I THOUGHT I COULD KEEP THE PLATES SPINNING UNTIL I CRASHED……TWICE
I can do this.
I can master my life during a pandemic, no problem.
I can be 100% engaged at work and bring in new business.
I can keep the house clean, grocery shop with a mask, and prepare healthy meals.
I can help my son understand why he can't be with his friends, but, also why he can't be on NBA2K all day.
I can be nice to my husband, cover up my gray hair, not pack on the pounds while in quarantine and, oh, yeah, become a fifth grade teacher.
Or, so I thought.
I learned my lesson after crashing on my mountain bike….twice in one weekend.
That's when I thought maybe I should pay attention to the message being sent. It was time to reassess what “I can do” vs. what I “should do” and to give myself a break. What I “should do” is be more forgiving of myself and provide my family with optimism about the future.
Now is the time for employers to reassess what they “should do” too. Employers can help their employees with work/life balance by understanding the personal struggle and actually living out their EVP (employee value proposition) in meaningful ways. Employers can stop rewarding the faster response over the better response, or the longer workday over a more productive workday. Companies should step back and reexamine the traditional ways of working - management should choose quality work over quantity of output. Employers are seeing that workers can’t function well without accommodations for their family responsibilities. All families want greater choices in determining how their work and their families fit together.
Post-pandemic, can we create a system that fits real workers, not just idealized ones? If we can, then maybe we can emerge from this crisis with both healthier employees and better performing organizations.
Read more about our relocation industry benchmark report on rebuilding after COVID-19 here.