Learning about work-life-blending
 

Getting to know what work overload means
 

Tips for a good work-life-blending
 

Tipps to prevent work overload
 

Unit 1        -          A

Work-Life-Blending definition     
 

Unit 2        -          B

Tips for good Work-Life-Blending     
 

Unit 3         -          C

What means work overload and burnout test
 

Unit 4        -          D

Preventing overload: tips for prevention
 

Digitalisation enables access to data and media from almost everywhere. This means that the strict separation of work and private life is disappearing more and more. Work-life blending is the name of the game.

Employees can also be available for clients at the weekend. They can not only do part of the work in the home office, but also sort out private matters during working hours as compensation. Sounds promising, but not every employee or employer is convinced.

What significance work-life blending has in the world of work and what advantages and disadvantages are associated you will be learnt below.

If the ideal fusion of private and professional life succeeds, the often invoked New Work could become reality. Work will be adapted to the needs of each individual and a working world will emerge that takes more account of individuality. Critics fear, however, that this ideal will never come to pass. Rather, they say, work-life blending is a dangerous trend.

The reason for this fear is the possible disadvantages and risks of work-life blending if the blending does not work as planned, but instead comes at the expense of private life. In the end, work-life blending leads to increasing working hours on top of the full-time job. Then it is often only a matter of time before health suffers under the strain. The main danger of work-life blending is that there is no blending at all, but that work life increasingly overlaps and displaces private life.

Self-determination

Flexibility

Productivity

Reconciling family and work

You can freely allocate your time and decide how to set tasks. Greater freedom increases employee satisfaction.

The greater flexibility means you can fit more private appointments in without having to take leave. Simple errands like hairdressing or doctor's appointments can be done on the side.

You can influence more strongly when you work on which task through work-life blending. If you can take your own biorhythm more into account, you will increase your productivity.

For example, on days with low workloads, you can go home sooner. You might just take another call, but at the same time you can already be there for your family or friends.

Overtime

Self-exploitation

Ambiguity

Health risk

Constant accessibility tempts employees to take care of official tasks in private "just for a moment". If this time is not recorded, it automatically leads to unpaid overtime.

The culture of presence is still strong in Germany. Many feel a particularly high pressure to perform when working from home because they are working "off the grid". This leads to increased effort, even to the point of self-exploitation.

The lack of separation blurs the boundaries between job and private life, between colleagues and friends. This can lead to conflicts.

Lack of control and constant overtime are detrimental to health. Also, not everyone can switch off in the way that many people can with a clear physical separation. This often leads to inner restlessness and sleep disorders.

In the end, the extent to which the whole thing works remains a question of implementation at the respective employer. What happens when it is no longer possible to distinguish between work and free time?

One problem that employees have to deal with is the high stress caused by constant accessibility. Many already feel overwhelmed at work and cannot really relax and switch off. Whether the concept of work-life blending is a curse or a blessing is left largely to individual responsibility.

       Check your attitude

If you accept that a separation of work and leisure is no longer feasible, you can also stop feeling guilty about taking time for private things during work. Work-life blending allows for a greater degree of flexibility. At the same time, it requires openness to leave rigid working time arrangements behind. For example, if someone extends their lunch break to run their own errands in exchange for continuing to work from their home laptop in the evening. This is exactly what helps to realise the full potential of the new way of working and to perceive it as a blessing for oneself personally.

        Organise your work

Work-life blending does not have to mean that you always have to do everything at all times. Multitasking remains a myth after all, and the danger of blending is that we get distracted by private things. Smartphones can be real time-eaters when acoustic signals sound during the work phase. Even if use for private purposes is permitted, you should clearly separate for the sake of better concentration. The clear separation into work and private phases also allows you to better document the professional parts. This gives you an overview of the actual working time.

       Switch off the devices

You decide to what extent accessibility turns into constant accessibility. To give your body the necessary rest, you should switch off the respective media after work. In principle, this is a mini digital detox. Once your laptop and mobile phone are switched off, the risk of checking your e-mails or working on something is reduced. This in turn increases the chances that you will really clear your head.

Psychological symptoms

Physical symptoms

Social symptoms

£  I enjoy my work less and less.

