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Work-life Balance – Are You on Steady Ground?

Work-life Balance

The term work-life balance is tossed around in the workplace all the time, but are we always just trying not to fall? A goal for most workers out there, and for students too, should be to find a work-life equilibrium where the balancing act can move from bosu ball acrobatics to steady solid ground.

I came across a great Drew Carey quote the other day, which explained that “there is a support group for people that hate their job, it’s called EVERYBODY and they meet at the bar.” But I think that most people probably don’t mind their job, it’s what they are missing out on that fuels any workplace resentment. Time away from friends, family and hobbies can make your job seem like punishment when really there are always choices that can help you find “balance”.

A few thoughts to consider: If you work overtime for the extra $$$, is it worth it? How can you be more productive without giving more of your time? Simply taking the train into work can lend you an hour or more a day to work DURING your commute rather than sitting in traffic, and the stress from traffic will also be avoided.

Check out how you are faring in you balancing act by taking the quiz below put out by the Canadian Mental Health Association:  Work-life Balance Questionnaire
Good Luck!

Should I Go to Work When I am sick?

Don`t go to work sick

You would think the obvious answer would be “no” – but 79% of Canadians surveyed reported going to work sick at some point in the previous year.

Nothing is worse than seeing someone sneeze into their hand before they have approached you with the same outstretched hand for a polite business shake. EW! What a terrible position to be in: should you still shake it? Is it rude to decline? (did you know that washing hands with soap saves lives everyday?)

I have decided if ultimately faced with this situation the best solution would be to politely apologize and decline because…“you haven’t yet washed your hands after lunch” or “you might be getting a cold”.  It is flu season, and each one of us can reduce the number of people affected by it. Not taking the steps to prevent infection is frankly un-humanitarian and perhaps even inconsiderate to those who have lost a loved one to this infection.

So, the bottom line for today’s blog is really about workplace etiquette for the flu season. Here is your answer: STAY HOME! I’m sure you are a valued member of your workplace team, but really, you are not helping anyone by going into work and infecting others who may become even more sick than you are from the same flu. Try offering to send in any work you can do from home and set up meetings online or via conference calls. Please be kind and help prevent the flu, you’ll be helping people stay healthy and they won’t even realize it.

For a more detailed look at some of the stats surrounding sickness in the workplace, you can check out this article at the CBC –  “When to call in sick – the pull of presenteeism”

Seven Tips for Communicating In Today’s Diverse Workplace

Communication In a Diverse Workplace

“Lost in translation” is a term that many people have experienced, even if they have never heard the expression. The term queue is a simple word for “line-up” in the UK, but it is also the word for a Chinese ponytail hairstyle, and “cue” can also be a signal to commence something. All of these meanings for a single-syllable word emphasize how dizzying the globalized world can be for all of us. If your solution to these communication complexities is to stick to a uni-cultural workplace of employees from similar backgrounds, well good luck to you- your end is near.

Regardless of how “nice” it seems to have a diverse workplace, it also makes perfect business sense; it is an avenue one must take to ensure that the best workers for each position are being recruited. Here are seven ways to ensure that all employees are receiving the same message:

1. Learn how a culture best receives information (from who, and what mode).
2. Train international employees very early and very often.
3. Train non-foreign born employees just as much and encourage them to become cultural mentors.
4. Provide support and mentors to the spouses of international employees.
5. Practice open-door communication, but be sure to approach employees too.
6. Avoid jargon and slang in publications.
7. Use the company’s goals and mission statement as a platform for common communication.

If you find your workplace continuing to face challenges in this area, it may be worth addressing the topic during professional development days or during a Lunch n’ Learn.

For further details on these communication tips, follow this link.

Shake it up Baby: Becoming a Change Agent in a Static Organization

Shaking your booty may not be your forte, but shaking up your office might be. If change is inevitable, and change always involves taking some risk, then taking a risk now and then should be inevitable too. Whatever the common practices of your organization might be, the best companies are always looking for ways to get even better. If you are reading this blog then you are probably already a forward thinker, but is putting your ideas into action worth the risk?

Becoming an agent of change in your workplace means taking a risk. Here are a few things to consider before putting ideas into practice:

• If your company does not make this change, will it continue to prosper?
• Do you see opportunities the competition doesn’t see?
• Will the change you make help everyone in the company, or just a few?
• What are some financial benefits to your proposed change?

The answers to some of these questions are a good place to begin weighing the risk to benefit ratio and for formulating your reasons for wanting change. Don’t forget that many of the most successful people in the world took a great risk at some point to get them where they are today. Good luck! And if you decide to act on an idea in your workplace, or you have in the past, please write to us and let us know how it goes (or how it went).  We’re going to collect a few stories and share them in a future post on “being a change agent in the workplace.”

For more info, check out this article from the Harvard Business Review, The 10 Questions Every Change Agent Must Answer

8 Perfect Fitness Foods

Muscle Recovery?

