Let me tell you why you'll never hear the phrase "work/life balance" uttered at Move...
Work/life balance. It's a phrase that's often met with positivity and enthusiasm, but when we really think about it, is a work/life "balance" really something that we want to strive to achieve?
We're saying no.
Hear us out:
When we describe something as needing balance, it suggests that one of the things is less important or less desirable. It's actually a pretty counter productive thought when we consider that for most people, the ultimate goal in life is to lead a healthy and happy one without the need to shove "life" into one box and "work" in another.
The average person spends 8 hours per day working, that's 40 hours a week, 160 hours a month...in fact the average person who works from the age of 25-65 will spend just over 10 years of their life working. Work is an important part of our lives, it's where we earn a living, learn new skills, meet new friends, achieve important goals and ultimately it is what allows us to support the kind of life we want to live. This is why it's so important that you develop a healthy and happy relationship with what you do for work.
So how can you do it? We're suggesting we dump the phrase "work-life balance" and replace it with adopting a great "work-life harmony". Here's how we do it at Move!
1. Unlimited Holiday
Sometimes people need to switch off and take some time away from work, here at Move we don't think that should be constrained to a set amount of days. That's why we offer unlimited paid holiday. This doesn't mean we're all jetting off for 8 months of the year, but it does mean that if we're up to date with our work and we want to take some time out that's perfectly acceptable.
2. Flexible working
Sometimes you get a burst of inspiration at 9pm, sometimes you get a complete mental block at 11am. Unfortunately, our brains don't work in a 9-5 linear fashion which is why we encourage people to work when you'll be most productive. The magic of modern technology also allows us to work anywhere, so a lot of our team work remotely. We make sure we stay in touch via awesome tools like Skype and Asana.
3. Move Lunch
As you've probably guessed, we're big believers in the power of moving. This is why if we workout at lunchtime, we're given an extended lunch break of 90 minutes so we have plenty of time to workout, get showered and head back to the office ready for an afternoon of work. Want to know the benefits of working out at lunch? Check this out.
4. Reframe your idea of "work"
Another day, another dollar - right? Wrong. Stop thinking about your job purely as a means to pay the bills at the end of the month and start thinking of it as a way of continually bettering yourself. Yes, money is an inevitable factor in life but research has shown that mastery and learning new skills is actually much more motivating than receiving money. If we really strip it back, then money is just the mechanism the world uses to allow easy exchange of goods and/or services...if you focus on building your skills in areas you enjoy you will build your value. Many people focus on the money first, not realising that it's just an exchange mechanism for how good you are at providing that skill. So, if you naturally enjoy doing something and are getting better and more skilled, your value goes up and the money will naturally increase - plus you are happier and more passionate and you can in turn influence more people.
5. Beat time with energy
Do you constantly find yourself muttering to yourself that "there just aren't enough hours in the day"? You're not alone - but the fact is that you really can't beat the clock.
Time is fixed, and when we drill down to it, the likelihood is that most of us aren't actually trying to beat time, what we really want is the energy to achieve more tasks in the fixed time given.
So how do we do this at Move? Energy levels fluctuate and can be controlled with exercise and food. So next time you're felling overwhelmed by how much you have on your plate, take some time out. Go for a quick workout or even just for a brisk walk. You'll feel refreshed and rejuvenated and in a much better frame of mind to tackle your to-do list!
