National Work-Life Week

Working Families, a charity focusing on work-life balance issues, wants you to know that it’s National Work-Life Week.

#NationalWorkLifeWeek (#NWLW) runs from Monday 22nd September to Friday 26th September. WF wants companies and staff to get together to create a #WorkLifeBalance that’s good for both parties. (As we’ve reported before, happy workers are more productive than gloomy ones.)

According to Working Families, negative stress is the biggest cause of workplace absence. Some 70 million working days were lost in 2013 because of mental ill health, and the government’s Chief Medical Officer estimates it cost the economy up to £100 billion.

NWLW is quite a big deal with some heavyweight companies getting involved. Past participants have included American Express, Capital One and even the National Grid.

There are a lot of resources available for companies interested in work-life balance issues. Even if senior management at your company can’t organise anything official this week, they should definitely head over to the WF website to see what can be done for next year, whether that’s holding something as serious as a seminar, or having a fun ‘bring your kids to work’ day.

This week, make an effort to take another look at the way you balance your professional and personal commitments. If you’re stressed at work and want to reclaim some of your home life, think about ways you can approach your boss to tackle the issue in a productive way.

And if you are the boss, take a few minutes to think about how your employees are doing.  Are you taking your commitment to their workplace well-being seriously?