Food is the yin to exercise’s yang. They are simply inseparable partners when it comes to optimal health. Food not only fuels our energy for daily activities and workouts, it also helps us to repair damage from this activity. Keep in mind these key food items the next time you are active to ensure you are getting the best results possible.

Before you exercise try a cup of coffee or green tea. Coffee has been shown to increase energy and reduce pain while green tea may help your muscles recover. Other good foods for muscle recovery include pineapple, papaya or chocolate milk, which can also help the body rehydrate. A good post workout meal will include about 400 calories with about 20-30 grams of protein and 50-65 grams of carbohydrate. Try a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a small portion of pasta and meat sauce to fit this bill. Eating salmon or taking fish oil may increase cardiovascular endurance and drinking cold water while you workout has been shown to help athletes perform longer than simply lukewarm water. Finally, incorporate lean protein into your daily diet to help fuel your muscles and keep you feeling full.

Remember…you wouldn’t go for a jog with the wrong shoes on, so don’t workout with the wrong food in your belly either!

Office Profits from “No-Gossip” Zone

Office Gossip

Gossip Girl? Ok. Gossip office? No way. While watching rich high schoolers gossip on a teen television show may be entertaining to some, the fact of the matter is that we all know gossip is a conversational poison.

Not only is gossiping about others bad manners, it is also bad business. Author Sam Chapman, president of a Chicago-based PR firm instilled a “No-Gossip Zone” around his office and cited remarkable improvements in employee productivity and morale. Instead of gossip, Chapman recommends positive reinforcement of “authentic communication,” which promotes honesty and direct address of employees’ feelings.

While talking about “who wore it best” on last night’s award show may have little effect on your co-workers morale, try to refrain from talking about anyone outside of the public eye. After all, a healthy office is a happy office – try to leave the gossiping to the high schoolers.

For more info, see the original article on Sam Chapman and “The No-Gossip Zone” here.

Increase Workplace Productivity by Managing Your Energy

Manage Your Energy

When it comes down to productivity in the workplace, energy and time are not created equal. It’s true that “there are only so many hours in a day,” but there is no exhaustive limit to human energy in the workplace. In a study put out by Harvard Business, authors Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy explain that an employee’s personal energy can be the key to getting more work done without spending countless extra hours in the office.

By improving physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy through several simple tactics, it has been shown that employee productivity can increase without increasing hours in the workday. Suggested strategies include taking brief regular breaks to improve physical energy and making time to show appreciation of others to benefit emotional energy. Mental energy and concentration are improved by only responding to emails and voicemails at designated times of the day, and spiritual energy can be enhanced by regular self-reflection and practicing personal core values in the workplace.

Fostering a work environment that promotes these four areas of an energetic workplace will ultimately pay off, not just in the books, but also by reducing turnover rates and the immeasurable personal gains felt by employees themselves.

For more info on how to Manage Your Energy, check out this blog post or the original article by Harvard Business Review.

What to include in a Workplace Health and Wellness Program

Getting Active at Work

One of the most common questions we receive is, “What should be included in a Workplace Health & Wellness program?” While processes vary depending on the size and culture of the organization, all successful Workplace Health & Wellness programs share one common feature, an outcome-oriented strategy that can be measured along the way.

A Workplace Health & Wellness program with proper metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) is important for the following reasons:

• Links the Health & Wellness strategy to company objectives and strategic priorities
• Reduces the risk of losing resources and support
• Provides continuity to the program when personnel changes occur
• Creates a platform for evaluating the effectiveness of the program
• Highlights program successes that can be used both internally and within PR/Marketing campaigns

Of course there are other important items to be included in a Workplace Health & Wellness program, such as program vision, goals and a timeline. However, we continue to see that the most effective programs include a strategy that can be measured frequently throughout the year.

Back to School: Work-life Balance a Challenge for Canadian Parents

Work-life Balance - Family, Education, Work

Canadians are straining more than ever to balance family and work, but a decade of efforts to improve the situation has done little to ease the pressure, a new report from the Vanier Institute of the Family finds (see study here).

Preschoolers whose parents are less involved in their activities are more likely to experience behaviour problems, and overloaded parents may have cooler relationships and more conflict with their teenagers, leading to lower self-esteem.

In financial terms, work-family conflict is estimated to cost $2.7 billion a year directly and $10 billion indirectly through issues like absenteeism, lateness and high turnover. Workers who experience a lot of work-family conflict, for instance, miss an average of 13.2 days of work a year, compared to 5.2 days for those with less stress.

With another school year upon us, we are encouraging workplaces and employers to offer workshops to their staff that will cover work-life balance and youth development. Do you ever feel lost in what role you should play with the youth in your community? Are you concerned that online social networking – Facebook, MSN, online gaming – is having a negative effect on the youth in your life?

COS workshop, “Get Your Assets in Gear – Helping Teens to Succeed” helps parents and community members to understand how to encourage youth to make the right decisions; it also makes understanding teenagers (and how to interact with them) a whole lot easier!

To see the full article on work-life balance and Canadians, click here.

For more information about COS Workshops, click here.