Yahoo Finance Working 11 hours a day from home? Here's how to claw back some valuable family time
Almost a year ago, when the full effect of the pandemic in the UK was beginning to be understood, people’s lives changed drastically, in a variety of ways. One of the most dramatic shifts was the switch from office working to working from home, a move many believe is here to stay, with offices already selling off space.
While there are multiple benefits to working from home, including saving the cost, time and stress of a commute, a new study has found that the average British home worker has increased their weekly hours by 25 per cent, leading to an average of 11 hours on the job per day, compared with nine pre-lockdown. That doesn’t leave much time for banana bread.
Britain has fared worse than most of its European neighbours on this front, and experts put our workaholic nature down to a number of reasons. It could be that Britons are throwing themselves into work as a distraction; that the difficulties of homeschooling mean work must spill over into the evening; or that bosses expect employees to be on call more, as they know they are always at home.
Dr Bex Hewett, an assistant professor at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, whose work focuses on people’s experiences at work, says boundaries between working hours and home time have become more permeable.
“Physical distance from work helps people to switch off,” Hewett explains. “Things like changing clothes, having that journey away from work, all those things help us to detach from work. At home, our boundaries are so much more flexible. At home you’re thinking about work, and at work you’re thinking about home. You’re sitting at your desk, but thinking about the washing, ironing, and vice versa.”
A second key reason, according to Hewett, is that employees have lost the autonomy that came with working in the office. “When you are in different spaces for work and home, you have the choice to say, ‘this is not my work time’. When those things blur, that kind of choice gets taken away from us, we feel as though we’ve got less autonomy in the way we manage our lives.”
So how can people improve their work-life balance and even reduce their WFH hours? Here, Hewett, and other experts, share their tips.
Delineate between work and home
Research shows that the ability to physically block a working space away (as we do when we work in the office) goes a long way to improving wellbeing. For many, this isn’t easy, particularly those in small flats, perhaps working in their bedrooms or on their dining tables.
“It could be as small as just packing up work stuff and putting it visibly out of sight, so it doesn’t continue to sit on the dining table,” says Hewett. If you do have a large room with multiple uses, something like a curtain can create a physical barrier from the workspace.
Hewett says even the way we dress can offer delineation. “Research shows people working from home are able to create boundaries when they dress differently. Put on work clothes, do your makeup, and when you finish, take them off, and put some comfy clothes on. Those things really help as well.”
Switch off your tech
The rise of smart technology has led to work spilling into home life. With everything available in your pocket, it can be tempting to keep reading emails well into the night.
“Take work emails off your phone,” Hewett suggests. “You use out of office response to create boundaries.” Hewett stresses that the burden should not be placed on employees, however, and bosses should act as role models. “If a manager is responding all through the night, over the weekend, that creates a culture where everyone feels they have to respond. You have to be role models in order for them to switch off.”
In a year when many spent holidays at home, this meant staying mentally switched onto work, which Hewett advises against. “In the research I do, we talk about recovering from work. Evenings and weekends are very important for recovery.”
Break the day down into manageable chunks
Susy Roberts, an executive coach and founder of people development consultancy Hunter Roberts, believes breaking your day into hours and focusing on what you can achieve within them is less daunting than visualising the whole day stretched out in front of you. “By the end of the day, you've achieved lots of small goals, instead of getting to the end of the day and feeling frustrated that you didn’t do anything.
“If tasks are drifting, you need to become action focused and break down tasks into goals to be achieved. Make a list of those goals, prioritise them, and tackle one at a time. Each small achievement will be a boost to tackle the next task.”
Take breaks
According to a survey by Fellowes, a workspace solutions provider, 29 per cent of Britons feel too busy to take a break when working from home, and a quarter felt guilty when taking breaks. Unsurprisingly, all experts agreed that regular breaks were vital to staying mentally healthy.
“Take adequate breaks to clear your mind,” says Dr Dimitrios Paschos, a consultant psychiatrist at Re:Cognition Health. “Enjoy a stroll to the coffee shop at lunch, and simple screen breaks throughout the day.”
Hewett adds that microbreaks, 15 minutes or so, are effective tools for recovery, and getting away from a screen is crucial for both mental and physical recovery. As many have discovered, sitting on Zoom calls all day can frazzle the mind.
Longer walks can help, too. “It’s important to get outside in nature,” says Hewett. “I know in the UK there are strict rules about how often you can go outside, but using that opportunity to get out once a day, go for a walk, even just a small green space with trees, makes a difference.”
Saying no
Sometimes, sorry isn't the hardest word, and simply saying “no” to your boss can strike panic. “We can find it hard as we want to please people and we can also worry that we are giving up a potential opportunity,” says Gemma Witts, a lecturer in careers and employability at the University of Kent.
“However, we must ensure we only take on things we can realistically do. This is all the more important for working from home, as though our schedules and priorities may have changed, expectations on our workload should not. We should also not say yes to things that will distract from key pieces of work.”
Hewett again emphasises that managers have a responsibility to create a culture where saying ‘no’ is possible. If that culture isn’t present, people won’t do it.
Working from home with children
One key reason why people are struggling with a work-life balance is because they’re having to juggle work with homecare or homeschooling, particularly if they have younger children. For many, the working day simply has too many distractions, and work can spill into the evening.
Barnaby Lashbrooke, a father of three young children, runs his own business, Time Etc, from home. He says it’s impossible for homeschooling parents to take on the same workloads as before lockdown, and should prioritise one or two important tasks each day (which managers should be aware of).
“If there are two of you, set a timer and work in 90-minute bursts, then switch, as studies suggest 90 minutes is the most we can do without needing a break,” says Lashbrooke. “By creating this non-negotiable deadline, you’ll focus more deeply and get more done.
Lashbrooke says those spells should be fully focused, avoiding tempting distractions like live chats with colleagues. “It's a really bad value exchange. We need to get better at recognising distractions – which include non-urgent emails or falling down social media rabbit holes – as this will help us to avoid them.”
Read more: How frazzled parents are trying to solve the homeschooling dilemma
