Balance between office and family work
With the advent of technology and speedy life all over the world, It is found in the society that the stress level has increased a lot.
Especially in software field ( IT sector ) the stress levels are so high that engineers are getting diseases and disorders. One side effect of it is that the balance between office and family life is lost. The rate of divorces and suicides in this field are increasing. IT industry has broken the barrier between company and house.
In traditional companies all work is finished inside the company. Therefore once the employee is out of the company, he can devote time for home and family. In IT industry many companies provide secured remote access to employees and expect them to work from home as well. Typical reasons for this are
- odd scheduled software deployment times
- tight deadlines
- co-ordination with offshore
- bed-ridden but willing-to-work persons
- child not feeling well
- Postal delivery
- Mad rush to complete work
- Checking status of important tasks
- Boss has no other suitable time for meetings
- Bad weather
For some persons this is workable solution. However for persons with babies, it can become real curse. Especially if their spouses do not understand this type of work culture. Problem is worst if the person is a consultant and not an employee of the company. On consultant the pressure to keep the project in hand is very much.
Looking at above facts it is clear that the interference of the office work at home is much prominant in IT sector. Hence the need to strike a proper balance between office and home.
At ITProductivityTools
we have found some ways to achieve this.
- Finish off all your work at office only.
- If you must work from home, then let your family know it clearly.
- If you have a baby at home and have to work from home. Drop the idea and go to office. Don't work with a half heart. At home you will talk on phone for your office work that will disturb the family and especially sleeping baby. The late night phone conference calls for deployment are typically annoying and disturbing.
- Let your Manager know if the balance is really going off beat.
- If your boss is red chilli and does not understand your family situation, you might want to consider changing the job or project or department.
- If your office is near your home, prefer to come to office for office work.
- Share or download the work load.
- If required and affordable, slow down and don't be in a rush.
- For some of the non critical things use the "Let it go" approach.
- Prioritize your work properly. Not all things can be done in a day.