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Vadim Atamanenko
Vadim Atamanenko

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Work Life Balance While Working Remotely

How to keep the balance?

What does work life balance mean?

In theory, it seems that the concept of "balance between personal life and work" has a certain meaning - part of your time to work, but at the same time spending all your free time with friends, family, doing hobbies, sports or just watching TV. The idea behind work-life balance is to offer a connected and social work environment where creativity and career fulfillment will be encouraged, whether you work remotely or in the office, as well as provide a comprehensive personal life outside of their professional duties. In layman's terms, "work-life balance" means 40 hours of work per week, followed by unrelated weekends and vacations.

The modern concept of work-life balance is based on empowering employees to work anywhere, anytime, leaving fewer fixed hours of work and more time for innovation and communication between team members.

The emergence of cloud-based IT infrastructure and the prevalence of BYOD policies enable employees today to work from home or remotely and seamlessly collaborate with colleagues and management.

As companies now become more dynamic, flexible, and have corporate social collaboration tools and BYOD at their disposal, the "mobile effect" will continue to tie employees' professional and personal lives together.

What are the myths surrounding work life balance?

But what if everything you thought you knew about work-life balance is a myth? Some industry experts believe that such a concept no longer exists in its traditional sense.
Traditionally, work and personal life have been viewed as competing activities that are fighting for our time. There is work and then there is "free time," meaning that work is not freedom. And the term "balance" implies that more work automatically means less personal life. But we have only one life - we just live one part of it, working, and the other - doing other things.
The traditional concept of balance between personal life and work is not correct, since the development of global innovative companies has narrowed geographic boundaries and made time zones irrelevant. Consumers expect services and technical support to be provided 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and most companies have either already switched to using mobile access or are migrating to it so that employees are always in touch and participate in the overall process.

What are the do's and don’ts surrounding work life balance when working remotely?

Technology can also offer concrete solutions to help employees and managers maintain an appropriate balance between their personal and professional lives. Experts recommend using social collaboration solutions that can help reduce the incessant flow of emails and lengthy meetings, give employees quick access to the information or authority they need, and enable them to interact within their “virtual workspace” rather than in a physical office. Managing your time and work effectively helps you free up more time for your personal life.
According to experts, the ultimate goal is to avoid dividing work and life into separate areas, and to find the most promising moments that will allow you to do without prejudice to both. Think about it, because you are not leading a "work" and "personal" life - you have one life, it is simply expressed in different aspects. And these aspects are so intermingled and interdependent that there is no point in trying to separate them. They are already so intertwined with each other that there is no such moment in time when you devote 100% to work and 100% to weekends, it's just your life. And this is not about maintaining balance, but about being happy and living life to the fullest in all its manifestations.

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