+

work life balance

via Pexels

People living to work, not working to live.

If we looked 60 years into the past, there are a lot of things that were accepted as “normal” that today most people find abhorrent. For example, people used to smoke cigarettes everywhere. They’d light up in hospitals, schools and even churches.

People also used to litter like crazy. It’s socially unacceptable now, but if you lived in the ’70s and finished your meal at McDonald’s, you’d chuck your empty styrofoam container (remember those?) and soda cup right out of the window of your car and onto the street.

Keep ReadingShow less
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Americans' long working hours put them at a disadvantage in several ways.

Many Americans hope for the day when the regular work week resembles that many of the other countries, with fewer work days, daily siestas and extensive paid leave packages. Having a nap pod under your desk or taking a six-week holiday is, to Americans, what fairytales are made of. Add in up to three years of paid parental leave, and you’re really entering a realm of perfection that Americans can only dream of. But we could be moving closer to those things than we think. While we're far from having three years off for bringing home a new baby, there are some moves toward redressing the balance between the amount of time spent at work and family (or other activity) time.

California recently introduced a bill, AB 2932, that aims to cut the work week from 40 to 32 hours. This reduction in hours would allow employees to have a four-day work week. The bill also outlines how overtime would be applied, where time and a half pay is required after an eight-hour work day, and anything above 12 hours is compensated with double pay. Workers also would not be docked pay if they did not meet the 32-hour minimum for their work week. While the work week would be a day shorter, employees would not be required to work more than an eight-hour shift. The proposed changes would only affect companies that have 500 employees or more.

Keep ReadingShow less
Canva

More and more countries and companies are experimenting with a four-day work week.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, most people who were able to work from home did. Along with that shift to remote work came a blurrier line between home life and work life—in a society where that line can be quite fuzzy as it is.

Constant connectedness via the internet has contributed to people's difficulties in disconnecting from work. It's far too easy to think about something work-related and shoot off a message to an employee or a co-worker no matter the time of day. In some ways, this ability makes work easier. The problem is that it also makes it easy to not have true time "off."

Everyone needs time off, even people who enjoy their work. And now, in a series of labor reforms, one country is making it easier for everyone to create a healthier work-life balance for themselves.

First, Belgium joins several other nations in approving a four-day work week. Employees can request a six-month period of condensing a 38-hour work week (full time) into four days instead of five. Same pay, same number of hours, just shifted into four days so that every weekend is a three-day weekend. After the six months are up, they can continue with the four-day week or return to five.

Keep ReadingShow less

This article originally appeared on November 23, 2016

By the end of her first week living in Denmark, Helen Russell was worried about her husband's brand-new job.

She explained in an article she wrote for Stylist that she was sure Lego had fired him already because he kept coming home early.

Originally from the U.K., Russell was used to her home country's work customs, where late nights and long hours were worn as a badge of honor. She felt surprised and embarrassed when her husband first came home from work in the early afternoon — she'd hardly started her own day of freelance writing.

Keep ReadingShow less