Poll debrief: Social interaction crucial for Work-Life Balance

*Last month’s EuropeanPWN poll asked members to share the essentials that allow them to achieve work-life balance. Although we may not always succeed, most of us strive for some kind of equilibrium between our professional obligations and other aspects of our lives. The consequence of not achieving this balance is, according to medical research, stress and reduced job satisfaction.*

The stats
The key question posed was: “What is most important to your work-life balance, besides work and family?”. The following answers had the highest scores:

1. Interacting with friends (more than 25%);
2. Learning something new every day (over 20%);
3. Sports (almost 20%);

1. Enjoying culture (12%).

Looking beyond the surface, trends appear in the types of endeavours that help us keep our sanity; they can be categorized into pursuits that are either social, active, creative, or spiritual/community-service oriented (some responses fell into more than one classification).

Social interaction
Social interaction accounts for 2 out of 5 EuropeanPWN members’ responses when we combine answers related to interacting with friends and engaging with others, including networking and volunteering for the disadvantaged. These social ties may be particularly life-saving for professional women who may feel isolated because they are new to positions of responsibility or because they work in a male-dominated industry. Arguably, sports and performing arts and crafts can have a social dimension too if pursued in a group, and could therefore also potentially fall into this category.

Activity in the broad sense
This category involves concrete activities that keep us moving, either literally or figuratively. The highest response in this group was “continuing to learn every day” – either on or off the job – with 20% of responses. Sports ranked next with over 15% of total results. Performing arts and performing crafts – as opposed to being spectators or consumers – accounted for 5% of the answers combined. All in all, these different items account for almost 44% — close to one-half of all findings.
How to explain this high score? Perhaps, in our professional lives, even when in a position of responsibility, we may not feel that we are always directly impacting our environment in a meaningful way. Staying active outside of the job allows us to keep a sense of control and maintain energy.

Creative and artistic experiences
Approximately 12% of our network cites taking time for culture – theatre, movies, exhibits, and the like – as vital to work life balance. If we add performing arts and crafts (already mentioned in the Activities category), the total is about 20%, or one-fifth of responses.

Spiritual/community service
This cluster has to do with personal values and contributing to the greater good. It encompasses religion as well as giving back to the disadvantaged through volunteering and to future generations via sustaining the environment. All in all, one in ten EuropeanPWN members finds balance through one of these endeavours.

What is your personal cure?
In conclusion, EuropeanPWN is a diverse group and no single element can be the right answer for everyone. Nevertheless, for those of us striving for greater harmony in our lives, one or several of these elements – social interaction, activity, creativity, and spiritual/community – may help us in identifying our personal “cure.”

Not a women’s issue anymore
In the office, work-life balance continues to be a hot topic and was cited by Forbes magazine as “the new workplace perk.” For many it is no longer uniquely a “women’s issue”; Business Week says that different generations of workers (Generation X, Generation Y, Midcareer Baby Boomers, and Mature Workers) all have different views on what this elusive quality is. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK states that work-life balance is not just a women’s issue and makes the business case for work life balance for everyone. Work-life balance also has a strong cultural dimension, and how individuals define and rate these issues vary in different parts of Europe and around the world. The US-based Families and Work Institute president and co-founder Ellen Galinsky puts it clearly: “In the long run, having a rewarding life at home is good for work life and having a rewarding life at work is good for home life”.

Interested readers may wish to consult a related EuropeanPWN poll:
Do You Use Technology To Improve Your Work-life Balance?