INTRO

Hello from the team here at FORTIS VETS and HUMANOLOGY HR, where we have designed this human resource project that’s objective is to help everyone in the workplace to restore some balance throughout ALL ASPECTS of your daily life so that this elusive WORK / LIFE BALANCE concept can be realised

I am your host, Kathryn Asher, a psychologist, art therapist, philosopher and Human Resources Mentor that has worked for years in HR with adults and also in schools as a psych mentor for children

I am also co-joined by my fellow colleagues and contributors of this program, in particular my colleague Loic Marzin, who co-created the SELF MASTERY program included in this workshop, ‘Hello, It’s me’. Loic is a lawyer who spends his days knee deep in political philosophy and ethical legal policies. 

We will also give a shout out to our other contributors throughout this program at the end of this workshop but there has been a good number of influential support provided to offer you a well rounded, professional yet DEEPLY PERSONAL portal of connection that hopefully, provides you with the ability to place attention with intention in creating better balance so that we can all start to see and feel like life isn’t working against us

So before we start, we’re just going to brief you on what it is that we’re going to be focusing on throughout this framework so that you can have a clear idea about the functionalities and objectives in greater detail

The project is spanned over 4 sections where we are going to focus on:

WEEK 1: BALANCE – IDENTIFYING PROBLEM AREAS IN ORDER TO CREATE SOLUTIONS! (This will include some survey based activities in order to find the problem areas and then solution based strategies in order to bring about the well needed change to how you call progress) THEN, we can move onto but before we can move onto healing strategies, we need to look at the ROOT CAUSE – This week is ALL about that! We will end this week with a peepshow of what next week will be all about so it doesn’t just leave you with doom and gloom….HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM BURNOUT– HOW TO CREATE SAFE SPACES – EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH RESILIENCE AND SELF SUPPORT (But more on this in week 2)

WEEK 2: INITIATING BALANCE – CREATING STRATEGIES AND SOLUTIONS – Taking all the echos, trauma, obvious issues and now we see them for what they are, let’s look at ways we can work around them, override them or quite frankly delete them. This is where we do the clearing out and strategizing new ways of creating balance. It’s also where we’re going to place emphasis on SELF and understanding WHO WE ARE so that we can embody our shifts with integrity and confidence. Remember Remember! In week 3, we’re going to look further at this but in a much more INTRAPERSONAL way so that you can show up to ALL areas of your life as the best version of you!

WEEK 3: PUTTING IT ALL INTO ACTION!  RITUALS OVER ROUTINES –Take your power back. The only way to change the outside, is to change the inside. IT STARTS WITH US – This is the revolution and the best way to initiate change and growth is to develop strong and conscious rituals that help you shift – Here’s how! HOLDING THE ATTENTION ON THE INTENTION – Watch how things start to take a new shape – Inside and out! (THIS IS A DEEP WEEK – DO BE PREPARED)

WEEK 4: THE ZOOM ROOM – 2 hours of open table where we look over surveys, data, discuss strategies and have some thoughtful insight and input from everyone in your team based on ALL OF THE ABOVE

This presentation itself is going to therefore be split into 4 parts so each week you and / or your team will receive the piece relevant for each specific topic

But before we get into week 1, I am going to deliver a well needed intro brief into WHY work / life balance has become such a triggering subject. Why so many people are getting so burnt out and disillusioned and look at the MANY problem areas that create this whole field of WORK LIFE BALANCE INBALANCE so that we know exactly what we’re dealing with before we begin. 

Now, I’m not going to mince my words here. I’m going to call it what it is, with the help of my colleagues who also agree from what we see from the outside looking in and also with the help of some social content that verifies what we’re saying so you can consider it from our lens.  

As a psychologist, philosopher, human resource consultant and human that’s entire last 5 years has been ALL about dealing with the human conditions so, emotions, traumas, imbalances, fears, psyche, minds, all the stuff, I am going to drag it all up and throw it on the table. What you chose to do with that in regards to how you wish to utilise parts or pieces of what I’m trying to say here to help fix your own situation or merely just see things from a different perspective that’s up to you but, let’s go!

PLEASE BE AWARE – THE MORE OPEN MINDED YOU CAN BE HERE, THE BETTER. CHANGE DOESN’T COME FROM THE CLOSED BOX. A LOT OF WHAT WE WILL BE DISCUSSING WILL BE TRIGGERING, WEIRD OR WONDERFUL – JUST SAYING!

