Modeling a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Keeping your work and home life in balance is essential to remain a healthy and effective employee, but as a supervisor, it can be hard to make sure you’re properly modeling the right behavior for your subordinates.

Carolyn Mooney, Owner and Coach, Enough LLC, had a few tips to share on maintaining that balance during January’s New Supervisors in Government Community of Practice online training session.

1. Modeling healthy work-life behavior is important because you need to show that it’s not just words; it’s something to live by. People do what they see versus what they hear, and employees need to feel like their workplace is a safe place to draw boundaries.
2. The best way to communicate work-life balance priorities is to have two conversations – one with the larger group or team and the other in one-on-one meetings with your employees. You need to communicate what policies you and your workplace support overall, and then find out what individual needs are when it comes to keeping that balance.
3. If you’re having trouble keeping your own boundaries in place, you need to check in with yourself on why you’re not disconnecting and remind yourself why it’s important. If you truly want work-life balance, you need to shut down work and look at it the next day with fresh eyes. If you don’t respect your own boundaries, no one else will, either.

For more advice from Mooney, watch the session on demand to learn how to model a healthy work-life balance. You can also sign up for the next New Supervisors in Government Community of Practice virtual networking event on Monday, Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, “How to Manage an Inclusive Team.”