“Ahem… Why are you posting about your run on LinkedIn?! This isn’t Facebook, you know.”

I was going to post about my run from earlier today, but then I thought I’d go all-in and write a quick article instead!

Now, why on earth would anyone post about their daily exercise routine on LinkedIn? This isn’t Facebook, after all.

Well, here’s why I’m doing it: because work/life balance matters.

You would have thought that if we’d learnt anything from the last few months, it’s that work is important, of course, but our physical and mental health and wellbeing are more important. Yet most of us still seem to have that backwards, i.e. we know our health and wellbeing are important, but work is more important! And I’ve been guilty of that mindset as much as anyone else.

I left my well-paid day job at the end of January 2020 to go solo (great timing, I know); as a father of four, I felt as though my life was a bit out of kilter.

I wanted to spend more time with my wife and kids. I loved my job, but it was a demanding and mentally exhausting role, though, to be fair, the pace of the role and the subsequent workload was driven almost entirely by me, not enforced top-down. I’ve just always found it hard not to jump on every opportunity, especially when the opportunity could lead to making a real difference in the lives of disadvantaged communities. I’m sure many of you can relate.

When it came to the decision to leave my job, being at home and spending more time with my family was goal #1.

Goal #2 was taking better care of myself. N.B. This is no reflection on my last (rather awesome) workplace who actually encouraged employee wellbeing – I just found myself digging a deeper hole and needing a change of environment; the damage was entirely self-inflicted!

Now I’m proud to say that I’ve absolutely smashed goal #1! But then pretty much the rest of the world has done that too for the past several months, so maybe not that much of an achievement after all.

As for goal #2, well that’s been an epic failure. Despite being at home and being my own boss, I’ve really neglected my wellbeing. Crazy long hours, stress, poor diet, almost no exercise… And this from someone who loves sport and keeping fit and healthy (most of the time).

So I decided to get a grip and sort myself out, and today, after much procrastination, did a strength training session and then went out for a run!

But what I find interesting is how, in so many of our places of work, talking about health & wellbeing may be ‘allowed’ (if you’re lucky), but it’s not serious business – it’s not the organisation’s culture. This despite the growing body of evidence showing a correlation between employee health and higher engagement levels, improved productivity, reduced absenteeism, increased job satisfaction, etc, etc.

I think we’ve also all seen people talk about stress, unmanageable workloads and exhaustion like they’re badges of honour. Heck, maybe we are that person.

I’ve worked in places where the person with the poorest work/life balance is seen as the paragon of excellence, the quintessential hard-worker – after all, they’re in the office before everyone gets in and they’re still there when the cleaners want to lock up at the end of the day, so surely all those extra hours must translate into increased productivity, right?

Well, as we’ve already established, it’s wrong. Long hours, stress and poor work/life balance do not equal increased productivity for the business. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t push and challenge ourselves every day. And we’ll always have those certain times of the year when we have to go above and beyond – it’s just that this shouldn’t be the norm; it shouldn’t be all day, every day.

We need to change the culture of our workplaces where it’s not only OK to talk about work/life balance, but it’s proactively encouraged and considered a priority. That could be about physical health, but it could equally be about more “me time” and/or family time. It’s all valid.

Many who are fortunate to be able to work from home during lockdown have found it a real challenge; so many people I’ve spoken to are working longer hours than they were previously. But many are also enjoying a better work/life balance and don’t want to go back to the ‘old way’ of doing things. This deserves serious and inclusive conversations in our workplaces, especially as lockdown restrictions are lifted and the world risks falling back into old habits.

LinkedIn feels like an extension of the workplace – and I don’t see much discussion about work/life balance here. Now I’m not advocating that everyone should start posting pictures of their breakfast/lunch/dinner/holiday/dog/cat/pet turtle/new socks, but I thought I’d post this just to shake things up a bit, perhaps get some to reflect on their own work/life balance and to encourage everyone to talk about this.

Increased wellness = increased productivity. It’s win-win. It’s good business. So let’s talk?

(P.S. In case anyone is interested, the ‘run’ was 1.82 miles, 18 minutes and 44 seconds and actually consisted of running, a little walking, a break and a lot of asthmatic wheezing at the end! I have also made a long mental list of excuses for such a dismal performance, should they be required. I’m not a 'runner' per se and I’m not about to break any records, but I’m not about to give up either. All advice & tips welcome!)