Learning to navigate challenging work schedules while balancing personal obligations is not easy.
Work-life balance means equally prioritizing the demands of work and career and the demands of personal life. Someone lacking this balance tends to have more work and home obligations, longer hours and little personal time.
Karen Peterson, Garrison’s Directorate of Public Works deputy director and business operations and integration division chief, said employees with work-life balance are strong assets in the workplace. Benefits of work-life balance include increased productivity, and employees feeling that their personal and family life are important.
“Leaders should encourage their employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance to help foster productivity in the workplace,” Peterson said. “By encouraging your people to have a healthy work-life balance, you will create an environment where everyone is dedicated to the task at hand. This will improve retention rates and productivity. Personally, I need a good work-life balance. I want to do my job well and go home to enjoy my family. I like to have my time away from the office to regenerate and recuperate from work. It makes me a better employee. I also want my employees to have the same opportunity. I want them to take advantage of the leave that is available to them and use it responsibly. Truly, if you’re rested you can come back to work and be productive.”
Erika Benton-Strickland, chief of manpower and agreements in the Garrison’s Resource Management Directorate, said the secret of work-life balance is establishing boundaries at work and sticking to them.
“As a former Army officer, the motto of ‘mission first’ was drilled into me for years,” Benton-Strickland said. “I can remember leaving home for physical training when it was dark outside and returning home when it was even darker. As a divorced single mother, I barely saw my children. I longed to spend more time with them and my family. I knew that work-life balance was important for my mental health and to avoid burnout. However, it wasn’t until I began working as a Department of Defense civilian that I achieved the ability to implement that balance within my life. While working as an intern at U.S. Southern Command in Miami, my supervisor was instrumental in helping me to slow down, take each day as it comes, and relax. He would tell me, ‘There are no bullets flying past our desks. No one is going to die if we wait to finish this report tomorrow.’ He also emphasized the importance of not taking work home, not in the physical sense but when it comes to what you stress over at the end of the day. Once I walked out of the door of the building, he told me that my focus should be on my family and other obligations.”
When she arrived at the Garrison this year, Benton-Strickland said she was pleasantly surprised to see that the Resource Management Directorate was utilizing both alternative work schedules and regular telework.
“I love that employees can take care of errands and medical appointments without worrying about using their leave on their day off,” she said. “As a supervisor, I wanted to make sure that our employees were using these tools to take care of themselves both physically and mentally. However, I quickly noticed that many of my employees were working on their regularly scheduled day off and even on the weekends. Their fear of letting something slip was causing them stress on the days they should be relaxing with family and recharging for their next day at work. I made it my goal to emphasize the importance of using their time off for self-care and only answering their phone for emergency situations. Once they realized that the building wouldn’t burn down if they waited until the next day to answer an email, there was a noticeable shift in the way they interacted with each other.”
Tim Rolfe, family advocacy program manager at Army Community Service, said work-life balance has an impact beyond the individual dynamic. A key benefit of work-life balance is strong family bonds.
“When you are able to develop a healthy work-life balance the benefits to forging strong family bonds can be endless,” Rolfe said. “It enables you to reconnect with your family and spend ample amounts of quality time together. You will also feel more mentally and emotionally refreshed, and motivated to perform at optimal levels in both your personal and professional roles. Keeping a healthy balance will energize you to be at your best as you are able to show the loving attention your family needs to thrive, while simultaneously preventing burnout and staying on top of your game at work,
“Summertime breaks and family vacations are some of the best ways we can accomplish our goals of staying balanced. It’s important to remember that quality should always remain the focus, which means it does not require lavish trips to a tropical paradise to experience quality time with your family. Going to the park, having picnics, and camping at a nearby lake can reap just as many benefits to reconnect with your family as a fancy trip to the Bahamas.”
These managers agree that work-life balance is an important way to achieve both career and personal satisfaction, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. It may require some lifestyle changes.
“Work is never-ending,” Benton-Strickland said. “It will be there today, tomorrow and next week. What does end is taking your child to their first day of school, celebrating your 25th anniversary, or saying goodbye to a furry loved one after a long adventurous life. We spend most of our waking hours, Monday through Friday, at work. Every day that I walk into the building, I’m truly happy to see everyone here. But at the end of the day, I’m even happier to see my family, while the sun is still out.”
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