater energy, a sense of fulfillment, deeper and richer relationships. I think this is really important work, because it spins the argument forward and toward solutions. We’ve been stuck for too long in an ambivalent no-man’s land; surveys show we’re still very uneasy about the proper role of mothers and whether they should work, even though a majority do. That ambivalence has kept us all frozen, and now it’s time to devise real, rational, and supportive work cultures and policies and fluid career paths for both men and women. We need work cultures that recognize excellent work gets done when people have time for their lives, and that raising the next generation, or caring for the previous one, is as valuable as any market work we may do. That’s an exciting and positive way forward! Your Turn: What are your thoughts on work-life balance? What are some of your secrets to obtaining a healthy work-life balance? Having leisure time at home is essential to being productive at work. Share your best tips on how you obtain and manage your own leisure time in the comments! About Brigid Schulte Brigid Schulte is the author of the New York Times bestselling book on time pressure, Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One has the Time, which named one of the notable books of the year by the Washington Post and NPR, and won the Virginia Library Association’s literary nonfiction award. She has spoken all over the world about the causes and consequences of our unsustainable, always-on culture, and how to make time for The Good Life by rethinking how we work, by re-imagining gender roles for a fairer division of labor and opportunity at work and home and, instead of seeking status in busyness, by recapturing the value of leisure. She was an award-winning journalist for The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine and part of the team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. She now serves as the founding director of The Good Life Initiative at the nonpartisan think tank, New America, and director of The Better Life Lab, both of which seek to elevate the conversation, explore transformative solutions and highlight how work-life issues are key to excellence, productivity and innovation, as well as a full, authentic and meaningful life. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband, Tom Bowman, a reporter for National Public Radio, and their two children. She grew up in Portland, Oregon and spent her summers with family in Wyoming, where she did not feel overwhelmed. Sign up for her occasional newsletter, Toward Time Serenity, on the art and science of The Good Life: brigidschulte.com. Join the ongoing discussion about making time for work, love, and play on her Facebook page and on Twitter @BrigidSchulte.