How to find a good work-life balance?

Increasingly a demanding work culture is having a huge effect on not only our health and happiness, it is also starting to show a huge effect on productivity. That is why this is perhaps the biggest and most pressing challenge to businesses.

With the pressure of the modern workplace increasingly asking more and more of its staff it is seeing a shift in how people view there work culture and seeing companies introduce measures to combat this. Working from home, more paid vacation, health and well-being packages and a high regard for work-life balance and mental health.

Increased working hours and impact on the lifestyle of a huge number of people, with people neglecting the factors in their lives that make them resistant or resilient to mental health problems. One in six of us will experience a mental health problem in any given week.

Work-life balance in a new job

We all know that starting a new job can be great but there is also the pressure to prove your worth, staying late, working longer hours to ensure you make a good impression.

Your workplace should contribute to improving your work-life balance. So when thinking about you next role you might want to ask what they put in place:

• promote the messages about work-life balance

• develop policies that acknowledge the association between work related stress and mental health.

• encourage a culture of openness about time constraints and workload.

• give better training to managers so that they can spot stress, poor work-life balance and its effects on the individual.

• promote a culture of ‘working smart, not long’

• ensure that employees’s jobs are manageable within the time for which they are contracted

• Change work environments to identify elements of practice and culture that may be detrimental to a healthy work-life balance

• allow staff to attend counselling and support services during working hours

• encourage activities that promote good mental health, for example lunchtime exercise or relaxation classes.

We need to remember that everyone is different and can cope with different levels of workload and stress but take note to ask in your next interview what the company might have in place.

It’s important to take care of yourself and get the most from life. This booklet suggests 10 practical ways to look after your mental health. Making simple changes to how you live doesn’t need to cost a fortune or take up loads of time.