WHY ARE WE LOOKING AT THIS COMPLEXITY OF WORK / LIFE BALANCE? What really is it all about and why it is really important for each working culture to develop their own functional dynamics that work for them so before we get into week 1, lets just have a moment to consider this from an HR perspective

So, in HR aka HUMAN RESOURCES, our role is to provide RESOURCES TO …….HUMANS. Funny that, but for so long, Businesses have used HR as a means to facilitate benefits to the company rather than the workers of the company. Finding ways to exploit their workers for their own benefit rather than finding ways to benefit their employees. 

This is a literal POLE SHIFT perspective on what HR should really be about. I’ll give you a prime example

Whenever companies look to make cuts, the workforce / EMPLOYEES are the first on the firing line. ALWAYS! Why? Because you’re their biggest overhead.

Management will prance into boardrooms and give their employees speeches that sound something like……. ‘We’ve thought about our company future and we’ve got HR into look at PIP strategies, you know, looking at performance improvement plans and how we can bump you guys up so that the company thrives, but don’t be scared, this isn’t about cutting jobs, this is all about unlocking value whilst streamlining operations’

….6 weeks later, half the team are made redundant!

Yeah, didn’t see that coming!. And PIP strategies are exactly how people get burnt out and taken advantage of so we’re here to prevent that from happening by trying to figure out how people can be happy and safe in their jobs AND their company can actually, realistically thrive!

How hard can that be?

Well apparently, it’s near impossible. WORK / LIFE BALANCE is a dead end. It’s not even funny anymore. It’s become somewhat of a satire situation where management honestly considers WORK /LIFE BALANCE a total joke. An absolute insult to company progression but for the rest of us, it’s very real and it really needs addressing

From an HR perspective, I just want to spend a moment talking about the PIP strategy as it’s a real concern for most people in corporate jobs, regardless of what sector you work in. We specialise in Veterinary so while this isn’t mainstream for the most part, in corporate practice, it has become an implemented HR tool and honestly, it really works AGAINST people 

LET ME EXPLAIN

What is PIP?

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PLANS. (From everyone in HR, we’re sorry 😦 )

So many businesses have incorporated this structure / this incentive in a bid to help their staff reach quota attainment and KPI’s. And these strategies will have people working after hours and on weekends in a bid to ‘reach their targets’ BUT they’re massively abusing peoples rights to free time and if anyone dare mention burn out…..Well, guess who’s getting laid off next?

In HR, we know that the reason for implementing such performance plans has absolutely nothing to do with employee improvement AT ALL. What in fact it is, is a legal cover so that if anyone dares to take legal action for ‘unfair dismissal’, then the workplace have themselves backed up and clean as they can simply say ‘Oh but we tried to help them and it didn’t work so we had to let them go’….

The success rates for PIP’s is extremely low and that’s by design so if ever HR comes to you with this suggestion to improve your performance, START LOOKING FOR A NEW JOB!

The reason for mentioning this is to highlight the pressures that companies and workforces unrightfully put on employees that INCREASE their work pressure whilst deeming to help them (WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING), DECREASE their balance and cause such significant problems due to work overload, stress, toxic leadership and management and it’s high time that this is not only challenged but openly recognised as one of the biggest contributing factors for people feeling like they can no longer cope in the workplace and want out

WHY DO WE COMPLICATE EVERYTHING SO MUCH?

Why has running a business become such a nightmare? It seems that every Business these days go out of their way to seek loopholes that allow them to act like narcissistic abusers so that they can find ways to diminish and exploit the very people that enable their business to function at all

But it really shouldn’t be this hard. It should be as simple as:

Start a Business. Get good policies in place. Set up your framework. Hire good staff. Get a good accountant. Treat EVERYONE whether their clients, customers, suppliers or staff with a level of common decency and respect and let everyone just get on with letting the business run

The more you try to micromanage, clock watch, infantise,  set unrealistic goals and objectives just so you can power play,  use toxic bargaining tools to establish dominance whilst you break your staff morale

YOU’RE LITERALLY KILLING YOUR BUSINESS!

I honestly don’t get how people don’t get this? Or more to the point I DON’T KNOW WHY THEY’RE GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!

Our surveys across multi-sectors over the last couple of years have shown us that across the playing field, the data speaks the same stories. People are so tired of being pushed around, under valued, unappreciated, belittled, treated like children and given the runaround after it was them that spend THOUSANDS getting into student debt so that they could have the pick of careers and put their skill sets to great use and rather than them selecting WHAT THEY WANT out of their jobs, its turned into WHAT THEIR JOBS WANT OUT OF THEM

And this is why we have chronic fatigue, burnout, depression, anxiety, high suicide rates, lack of enthusiasm towards the working fields, disillusionment, confusion about what to do with ones life, confusion about who we are as individuals, existential crisis after existential crisis and the awful thing is that you could leave one job and walk into another and sadly, it’ll be the same old story…….

SO WHAT DO WE DO?

