HOW TO SWITCH OFF THE ‘ALWAYS ON’ CULTURE.

How many grade-school kids do you know who have cell phones? How many people do you know who are never more than 3 feet away from their cell phones, day or night? How many people do you know who work while ‘on vacation’? How many people do you know who won’t go on vacation anywhere where they can’t get a wifi signal?

The answers to those questions probably reveal some insights about today’s American culture and our current struggle with burnout, anxiety, depression and just general overwhelm.

While there’s still an ongoing tug-of-war between #RTO mandates and #RemoteWorking demands, some disturbing trends are largely ignored. These trends signal that the way we work needs to change, or we could be headed for a social crisis affecting generations to come. Some organizations have already made successful changes which indicate that there is real hope to stop the crisis in its tracks.

Here’s a snapshot of some of things that are being said:

“Young workers’ work-life struggles: Work-life balance is crucial to young workers — and something that relatively few of them achieve. That’s one of the findings of Deloitte’s annual survey of millennials and Gen Zers,…”

‘“Retirement is a misnomer — there is no more retirement,” says John Tarnoff, a reinvention career coach based in L.A.’

“A few years ago, I was spending half of my weekend recovering from the week before, and the other half bracing myself for the next week. Whatever free time I had was often consumed by chores I couldn't get to on workdays. There was hardly a moment for leisure, and by Monday morning I was always exhausted.”

‘“I think they’re happier than they’ve ever been,” said Kurtz, 32, the company’s CEO and founder. “Every single person on the team wanted to keep it.” So this month, he made the four-day workweek permanent. “I literally can’t think of a single hiccup that has happened,” he said.’

The take-away from this very small snapshot? The way we’ve been working definitely isn’t working

Being ‘always on’, working longer hours, having no boundaries between work and personal life is taking a severe toll on us all - whether we’re Gen Z or Baby Boomers.?

Despite all the ra-ra about ‘work is life’, and, ‘do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’, we all know that working while we eat our lunch at our desk, missing important family events because of working late, and putting off medical appointments because we can’t take time off work, is not healthy.

Of course, some of the pressure to work like this, especially when it comes to Baby Boomers, is financial. Rising inflation with soaring costs = shrinking savings.?But, aside from that, it’s also a cultural issue.?

“… some 60% of millennials and 49% of Gen Zers also say their job is key to their sense of identity, roughly double the share who say the same for hobbies or exercise.”?

I’d say this applies to all the generations represented in today’s workforce. We’ve set so much emphasis on what we do, our title and our influence, or social standing, that we’ve traded all the ‘life’ things with real value for a transitory sense of self-worth.

So how do we switch from being ‘always on’ to a better, more human-centered work situation?

Judging from recent research and experiments, shorter work weeks and greater flexibility in where and how we work, go a long way to achieving this. It stands to reason that when we have the ability to earn enough, yet have time enough for a life outside of work, we are happier, less at risk for burnout and mental health issues and enjoy a far better life at work and outside of work. Not to mention, more productive at work.

How can we, as individuals, do more to control pervasive ‘work creep’??

That’s just one of the things that’s been important to us as we continue to evolve Optevo. After all, if we want to ensure that our work life doesn’t become our life’s work, being able to ‘switch off’ when necessary is crucial. It’s a practical way to help us avoid overwhelm and burnout.

Switching off during personal time, after hours, weekends, or during vacations, is impossible if we’re still being notified, messaged, or emailed about work. For most of us, the temptation to check those notifications and respond, is way too strong to ignore.?To solve this, #Optevo has a built-in control to help both employers and employees easily manage boundaries between being ‘on’ and ‘off’ as far as work is concerned. ?

We have the ability to adjust which notifications are received and how we receive them. And, if we’re focusing on deep work, away on vacation, or taking personal time, we can mute all notifications.?Muting all notifications, triggers a banner seen by our Work Pod collaborators advising them we are unavailable and won’t be receiving notifications.?That way, they’ll know that we’re not ignoring them and will respond when we’re back at work.

It’s a simple, yet effective tool to reclaim autonomy over when we’re ‘at work’ and when we’re ‘at home’. It’s something that I think is a practical step toward reversing those trends I mentioned earlier.

What do you think?

#LifeWorkBalance #Overwhelm