What are the opportunities and risks of work-life blending?
Is work-life blending a new concept or can parallels be drawn with other forms of work? HR Campus has got to the bottom of these questions and would like to provide you with some food for thought in this Specialist articles.
What is work-life blending?
While work-life balance aims to achieve a balance between working hours and free time, work-life blending involves merging private and working life. This concept can be interpreted in different ways: Some companies focus on flexible working hours and remote working. Others are investing in compensation programmes such as fitness studios, game corners or communal dinners to combine social life with everyday working life. But is work-life blending really a 21st century invention? Let's take a look back to the 19th century, to America.
1884: Pullman, Illinois, USA
In 1884, George Pullman opened his new factory south of Chicago. But this was more than just a production facility: he had an entire town built on 1,600 hectares of land. The houses had gas and sewage connections, gardens and fresh, clean air - far away from Chicago's smog. These amenities were intended to attract skilled labour. The plan worked and a few years later, 12,000 people were living in the town of Pullman.
However, the city, named after its founder, was dominated by him: Houses could only be rented, not bought. Pullman controlled the rents and had influence over the wages of his employees. During an economic crisis, Pullman lowered wages but kept rents constant. This led to a strike, which ended in a court ruling in 1898. The company was obliged to sell all its residential buildings, giving employees the opportunity to buy their own homes for the first time. Whilst George Pullman had already passed away by this time, the town still bears his name today*
Challenges of work-life blending
Job loss ends in a life crisis
With Company Town, Pullman created a strong relationship of dependency. Employees and their families lived in a town where neighbours were also work colleagues and leisure activities were dictated by the boss. When a large part of your social life is linked to work, losing your job can also mean losing your familiar social environment. This makes redundancy more difficult to bear and can lead to a life crisis.
Flexibility with feelings of guilt
A frequently cited criticism of work-life blending is that companies sell flexibility as an advantage, but at the same time are themselves heavily dependent on the flexibility of their employees. If flexibility is really to be encouraged, it has to work both ways. Only if you are aware of what the merging of working time and free time means can you act flexibly - and without a guilty conscience.
Stress due to constant availability
Does work-life blending mean that you have to take a call from a Customer during dinner with the family? Or does it mean that you have to write back to your partner immediately, even if you're in the middle of a project? The feeling of having to be constantly available both privately and professionally can lead to stress-related illnesses. However, work-life blending should not mean that you have to be available to everyone 24 hours a day. At HR Campus, we would rather you not have to work on your projects in the office. We believe that the best ideas are born in nature. That's why we often start projects with our customers in our vision centre in St. Antönien. It's often much easier to think with a mountain view and hiking boots.
Opportunities of work-life blending
Trust in employees
Work-life blending, be it remote working or flexible working hours, requires a high level of trust from managers in you as an employee. This trust strengthens your well-being and can increase your productivity at the same time.
Define employee services
Work-life blending can make it difficult to have direct control over you as an employee. That's why managers should work with you to define clear, achievable goals and expectations that are measurable regardless of working hours or location. Such goals will also help you to better recognise your role and contribution to the company.
Strong team
Compensation programmes offered by a company can promote team building and friendly relationships between employees. A team that also gets along well on a social level offers an enormous opportunity for managers. Efficiency, helpfulness and increased productivity can result. However, the extent to which your social life and work life mix should remain your decision and should be respected and encouraged by your employer - in both directions.
Offer support
If managers want to promote successful work-life blending, they can offer you the following support:
- Access to company files: Make sure you have access to important documents and tools from anywhere.
- Flexible time recording: Reporting tools should be designed in such a way that you can also record working times by the hour and from home. Even non-productive time such as phone calls or meeting preparations should be easily recorded as working time.
- Absence notes: Work-life blending should not mean having to be available 24 hours a day. Templates for absence notes can encourage you to use them and switch off in between.
2019: Menlo Park, California, USA
The first construction phase of Willow Park is due to be completed by 2021. Facebook is planning a campus with 1,500 flats and houses, a hotel, retail outlets and parks. The majority of the flats and houses will be occupied by Facebook employees.
Facebook is not the only company developing a modern company town. Similar projects are also in the pipeline at Amazon and Google.
We at HR Campus hope that companies like Facebook have learnt from Pullman's mistakes. We hope that they will give their employees freedom and autonomy, support them and enable them to realise the full potential of each individual.
Work-life blending should not become a multitasking challenge. Free time and work management can help to optimally combine social life and work life. However, switching off from time to time remains a must.
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