Your support through your work-life journey
YOU - Your Values. Your Priorities. Your Choice
Your family, kin and friends
Your employer
Government & community
YOU - Your Values. Your Priorities. Your Choice.
It is important to discover and build on your strengths and passion in your endeavours. Given everyone’s situation is unique, only understanding yourself, your priorities, your values, and your strengths and weaknesses would provide the directions and help you decide what works best for you and for those around you.
“My personal journey in maintaining work-life balance begins with the realization that a right philosophy in life makes all the difference in how we live our lives. If we get the foundation right, we will have an upright structure. As busy people in this fast paced society, we can easily be swept by all kinds of demands in life. Most of what we do unfortunately are not the most important though they may appear most urgent. But if we periodically review our life in the light of our life goals, we will have a better chance of enjoying some of the fruits of those goals”
Mr Edwin Choy
Co-founder and Director of Centre for Fathering
Tips:
- Manage and prioritise key roles
Identify the key roles to play during the week. List down in your diary as putting them in writing gives you focus and move you into action.
List down your goals for each key role
For each key role, write down your goals/activities to accomplish for the week according to their importance. Limit to a few goals per role and if possible, combine activities that allow you to achieve multiple goals. For example, doing housework with your children allows you to fulfill your role as “homemaker” and “parent”
Get organised and plan
Allocate specific time slots to the goals you have identified for the key roles.
Take time out for yourself
Don’t forget you also need time for yourself to pursue your aspirations and interests.
Assess and do it
Assess whether your list of goals are in line with your definition of success in life. Weigh the pros and cons before deciding what is best for you.
Know when to let go or say ‘no’
Learn to say ‘no’ to requests that are not related to your priorities. Delegate responsibilities and focus on tasks that truly require your attention.
Celebrate little successes, no matter how small
Don’t be too hard on yourself. When you achieve a goal you set out to do, give yourself a pat on the back!
Do not give up easily but always think positive
By taking a positive stance, you can learn from mistakes and handle problems better in future.
“Managing work-life challenges requires our personal awareness of what we value in life. Most of us value our families. We work to provide for our families and to keep ourselves significantly challenged and relevant. We experience work-life conflict or disequilibrium when work becomes overwhelming, leaving little time for the family and ourselves. When that happens, we either continue spinning until something breaks down or we stop to re-assess priorities and life choices. We have choices – choices to reduce commitments, to set limits, to say no, to leverage on our strengths, to protect our time by timetabling and so forth. For myself, it’s to keep in perspective what I value most to achieve work-life effectiveness rather than work-life balance.”
Mrs Helen Lim-Yang
Work-Life Consultant
Your family, kin and friends
Family is the first line of support. A supportive family provides the primary source of support, whether in providing regular care for your children or in times of trouble.
“I’m truly blessed to have strong family support. My mother went into early retirement to take care of my child. Knowing my baby is in good hands gives me the peace of mind to focus on my work when I am in the office.”
Ms Patricia Tan, Banker
Friends and neighbours can be a great source of help too. Building rapport and fostering mutual help arrangement with your friends and neighbours as well as other support groups would help you tide through difficult times.
Your employer
Your employer may have put in place work-life programmes at the workplace that would help you manage work and personal/family responsibilities.
Work-life programmes comprise:
· Flexible work arrangements include part-time work, telecommuting, flexible start and end times etc.
· Leave benefits include family care leave, marriage leave, maternity and paternity leave etc.
· Employee support schemes and services include health and wellness programmes, child/eldercare services or subsidies, family life information and referrals, time-saving services etc.
Be flexi-fective. Flexibility is the key to achieving work-life harmony. When deciding which flexible work arrangement best suit you, you have to:
· consider the suitability of your job nature and personality for the chosen flexible work arrangement
· assess how it would affect your colleagues, workflow and productivity
· work out an arrangement with your employer and do a pilot test
· review and make necessary adjustments to improve this arrangement
To achieve a win-win outcome, both you and your employer need to have mutual trust and respect, open communication as well as clear responsibility and accountability.
“The flexibility and trust of my supervisors and the understanding that I will deliver has made telecommuting work in my case. Both my department and I have benefited from this arrangement as I have achieved greater work productivity and have also a happier family life. I no longer feel guilty for taking off in the middle of the night to attend to my clients when exigencies arise as most times I am able to spend quality time with my kids.”
Ms Razwana Begum
Probation Officer
Government & Community
You could tap on the resources and support network within the community, ranging from children to elderly and other family support. Knowing the types of resources and support provided by the government or available in the community would allow you to make informed work-life decisions.
For more information on the government and community support available, please visit these websites:
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