Online culture's effect on work-life balance

When is it work to send an email and to post something on Facebook? It's becoming more and more difficult for employees and employers to answer this as the borderline between work and private life is disappearing. Unions don't have a simple answer either, but they do call for clear leadership and agreements in the workplace. 

Marianne Boje Andersen is a development consultant at the Danish Society of Engineers (IDA) and an expert in psychological work environments. Every time she talks to engineers about the risks of a working life without boundaries, her audience always runs out during the intermission to check their text messages and mail.  

"Our members are techno freaks. They have the latest smartphones and applications which keep them connected to work and the rest of the world at all times. At the same time these wonders of technology make it even harder to be mentally present and relaxed in your spare time with your family. This is an enormous dilemma," she says.

Academics also seem to be keen on flexible working hours and easy access to their job networks, yet they too feel the price they have to pay is high. The union representing lawyers and economists amongst others, Djøf, says nine in ten members have access to their work computers from home. The union's latest major survey of members' work-life balance shows one in three feels the borderline between work and private life is disappearing because many are responsible for managing their own careers and because it is possible to work at home in the evening, at weekends and during holidays with remote access and mobile telephones.

Hard to give good advice

Nearly three in four say they work more from home because of remote access and mobile telephones. Two in three feel this gives them a better work-life balance. Yet the number of people who feel this development is not to their benefit is growing. The lack of a work-life balance is stress factor number one.  

"There's a major duality in all of this. Members feel it is a great benefit to be free to leave the office early and finish off some tasks in the evening once the children are in bed. But more and more are seeing the other side of the coin," says Lisbeth Kjersgård, senior political advisor at Djøf.

Newer stress research shows the same factors cause both stress and happiness among knowledge workers. This makes it difficult for unions like Djøf and IDA to advise members on what they should be doing to avoid stress. The unions encourage workplaces to discuss their work culture. 

"It might be good advice to turn off your work mobile at home, but nobody will do that if the work culture says otherwise. That's why people in each individual department must discuss what they are willing to live with and what is causing them stress," says Marianne Boje Andersen.

Djøf also encourages people to agree collectively on how to approach the problem within each workplace. Managers should also use employee performance conversations to ask about people's work-life balance. A working life without boundaries in effect means a range of new and important leadership responsibilities, says Lisbeth Kjersgård:

"There is no standard advice to be had, so it has become a major and important role for leaders to help their workers find a good work-life balance and to be good role models. Many bosses will send emails late at night and at weekends. Many of our members feel they are expected to be online and to answer. More than half of them say this will further their career. At the same time the majority of our members feel both directly and indirectly under  pressure from their boss to work more than they want to."

Lisbeth Kjersgård feels sending emails in the evening is not necessarily a problem as long as there is a clear agreement in place between management and employers. Problems arise when there is no clear agreement.

No more emotional leadership

Anders Raastrup Kristensen, ph.d. and lecturer at Copenhagen Business School, also thinks a working life without boundaries lands leaders with new responsibilities. One of his areas of research is leadership of self-managing workers and he has just published a book called "Working life without boundaries" in which he declares the 'emotional leader' dead and replaced by a leader who stakes out a clear course. 

"For some years now leaders have let workers draw up their own borders. But this kind of emotional leadership does not help employers and it also damages a business' productivity, because employees first become aware of their own limits when these limits are broken. And then the employee is left with the entire responsibility and might feel like a personal fiasco in cases where no borders have been drawn up," says Anders Raastrup Kristensen.

He advocates a change of course: out with the principle of each worker drawing his or her own borderlines, and in with clearly defined goals set out by the company.

"A leader must define quite clearly what is most important, challenge employees on their own priorities and make it legitimate for them to say no to tasks which are outside of their defined goals," says Anders Raastrup Kristensen.

Leaders are far from being at that stage yet, however. A 2008 survey showed no more than one in ten of Djøf's members felt their job was defined by clear targets and priorities.

Unions must also find new ways to help members who work in an environment without boundaries, says Anders Raastrup Kristensen.

"Unions have been very successful at putting work-life balance on the agenda, but have yet to offer members proper help to manage their own work time. What makes it even more difficult is that these problems cannot be solved through traditional agreements and inflexible rules. One solution would be more offers of personal advise for individual members," he says.