Encourage a Life Outside of Work

TLDR

Teachable Moment: Understand your employees’ motivation when they start to overprioritize work and encourage them to live a life outside of work.

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The Problem

Work has the tendency to become your sole identity.

The last several years (global pandemic) have changed how we work, blurring the lines between our personal and professional identities.

And for many, they’ve started to become the same.

This has led to low engagement, burnout, and record levels of employee attrition for almost every operating business.

And that’s a lose/lose scenario for you, your employees, and your employer.

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The Solution

As a people manager, you’ll be one of the first to notice when your employees are starting to prioritize work more than anything else.

Be on the lookout for employees who:

• take on extra work/responsibilities
• work extremely long hours
• skip vacation/PTO

If you notice these signals, prepare to engage them in non-confrontational conversations.

You don’t want to penalize or scrutinize your employees for dedicating more time to work, but rather understand their motivation.

Are they working more because they want a promotion or pay bump?

Are they working longer hours because they have neglected personal hobbies or interests?

As you learn more about your employees' motivation, you can begin to encourage life outside of work by helping address some of the pain points mentioned above.

Often, shifting schedules and workloads can be a great start.

Work is important, but it should never be prioritized before your personal life.