The reason we set this up as a project was to highlight the fundamental errors of the system at play because unless we all see it and call it out for what it is NOTHING CHANGES – So, calling out the narcissistic abuser / bully that threatens our very livelihoods (and that’s no watered down joke, we’ve all got bills to pay and roofs to keep over our heads) – Well then best we make sure that the place we spend ALL BLOODY DAY AT has our best interests at heart otherwise WHY THE F should we do the same?

BUSINESS OWNERS – IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS THAT’S A GREAT PLACE TO WORK – TREAT YOUR EMPLOYEES LIKE FAMILY MEMBERS AND CREATE A GREAT PLACE TO WORK FOR THEM OR BETTER YET, CREATE IT WITH THEM – CREATE A TEAM THAT LOVE WAKING UP EACH DAY AND GETTING TOGETHER TO DO STUFF……

Isn’t that the goal?

It’s the same as raising kids – You want them to be the best version of themselves, go out and take the world by storm, be successful, motivated, thriving, accomplished, HAPPY. 

As parents AKA LEADERS, You don’t spend your days looking at ways to bully your kids. You look at ways to help them grow. Clubs for extra curricular activities for kids are the same as good leaders looking at ways to offer personal AND professional incentives to employees to help them grow.

 A good leader will recognise this

A bad leader will not or will look for excuses, usually to do with budgets etc and will stake claims that its not their business to be taking care of your personal growth (Even though you’ve put in all the hours under the sun for them – you only get moon hours for you)

As parents we show we care for our children – We listen to them about their emotional concerns and needs, their thoughts, feelings, worries etc. We show up for them when they’re stressed and overwhelmed. We try to find solutions to how we can transmute problems to prizes and seek ways to better tricky situations. 

Leaders – Answer honestly. DO YOU DO THE SAME?

Because it really isn’t any different and this is why I think we overcomplicate things. We look at ways in which we can amend and adapt policies and terms and conditions to perplex and confuse people so we (the business and those on top) can get our own way. 

We use legal jargon and contractual blackmail in order to throw others under the bus and clear our own names of any wrong doing and it all gets passed by the book. Where is the justice in that?

There was once a saying by Thomas Jefferson – 3rd president of the United States and founding father of the constitution that “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so”

Yet for most people in the workplace, if they ever attempted to disobey unjust business protocols or stand up for what’s right / highlight what’s wrong, they would lose their job. Simple as that so more often than not, people just tow the line and management knows this – Which is why they’re oh so good at maintaining their bully status. 

They’ve got you by the short and curlys and they know it!

Now, listen I am very aware that there are MANY businesses that have stepped up to the table and they bend over backwards for their staff and have a very happy workforce. This is fantastic and we love to hear success stories. These people and places are what give us the drive and determination to push forward what we do because WE KNOW IT’S POSSIBLE but I’m spending a moment focusing on the ones still in the pits here trampling on their workers heads

SLAVERY NEVER ENDED GUYS – It just started wearing a suit 

ONE MORE THING before we move into week 1 and it is from the Scandinavian concept of the 4 day working week – We know in veterinary especially in the UK its becoming a thing yet its not really taken off yet full steam ahead nor have our salaries increased alongside a 4 day week incentive but lets take a look!

Listen, we’re European. We tend to do things at a different pace to our American siblings yet our Icelandic Brothers and Sisters have been rocking a 4 day work week since 2015 and with GREAT success. Yes. they cut down the standard 40 hour week to 36 but covered over a 4 day period giving them 3 full days of LIFE TIME and the results have been incredible. To the point that they had the 2nd highest growing economy in Europe and the lowest unemployment rates too. 

A whopping 97% of the Icelanders feel that they have much better WORK LIFE BALANCE and have reported decreased stress in their personal lives also

You can find details of the study below. This, might we add, was the result without losing pay or suffering cuts in order to achieve this…..

We do love a success story!

ICELANDIC 4 DAY WORK WEEK SUCCESS STORY

HERE IS AN EXTRACT FROM ONE OF OUR FOCUS GROUP CONSULTANTS, REBECCA. SHE DELIVERED THIS IN A SPEECH DURING ONE OF OUR WLB SEMINARS AND IT MADE PEOPLE THINK:

She says

“At the moment and for such a long time, we have had the extreme of a very brutal force being pushed on to everyone within the workplace and what we have noticed is that the presence of the opposite energy aka downtime, freetime, lifetime  has not only been lacking, it’s been completely diminished. It’s absent.  We’re actually steered to believe now that this is normal. That life is merely to bust our backsides in the busy working man’s world with zero inclusion of the opposing presence.

