Valentina Drofa, Co-Founder and CEO at the PR firm for eminent finance and fintech brands Drofa Comms.
Today many company leaders find themselves confronting the issue of professional burnout as it grows increasingly prevalent among the workforce. One survey indicates that over 60% of workers have recently quit or are considering quitting their jobs, stating poor work-life balance among the primary reasons for this decision.
As the intensity and demands of modern workplaces escalate, they often require individuals to work long hours without adequate time for personal rejuvenation. The lack of a proper work-life balance can lead to chronic stress, overwhelming pressure and a general sense of constant exhaustion. All of this takes its toll on the mental and physical well-being of employees, impacting their performance and productivity.
I believe that this is a crucial issue that needs to be taken seriously and addressed with all due attention. And I would like to share some of the insights into work-life balance and useful tactics that I gained as my own company confronted this matter.
Draw lines for personal time.
Looking back at how we used to do things a couple of years ago, I have to acknowledge that my company hasn’t always been a very good example of maintaining the proper balance of professional and private time.
Being one of the founders, I myself used to work on weekends without thinking it was a problem at all. But later on, I came to recognize that this kind of approach is bad both for our clients and for our team. It creates an expectation of around-the-clock availability at the cost of employees not being able to properly take time off work to mentally recharge.
As soon as we acknowledged this problem, my partner and I made the decision to stop doing things this way and instead outlined the framework for our clients on when they can expect us to be available. Now, if we see that a client doesn’t respect these pre-established boundaries and continues to violate them despite our repeated explanations, then they cease to be our client as this manner of behavior disrupts the working rhythm for my people.
It’s important for employees to be able to rest and have a personal life instead of thinking about work 24/7. When people constantly feel deprived of personal time, it can eventually erode their motivation and passion for their work. In the long run, it will do no favors to anyone, either the individual employee or the company at large.
What is the CEO’s role in forming the appropriate corporate culture?
The way I see it, promoting a healthy working environment and implementing policies that support employees’ ability to take time for themselves is crucial if organizations are to mitigate professional burnout. And it is important that the company executives establish such lines personally.
For example, there was once an occasion when I noticed that for two days straight, I’d been spending all my time jumping between different Zoom calls, not even having the time to eat. This warranted my concern, and I reached out to the rest of my company, asking whether they actually took the time for lunch breaks themselves. It turned out that not everyone did, instead eating in front of their monitors as they continued to perform their tasks.
Since then, I made sure to include a mandatory lunch break in our work schedule that people can make use of. It doesn’t matter whether they use this break to eat, go for a short walk or even take a quick nap. The important thing is that they have an allotted time to switch their attention from work to something else.
Another initiative that came from our HR department, and one that I’ve fully supported, is letting our employees have “work-fun balance” meetings at the end of the week where they get to hang out together without me or any other company executives. These meetings are meant purely for fun, talking and playing some games together—it is a good way to mark the end of work and the transition to the weekend when they get to rest.
Leaders can also consider implementing company-wide hangouts where everyone gets to engage in shared hobbies, sports activities or picnics. These are the kinds of things that serve as reminders for executives and the rest of the team that we are all living beings and that we want to spend time thinking of and doing things beyond work-related tasks.
Be a people-oriented organization. That’s it.
I’ve often seen cases where companies would claim to put an emphasis on their workers’ physical and mental health, only for those claims to turn out to be empty. Personally, I strongly disagree with such a stance. I want my company to be a place where talented people can produce good results, but without it being to the detriment of themselves.
Draining workers dry for the sake of achieving goals can negatively affect the overall mood of the company and your ability to engage with clients. Remember that every employee who comes to work for your company is someone who can bring their own value and add it to your company’s existing value. And as such, if you make the decision to include that person in your circle, you have a responsibility to make sure they are comfortable working with you.
Every business owner must pay attention to their people and put in the effort to create a supportive workplace environment where employees can thrive both professionally and personally. Fundamentally speaking, I think this is the only way to ensure that their workers are happy and productive while mitigating the risk of them burning out and leaving the company.
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