MC Tools—10

Assessing Work-Life Balance

The Harvest, by Pieter Bruegal the Elder (1565)
 

We are sharing some tools to support personal growth, relationship health, organizational development, and overall effectiveness for mission/aid workers. Hopefully you will find them to be creative, useful, and at times even fun. They are some of our favourites.

.

These items build upon the 12 tools for “Running Well and Resting Well” that we included as a chapter in Doing Member Care Well (2002). More tools and guidelines specifically for team building are included in our “Tools for Team Viability” article, in the member care book we edited in 1992.

*****

Our Reality DOSE! website includes links to several online tools. Go to the section called Giants, Foxes, Wolves, and Flies.  At the bottom you will find a listing of several free tools you can use for yourself and with others.  For example, in this entry we are highlighting two self-assessment tools for work-life balance that are included in this listing. Give them a try!

.

1. Self-Care and Lifestyle Balance Inventory (25 items), Headington Institute

.

2. Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL 5), available in 17 languages (note: according to the website, the ProQOL measures “the negative and positive effects of helping others who experience suffering and trauma. The ProQOL has sub-scales for compassion satisfaction, burnout and compassion fatigue.”

Rest and Leisure--Premises and Promises

The "Heart" of Work-Life Balance

We all have a “window” in our hearts that functions as a "gate-keeper". It permits the entrance and exit of life-giving experiences, for ourselves and for others. We have developed a general rule of thumb for maintaining a good work-life balance, based on this window. Simply put, for every 40 hours of work each week that flow out of the heart, we suggest there be about 10 hours of refueling flowing back into the life of the worker. Such refueling can involve anything that strengthens, relaxes, and encourages the worker, such as exercising, leisurely reading, and talking or praying with friends, including those who are members of the host culture.

Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to watch over the springs of life which flow out of the heart. This verse reinforces our conviction that all of us involved in mission/aid/development/health must attend to the window of the heart--for ourselves, colleagues, teams, and even agencies--as we seek to help others in our work. The following exercise can be a helpful stimulus to discuss how you, your family, your team or agency are attending to work-life balance.

**1. Life is difficult, regardless of where you are located and what you are doing. Only people trying to sell you something might say something different.
**2. We are created human and called to be workers, not the other way around. A human doing is not a human being.
**3. Failure and casualties are inevitable in cross-cultural work.
**4. The grass might be greener on the other side, but the manure is just as deep. It's probably the manure that makes it greener.
**5. You can try to do anything in life you want; you only have to face the consequences.
**6. With enough time and effort we still can not accomplish everything that we want.
**7. The ideal team member never joins a team.
**8. The "healthy" are usually too “healthy” to become workers in areas of extreme stress.
**9. You are really someone special but you are really not so special.
**10. More people would be involved in difficult settings if there were more difficult settings in affluent places.
**11. You may never know why.
**12. You probably have several other assumptions, many of which you may not be aware.
**13. These 13 premises may actually be promises.

Adapted from:
On Behalf of the 10/40 Window of the Heart, October 1995 IJFM, Kelly O'Donnell

Reflection and Discussion
**Which of the above premises/promises apply the most to you?

**What other assumptions do you have related to work-life balance?

Five Protective Factors for Teams--Core Values

During the months of February and March we are exploring team life and team resiliency. Here are some more thoughts.


•1. Relational resiliency
We value both truth and peace in our relationships (Zech 8:19).
We persevere in honesty and unity with colleagues.

•2. Safe sharing
We value safe ways (people and processes) to share personal and work-related concerns.
We are as healthy as our secrets.

•3. Intrinsic and strategic worth
We value colleagues as human beings with intrinsic worth, not just as human resources with strategic worth.
We are human beings and not human doings.

•4. Work-life balance
We value balancing demands of professional work and desires for personal growth.
We want to run well and also rest well.

•5. Well-being of all
We value the well-being of sending groups and the well-being of their personnel.
We provide quality support (by sending groups) and we expect quality services (from staff).

Other protective factors and values?
How do teams know that they are practicing these values?