Almost as if the introduction of that opposite energy would be BAD FOR PROGRESS or that it would HINDER THE POWER that it takes to succeed in the corporate world! Hang on a moment, let’s take a look at this! Have you ever heard your manager say

“MONEY NEVER SLEEPS – LUNCH BREAKS ARE FOR LOSERS – OVER TIME = PARTNERSHIP SOON…WE SAID SOON, SOON, SOON…….OK, NOW YOU’RE A NAG…NOONE LIKES A NAG…”

(You get the picture), are all the rhetoric’s we have heard play out over the many years. And we’ve all played our role in pushing the machine forwards as if that’s the priority AND THAT’S GREAT to a degree because hard work is a sacred human value and transactional efforts enable us to have a good life but in doing so, we’ve divided our own families, we never see our friends, our health suffers, we never get time to spend in the homes we work all day to pay for, there’s nothing for us at the end of the day. We’ve had our OWN priorities all wrong because we’ve allowed ourselves to be fed this story that we somehow exist to prioritise the machine

IN CASE YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME, LET’S EXAMINE THE STANDARDS OF A STEREOTYPICAL DAY AND YOU TELL ME IF THIS SOUNDS LIKE A HEALTHY PLAN?

Everyone wakes up at the sound of the alarm bell. Rushing around to get ready for a day that will focus on work related tasks and targets. Everyone then leaves the family home, mostly when it’s still dark outside to get to your commuter zones

Throw the Kids at breakfast clubs in school (We fail to remember schools were for education. Now they’ve become the STATE RAN extended family unit. Teachers don’t get paid for this)

Get to your long commute – Husband goes one way wife goes another

You’d better hope you took your pack up or else you’ll have to suffer with the staff room mars bars or peanut butter snacks. Better make sure the kids have got credit on their lunch funds (How many bacon sandwiches can one kid eat a week?) So much for a slow home cooked meal – Once a month if you’re lucky….

You then spend all day separated from your families (Sure, a lot of people are thrilled about this but that’s a dysfunction for another conversation) but you then don’t see them again until after a very busy, often overloaded working day, the return of your huge commute then collapses you so you might get an hour or so between dinner and bed to catch up with your family but by then you’re exhausted so….

 It’s a disconnect in front of the telly with some wine or beer to take the edge off, maybe a bubble bath and then you head to bed to switch the day off (if you can’t switch off, you might take a pill of some sort to numb your brain) and rinse / repeat 5 days sometimes 6 out of 7, 4 weeks a month, 48 weeks a year (Your statutory ENTITLEMENT for TIME OFF is 28 days paid! – Your allowance! That’s it! That’s your life)

Now none of that looks anything like a healthy balance of WORK / LIFE.

SO WE HAVE TO ASK….WHAT DOES BALANCE MEAN? WHEN YOU LOOK AT A SET OF SCALES? 

 BALANCE EQUALS 50/50 (not 49/51 not 60/40 not 70/30 not 80/20….NO, 50/50)

If it were BALANCED, AKA 50/50, then the 52 weeks a year would be cut in half and you’d work 26 weeks of the year as opposed to the 48 you currently offer to the machine (A WHOPPING 22 WEEKS extra that you currently churn out) and you’d have 26 weeks of the year for yourself. A concept that is utterly unheard of and quite frankly laughable!

CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE?

Rebecca presented this in a seminar where most of the people there laughed at the notion that we should work less. They were stuck in a mindset that believed that unless we grind grind grind, there’d be no money made. That this is why we’re here and the mention of time off seemed utterly laughable

When she gave them the low down of what their lives looked like from a cold, harsh matter of fact perspective showcasing what little time was left for themselves at the end of the day (other than to sleep of course, cos you know, we’re humans, we need to sleep), they were genuinely rattled. 

Then you look at the Icelandics and you see how their economy has grown from working less. It’s about value and quality over quantity. It’s about balance and rest over burnout. It’s about being smart with our downtime and re-connecting to our actual self-priorities but we’ve got stuck in this trap of 

And I’m taking it a step further – I think the Icelandics are working too hard! I’m calling for……

A 3 DAY WORKING WEEK ON DOUBLE THE PAY THAN WE HAD ON 5!

FEED THE BEAST And it’s killing us!

Or, OVERRIDE THE BEAST, STARVE IT AND START AGAIN?

So now that we’ve gone over the problem areas and looked at the root causes of this ‘work life balance’ imbalance where we can see:

We’re overworked

We’re underpaid

We’re undervalued and under appreciated

Leaders and Managers behave like narcissists 

Policies and procedures benefit firms not people

The scales are not set to zero and the schedules are off

Our homes and families are divided

We love our jobs but surely there’s MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS

AND WITH THAT……

Let’s get straight in to WEEK ONE and start to get deep into some action packed game changers

ARE YOU READY?