Family and Health First: Nurturing Well-being in Your Team
The importance of building a supportive workplace culture that values personal priorities
When you are focused on deadlines and releases, it is easy to forget that behind every keyboard there is a person with their own private life, emotions, and responsibilities beyond work. No matter how hard one tries to separate private life from work life, it is not always possible, and often, private life has demands that do not easily align with work schedules and rhythms. Most of the time, moreover, we have no control over what happens in our private lives, and having to juggle between fixed schedules and personal needs only makes things more complicated.
So, what should be done? Should you constantly keep your collaborators in a state of anxiety and stress as they try to juggle personal and work schedules, or should you work together to find the right solutions so that everyone can work peacefully and find a balance between work demands and personal commitments? I bet you already know the right answer but I’d like to see in more detail what to pay attention to so that the people in your team feel free to attend to the demands of their private lives while finding a proper balance. Keep in mind that it's the small details and little attentions that make the difference.
⌚️Respecting Time and Personal Lives
Time is a precious resource, both for you and your teammates. I don't want to dwell on how important it is not to ask people to work beyond their regular hours or on weekends; I assume you already understand the importance of these aspects. Instead, I would like to focus on some subtler, yet equally important, aspects that allow people to work peacefully.
The most important thing: when it’s not possible to facilitate an asynchronous conversation, keep in mind people's working hours (or just write them down). Especially in distributed teams with different time zones or simply with different habits, asking a colleague to join a call or do a task close to lunchtime or the end of the workday can put them in a difficult position. Free time during the week is limited, and often people have schedules to follow to fit everything in the best way possible: maybe they need to cook for someone in the family who doesn't work from home during lunch break, or they need to pick up their kids from school right after work. If you are their superior, you can make it even more difficult for the person, as they might feel uncomfortable telling you they can't meet your request because they need to leave. Having open communication on these topics helps a lot. If we notice that people are struggling to express these needs, we should directly ask them to share their requirements with us: it could be a great topic during a 1:1 meeting. Another thing that helps a lot is suggesting them to block out times in their calendars when they are unavailable due to recurring commitments: lunchtime, school pick-up time, etc. Offer flexible working hours for those who need them. For example, a team member with young children might appreciate the opportunity to start and finish work an hour earlier to manage family commitments.
A more concrete example: one of the guys on my team has to work one day a week during certain times of the year when all his daughters are at home due to school closures. Trying to reduce the number of meetings on that specific day can help him work more peacefully.
Focus primarily on results rather than working hours. As long as a team member's work schedule does not impact the final outcome and communication with other team members, it is more important to be flexible and help them balance work and personal life.
To give you an example of what it means to balance personal life and work without stress, here is a typical workday in my team:
Just remember to be the example by sharing your needs and commitments with the team.
To have attention to these details has always come easy to me, I think it's also due to my personality. However, this doesn't mean that there haven't been moments when I've forgotten this kind of information, leading to unpleasant situations. While they haven't had a huge impact, it's quite unpleasant when a teammate informs you of their needs and you find yourself saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot.". The risk is that people feel unheard. Even in our personal lives, when those close to us forget important things, we get annoyed; it's no different in a work context.
⚖️ Work-Life balance
A good balance between work and personal life is essential for the happiness and productivity of the team. Promoting this balance is one of the key responsibilities of a leader.
As with the previous section, I assume that aspects such as respecting vacations and days off are already taken for granted.
Apart from this, however, there are other important aspects that need to be promoted within the team to ensure the well-being of the people we work with. The most important, in my opinion, is to demonstrate empathy and offer support during personal crises, such as mourning or illnesses. Allowing team members to take time off or temporarily reduce working hours can make a difference, but understanding how you can help them while they’re at work can have a significant impact. Evaluating less demanding tasks or explicitly suggesting a slower pace during those periods can be a great way to support them.
Equally important is to urge team members to use their vacation days and take regular breaks to recharge. This also means recognizing and respecting the holidays and cultural traditions of team members, by offering additional days off if necessary, shows respect for diversity and promotes an inclusive environment (e.g., Ramadan and Christmas).
When you manage people, you are already used to scheduling vacations with your teammates to avoid overlaps and interruptions to operations. However, attention must also be paid to how people are doing, suggesting they take a break from work even during periods that were not planned if the situation requires it.
Another aspect in promoting a good work-life balance within the team is balancing the workload throughout the year: people cannot maintain the same pace throughout the year. There are times when it's necessary to push a little harder, so we end up asking the team members for an extra effort but this cannot be the norm. In fact, after an intense effort, it's a good idea to allocate people to projects or activities that require a slower pace and allow for recovery.
I have many examples of how my company's support during difficult times has been crucial for me: Several years ago, my wife underwent a very delicate surgery, and a challenging pregnancy required me to be away from work for several weeks to be with my family. These are just two instances where my personal life directly impacted my professional life. In all of those cases, the only two things I've been told are: “Take all the time you need” and “Are there things you want to scale to take them off your plate?". Having a boss who supports you during these times by temporarily relieving you of responsibilities and allowing you to focus 100% on your family, without the anxiety of neglecting work, has a significant impact on your mental health and quality of life.
Staying on the topic of impacting the quality of life for the people we collaborate with, there’s a habit I've learned and want to share here. A few years ago, as a preliminary exercise for a training I attended, I was asked to find my "One Simple Thing":
“One Simple Thing” is something you and your mentor / team leader agree to that will improve your own well-being and work-life flexibility.
I found it enlightening and answering that question has been very helpful to me. When I started doing 1:1s with the members of my team, I decided to propose it to them as well, asking them to consider whether they wanted to answer this question and to understand how I could help them achieve their goals.
TL;DR
Respecting your collaborators' time and personal lives is not just a matter of courtesy; it's an investment in their well-being and productivity. A leader who shows appreciation for their team's time and cares about their work-life balance will be able to create a more motivated, efficient, and cohesive team.
Credits: Illustration