3 Fundamentals of Maintaining Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is always an important topic, but it’s been on everyone’s mind lately. Candidates are asking about it during interviews, employees are talking about how important it is to them to maintain, and here at JDM we are reflecting on how we view work/life balance and what we can do to maintain and improve it.

To me, there are three essentials to maintaining the always-delicate balance of work and life. Supporting policies and messaging may flex over the years, but these are the fundamentals.

1. Flexibility

We were founded in 2017 as a remote-first, remote-always company expressly to offer our employees location flexibility. This is a huge advantage for both providing accessibility to an inclusive range of communities and allowing our team members to seamlessly blend their life and work in a way that best suits them. 

At JDM, this means that some employees:

• Work out during their lunch
• Flex their hours during the day to accommodate appointments 
• Take their pets for walks during the work day
• Pick up school-aged children (raises hand as mother of two)

In return, we ask that team members be transparent and communicate effectively by updating their calendars and Slack status to let others know when they won’t be available. (Some coworkers update their Slack status with dog emojis/dentist emojis - not necessary, but fun, and it reinforces that our culture embraces this kind of flexibility.)

2. Accountability

The system only works when people use it responsibly, which means people must manage their time wisely. 

Some good habits to encourage are time blocks, weekly check-ins with managers, daily checklists, and project management software (we use Hourstack and Asana to help our employees with these functions). 

Another important part of time management is monitoring workload. Work/life balance ebbs and flows; some days may be heavier or lighter than others, but when it consistently feels like someone’s workload has become unmanageable, it’s time for resources to change.

Staying on top of this is everyone’s job. It is crucial for the team member to communicate feelings of overload to their manager in an honest and timely manner, and it’s a big part of the manager’s job to check in regularly and without judgment on their employees’ workload.

3. A Culture That Promotes PTO

Flexible PTO is great for a lot of people, but it can be a challenge for others more accustomed to a set number of days because there’s a subjectivity component involved.

That means companies that offer flexible PTO need to back up the policy by encouraging employees to use it. Remind employees frequently that they don’t have to “save” their PTO days or wait for them to accumulate. Celebrate creative ways people use it and life-changing experiences they’re able to enjoy because of it. Set examples, and remind employees that this is one of the benefits of working at your company (note: this is important even if you don’t offer flexible PTO).

To help this work for everyone, make sure you have a process in place to let people take PTO without a hitch. Make sure everyone knows who is covering what while the employee is out of the office. At JDM, this works out well for the team, our clients, and the employee – things are covered, and employees come back refreshed and recharged.

If you’re interested in joining a company that knows the value of work-life balance, check out our Careers page!