I am writing a piece about Work-Life balance for my workplace newsletter and am asking for some input

This is what I have written thus far

In my previous job working at a Hay exporting business, the ownerbuilt his own large scale hay baler.
One day it was decided to increase the output and the appropriate adjustments were made.
Output was increased by 20% but no allowances were made for extra workers to deal with this increase. Alreadyworking 12 hour shifts, the extra workload had an extremelydetrimentaleffect on me. Both mentally and physically.
So much so that driving home after 6 days of 12 hour night shifts I fell asleep and hit a tree at over 100kpm.
I survived with minor injuries but came incredibly close to being a road statistic.

For many of us our life seems to revolve around work,work and more work.
The proverb - All work and no play makes Jack and Jill dull people has health implications for all of us.
In 1990, Mars got us thinking that there might be more to life than the constant grind.
A Mars a day helps you work, rest and Play.
Alvin Tofler, in his book - Future Shock, talked about how all of us are forced to participate in the rat race of life or be left behind.
Are you having dreams of your work? Do you wake up fretting about your workload for the coming day?
We need to take time out, away from our place of employment, away from our colleagues, away from the constant grind of deadlines and increased productivity.
Taking time for ourselves is imperative if we want a harmonious life.
Work/Life balance relates to our responsibilities on the job and our personal life. Personal life includes family, social and leisure pursuits.
8 hours work, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours play was first coined over 200 years ago and adopted in Victoria in 1856.
A holiday was declared, known as May Day, now known as Labour Day.
It was recognised that workers deserved fairness from their employers and as a result all employees receive gazetted holidays as part of their work contract.

Many workers are on the job for 50 hours a week and this is considered excessive.
Rising before dawn and returning home for dinner then going to bed, repeating the process every day.
This is very unhealthy as it can lead to fretful sleep. not being able to disengage the mind from work related matters.
Changing the way we approach work can have many benefits.
Better mental and physical well being, reducing stress and allowing us to reaffirm our personal relationships.
How do we improve our work/life balance?
Taking at least 3 or 4 holidays of one week duration is a very positive thing to do. Even looking forward to holidays lifts our spirits and reduces work related stress.
Ask your supervisor to not contact you while you are on holiday.
Interact with work colleagues in a positive way. This allows you to want to go to work and not dread the day ahead.
Personally, my free time is going to the John Forrest NationalPark, or Mt Observation in the Wandoo National Park.Sitting on the banks of the Serpentine River watching nature go about it’s business.
Photographing Bearded Dragons or a mob of Kangaroos. Watching a pair of Galahs feeding their chicks or being in aweof the Avon River in full flood.
These are some of the things I do to unwind from work.
Knowing and engaging with your passions allows you to achieve a work-life balance which will see you refreshed and eager for the coming work week.

What I am asking for are your suggestions about how you manage work/life balance?
How do you disengage from work ensuring you have ample meaningful time away from work and spreading yourself around family and friends?
Thank you for reading this and I will consider any of your thoughts and ideas.

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I’m not sure what the precise purpose of your article is. Who are your addressees: your co-workers or management or both? Is the work-life balance acceptable in your company and your intention is to appeal to your co-workers to make better use of the free time they have? Or are you complaining about the current working conditions which make a sound work-life balance impossible? You’d have to structure your text accordingly.

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Thank you for replying.
Predominately aimed at the workers. Though pertinent for management as well.

Yes I was thinking the same, particularly about how your piece affects work politics. I’d take out the first paragraph completely as this is too personal. Some of the topics you cover could be seen as controversial if you are not in a position to influence such changes with your employers.

In terms of work/life balance I would say :

  1. take time out in the working day to realign your perspective on work-related problems. Enjoy a moment looking at nature, take a walk outside, close your eyes and focus on some breathing exercises, if you have a plant at work focus on it or water it.
  2. take time to engage in non-work meaningful conversations with colleagues. Go for lunch together or just have a chat to find out how their lives are going, how they are feeling and say something nice to make them smile.
  3. Do something nice for yourself each day. A small treat, a moment’s pause to focus on a happy thought or memory, or sit, close your eyes and relax each part of your body from toe to head.
  4. Instead of letting a work-related problem overwhelm you, bring yourself back to the mantra “this too shall pass”. It’s important for managers to see beyond temporary problems. Highly stressed employees are less productive and every challenge can be resolved in the long run.
  5. Take responsibility for your own feelings. You can choose how you react to a situation. Nobody can force you to feel a certain way inside.
  6. Speak up. If you are feeling overwhelmed talk to someone. It’s helpful for organisations to put a mentor system into place. So that everyone has someone they can turn to for some support at more challenging times.
  7. If the above approaches don’t help, seek professional support. If there is a works counselling service contact them, or speak to your general practitioner about access to mental health resources. Don’t ignore the problem.
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Boredom set in halfway through reading the opening post.

