Working in a virtual office means working remotely in a company that exists in the virtual realm. Virtual offices came out as good news for businesses as the offices and markets were shut down and workers restricted from traveling to their workplaces. Virtual offices are more convenient as compared to physical offices because of the flexibility they offer. Since employees work from home, they can work in flexible hours as they find convenient. But this does not come without certain challenges. The biggest challenge comes in the shape of disturbance in traditional work-life balance.
Contextualizing Work-life Balance
Work-life balance can be defined as just the distribution of an individual’s time between professional and personal obligations. A perfect work-life balance means one is able to give due attention to one’s personal life aspects such as self-care, family, friends, leisure, social gatherings and many more, while still fulfilling one’s professional duties to their full potential. It means one does not overwork or underwork.
How Virtual Office May Disturb Work-life Balance?
Working from home all by oneself might sometimes increase pressure on an individual. Since an employee of a virtual office is working from home, he does not get to interact with other team members for work collaboration, advice or assistance in performing a task. This causes him to spend more time sitting in front of his personal computer doing the task all by himself than that he does while being in a traditional office setup. He might not be able to or remember taking breaks, have his meals, take care of his health or physical appearance, and sign off from work at the end of the day. Hence, he ends up working extra hours, till late night that exhausts him. This also results in him spending less time with his friends and family members and his social life is reduced. Therefore, addressing this issue and sticking a balance between work and personal life is extremely essential one to lead a sustainable professional life.
This can be done in the following ways:
Setting up Priorities and Making a Schedule
Setting up one’s priorities and having a fixed schedule to regulate one’s professional and personal duties helps in reducing problems of work-life imbalance. It helps in time management so that a remote working employee is able to finish his work in time. This way, he can spare his free time for his family and friends.
Drawing Clear Border between ‘Work’ and ‘Life’
Another cardinal rule to maintaining work-life balance is through drawing a clear line to separate work from life. This means remotely working individuals, such as those working in a virtual office, should fix a specific time of their day for work and discontinue professional engagements of any type after that time. It also means one would not be taking business calls, meetings or messages while being with one’s family on a dinner or in a social gathering. Contrarily, he also should not walk around with friends during work time, delaying his daily tasks.
No Work on Holidays!
Avoiding working on holidays is also important for preserving work-life balance and protecting oneself from getting too exhausted.
Taking Lunch Breaks
Being committed to one’s work is good, but it must not come at the cost of one’s physical health. Therefore, taking a lunch break at a fixed time on each working day is yet another important step to maintaining a swift balance between work and life which includes physical health.
Be Productive and Efficient
The best part of working in a virtual office from the comfort of one’s home is that one does not have to get up early in the morning, get prepared, travel to office, work all day and then repeat the same process on the way to home. This aspect makes virtual offices more productive. Hence, employees can become efficient and productive if they can manage their work obligations effectively while also not compromising on one’s life responsibilities. Making a comprehensive time table and sticking to it can help achieve this goal. Different tools can be used to help in this such as alarm devices, digital reminders and other equipment.
Keeping Weekly Check-ins
Working continuously without keeping a record can seriously burn out an individual working from home. To prevent that, one should maintain weekly check-ins to evaluate the amount of work one has done in a week. Such burn out can arise due to poor work-life balance. Hence, one should be clear on when to start and end working in a day. There must be a time in a day, and a day in the week, during which one should focus on oneself, taking a leave from work.
It can be said that virtual offices and remote work are here, and are going to stay here for long when one views the shifts in work behavior due to changing realities such as COVID-19. Hence, if you are a remote worker wanting to perform well professionally while also keeping your personal life going, you must separate time for the things you value and enjoy.
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