Work-life balance is a word I used to mention daily at least hundred times when I worked in recruitment. I used to sell that dream to my candidates but looking back I am thinking…who was I kidding? I did not have work-life balance myself and most of the people I spoke to neither. In one job I used to come to the office at 7 in the morning and leaving at 9 on most days. When I got home I just jumped to bed as my body just could not do anything else.
I started to think about this again today when looking at these pictures where I am wearing my casual uniform of tracksuit and trainers. Yes got the same one from Femme Luxe in another colour and I truly love them all. It simply made me think about this as covid changed the way how we dress, how we spend time so let’s see if how we work also shifted. How has work-life balance changed? If we work from home did things get better or worse?
London and big cities are the worst when it comes to work to be honest. People are praised to work overtime and are celebrated when they come to the office very early. I just think it is so wrong as it is about productivity and results. The question is how is it now when we can’t see to people’s homes. One thing that definitely helped to people in big cities is the time you save on travel. However, it only depends on what they do with that time? Will do an hour of yoga instead or sleep longer or jump straight to laptop to do more work. And how about the key workers? Surely they had to work harder than ever and that includes medical staff but also couriers and delivery drivers. The demand was bigger than ever. Looking at my husband who worked at home at start and then he had to go to the office and projects nothing changed for him. He works crazy hours and even if working from home he easily turns on his laptop 6:30 and switches off 8 pm some days.
Perhaps people feel more rested as we saved time on other things like going out and doing all sorts of activities but everybody still works very hard. On the other hand the people that were lucky to have a job are probably very grateful. Lot of people lost their job and the aftermath of this will take time.
Eva
Work-life balance je slovo, ktere jsem pouzivala denne, v dobe kdy jsem pracovala v personalistice. Snazila jsem se prodat onen sen, kdy mate dost casu na sebe, ale zvladate i praci snad kazdemu potencialnimu kandidatovi. Dnes se zpetne divam a rikam si, komu jsem nalhavala? Myslim, ze i sama sobe. U jednoho z mych predchozich zamestnavatelu jsem prichazela do prace v sedm a odchazela v devet naprosto bezne a nekdy i pozdeji. Kazdy vecer jsem akorat prisla domu a unavou padla do postele. O nejakem balancu mezi pracovnim a soukromym zivotem nebyla rec.
Dnes jsem se zpetne divala na tyhle fotky v me covidove uniforme a dalsi teplakovce z Femme Luxe a premyslela jsem prave o praci. Jak jsme na tom s balancovanim prace a zivota v dobe pandemie? Je to lepsi ci je to horsi? Jsou veci vyrovnanejsi, protoze vetsina pracuje z domu? Covid zmenil tolik veci at uz jak se satime, jak travime cas a tak premyslim, zda prisla i zmena ve work-lifebalancu.
Velka mesta jsou urcite horsi, od lidi se ocekava brzky prichod do prace a nejvic se oslavuje ten, kdo odchazi z kancelare posledni. Ja v to jaksi neverim, je to prece o vysledcich a produktivite. A jak je to tedy dnes v dobe pandemie? Miliony lidi pracuji z domu a do jejich oken nevidime. Jedno je jasne, ze spousta z nich ziskala cas pro sebe navic tim, ze nemusi dojizdet. V meste jako Londyne je to klidne hodina i vice jednim smerem. Je ale na nich jak tento casu vyuziji. Nekdo si mozna da hodinu yogy pres zoom ci si pospi dele, ale spousta lidi urcite skonci k pocitaci. A pak tady mame key workers, kteri urcite mohou na work-life balance v dobe covidove zapomenout. Spise pracovali vic nez kdyz predtim. Muj muz napriklad pracoval behem prvniho lockdownu z domu a pak uz ne a muzu rict, ze i kdyz obcas pracuje z domu, zapina pocitat v 6:30 a nekonci drive nez v sedm ci osm vecer. Myslim, ze naroky jsou porad stejne pro tolik odvetvi a mozna i horsi.
Myslim, ze lide pracuji porad hodne i v dnesni dobe, je to jenom jina forma. Na druhou stranu ti co maji praci v teto dobe jsou vlastne statni lide, protoze pandemie prinesla velkou krizi a ta tady bude jeste pekne dlouho.
Eva