£  My daily tasks are gradually becoming too much for me.

£  I have the feeling that I don't make a difference and that I am just a cog in the wheel.

£  I worry a lot, some of them are downright fears.

£  I have less confidence in myself than before.

£  I find it increasingly difficult to concentrate.

£  I hardly have any new ideas, I feel uncreative.

£  But I can hardly get myself up to do anything new either.

£  I can hardly relax - even during breaks.

£  I feel empty and exhausted.

£  I feel a growing sadness over my life.

£  I find it harder to get out of bed in the morning.

£  I have recently started to suffer from insomnia.

£  I wake up in the morning tired and dull.

£  I feel tired more often and more quickly during the day.

£  I sometimes drink more alcohol in the evening to relax.

£  I have recently started having gastrointestinal problems.

£  I have recently developed back pain.

£  I have recently developed cardiovascular problems.

£  I suffer from headaches more often.

£  I take tablets to suppress physical symptoms.

£  I take drugs to manage my workload.

£   I often feel tense and irritable.

£   I feel increasingly isolated and left alone at work.

£   I have recently become aggressive.

£   My family thinks I have changed.

£   My desire for sex has decreased significantly.

£   I meet up with my friends less often.

£   I hardly pursue my hobbies any more.

Soothing morning ritual 

Morning rituals come in many different forms and approaches. While one person prefers early morning sports, another needs his rest in the morning, while a third starts the day best with a cup of coffee and a good book. However, morning rituals have one thing in common: they help you get a good start to the day. Thus prepared, you can cope much better with the demands of the workplace.

Conscious rest periods

The constant intake of information and constant accessibility are both a cause and a part of workplace overload. Prevention is simple, but not necessarily easy: build in quiet times when you are not available and dedicate yourself to relaxation. At work, such rest periods can often only be realised for a few minutes, but in your free time they are all the more extensive. Leave work-related e-mails unanswered in the evening and even switch off your smartphone sometimes.

Basic order

Overload at work can be self-made to a certain extent. If you don't keep your documents in order and store information without any system, you don't have to wonder about growing chaos and overload. The simplest antidote: introduce and maintain basic order. Everything doesn't have to be perfectly tidy, but you should know where to find what information at all times.

Continuous coordination

No one knows what the other is doing, everyone is working on their own and instead of mutual support, the lack of teamwork leads to extra work. This phenomenon always occurs when there is no continuous coordination and communication in the team. The solution: regular team meetings and open communication among each other, where too many tasks can be addressed.

Prevention is good, but it no longer helps when the child has already fallen into the well. In the case of acute overload, only targeted countermeasures can help to get the situation back under control. It is very important to address the causes, not the symptoms. It is no use working more and more to cope with the growing flood of tasks.

The following five tips can help you cope with acute overload:

Accept your overload

Do not tell yourself that everything is fine and that the situation at your workplace is completely normal. You will only lie to yourself and make the situation worse. However, do not see the overload as a failure or a mistake. Admitting that you are overworked is important in order to be able to take active steps against it. Self-reproach, guilt and similar negative reactions have no place here. These are not justified and you are making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself.

Seek a dialogue with your boss

Explain your situation openly and soberly, make it clear that you are doing your best, but that the accumulation of tasks is simply too great at the moment. It is not about explaining your failure to the boss or finding justifications, but about tackling the problem together. Ideally, you should already have some suggestions for solutions, such as prioritising the tasks or ideas on how to distribute the to-dos.

Get an overview of all tasks

To get a grip on overwhelm, you need an overview of the things that need to be done - and really all the tasks! Write down every activity, no matter how small, that you have to do in the next few days. Only if you know what is overwhelming you can you do something about it.

Ask for help

Maybe you feel ashamed or don't want to admit to your colleagues that you can't keep up. But before the overload becomes a serious problem, you should ask for help. Talk to your colleagues and ask if tasks can be redistributed or worked on together. Sometimes it already helps immensely if you get to work together.

Implement the solutions you find in a timely manner

You have a plan - now you have to implement it. Don't wait, but start immediately. It may be unfamiliar at first, but with a new (and hopefully better) system or a different assignment, overload can be combated and overcome in the long run.