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Thank you for your advice and suggestions. I will mull over them.
I will most likely remove the opening paragraph.

Is this related to my opening paragraph?

this sentence would be a good opener and engage the reader :

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No. Just far too wordy.

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The possible suggested resolution for this type of conundrum would differ from person to person and at what stage of life an individual is at. Some folks just cant sit still and thrive on a bit of workplace stress, some folks have no “Freetime” expectations, some “Job Jump” some drop out, some need the extra income the extended hours offer, some are just passing time to retirement, no organization can force individuals to make the most of their free time on this planet, my personal position is, if you don’t like a situation change it, don’t waste time fighting it from inside, take responsibility for your own economic future and make every single day a nice balance between generating income and Faffing about, don’t matter if that includes weekends etc, forget the structure and just get on with it, don’t live for a couple of weeks away somewhere every year.

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Well said Spitty…
Don’t over think it Bretrick…
As Spitty points out, your relationship with your work is based on many variables and can mainly be described from a personal perspective. That perspective will be constantly changing with age, circumstances, health and environment.
Make a fist and plunge it in a bucket of water…Remove your fist from the water, and the void left behind will be the amount you will be missed if you left your job…
I’m not saying you shouldn’t care about your job. I gave my employers 100% loyalty and always worked hard, but none of us are expendable.

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Yes Foxy, my output was 110%, but that’s me being me, employers benefitted from this, they didn’t motivate me in any way, or exploit me, just built that way.

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Same here Spitty, if a job’s worth doing… :+1:
After 22 years we were all made redundant, I saw grown men cry because they were so worried about finding new employment. Families, mortgages and all that…
Being the optimist that I am I never gave it a second thought. Due to bad feeling and sour grapes, when we were asked to help them move the factory contents down south to TorPoint near Plymouth, they all refused except me and another bloke. What else was I going to do?
We worked a six month contract and made a whole heap of money. At Christmas that year we made our last trip home. Since then, I spent a year working for a lady refurbishing her house, bought a van with my redundancy money and became a self employed courier for ten years, and finally wound up my working life as a postman…They were the best years of my working life when I think that, had I not been made redundant, I would have still been working in the factory until I retired…
I also pursued many hobbies, and still do. I clocked off and my time was my own…
I know a few people who retired and expired because they lived for their work… :009:

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I had my fingers in every pie in a medium sized engineering company, the reluctance to put things right at every managerial level was astounding, corporate self protectionism in the extreme, never see the like again.

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I was going to include that nobody will ever remember how hard you worked, but if the article is aimed at management too it might not go down well.

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I let the data put the management on the spot, no hiding place.

people who have small fiefdoms like to retain their own inadequacy.

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Excellent offering, Bretwick!

Your anecdote about your work-related is highly engaging and relatable, but I agree that the purpose is unclear and does not

Presuming it is the latter, the end of your anecdote calls for a stronger thesis, something akin tom “After that accident, I realized that my full-throttle approach to work perilously risked productivity, health, and safety of myself and others. That experience exemplified that a balance between work and quality is not only essential to a healthy, happy, and successful life, it results in better performance and productivity in the workplace.”

I like Annie’s approach to more broad ideas in which encourages the employee to be reflective and identify for themselves, the specifics of what works for them. Otherwise it just becomes a laundry list. Create a framework of broad suggestions, explain what worked for you, and then challenge readers to develop a plan that works for them.

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I was self-employed for the last 10 years of my job. Not much work-life balance but it didn’t seem to matter much because I enjoyed the job. Some hours off of course but long hours spent in the workshop, often until bedtime. Spring into life in the early morning and out to the workshop with an idea to follow up before going out and visiting customers.

Then Mrs mart got knocked down by a car and couldn’t look after anything. I eventually gave up the job to become her carer. Life isn’t bad now but we aren’t able to do many things that others can do easily. Life is settled and settled-for these days. Hard to say what the work-life balance is now because the two run side by side.

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For me it was a single take at it - just my life as an Electrical Engineer and that was it. Boring one might say ? That it was not. I travelled extensively which I (mostly) enjoyed. Work - balance? Nah!

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