are you a control freak?

ICYMI: TSOW Meet Up @ San Francisco 🎉

The Shape of Work Community by Springworks, has teamed up with EngageWith to bring you an unforgettable experience right in the heart of SoMa! And what’s more? Pizzas and your first two drinks are on us, courtesy of our fantastic sponsors at EngageWith!

What’s in store?

We’re diving into the big questions:

⏳ How can we break free from boring, repetitive tasks and make work more meaningful?

💡What are the secrets to keeping teams engaged and motivated?

🚀How can we carve out time to focus on what truly matters—like setting up solid processes, planning a winning hiring strategy, and creating an awesome workplace culture?

📅 Date: Thursday, September 5, 2024

⏲️ Time: 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM PDT

 📍Location: SoMa

👨🏻‍🤝‍👨🏼 Hosts: Aayush Maheshwari and Sandeep Talukdar

Come say hi! 👋

Work-Life Balance Integration? 💡

In our last newsletter, we asked if you are familiar with the concept of work-life integration and the majority wanted to learn more about it.

So, let's briefly explore work-life integration, which shakes up the traditional idea of work-life balance. 🌪️

Instead of viewing work and personal life as separate entities, work-life integration sees them as interconnected. 🌐 It finds a middle ground between complete separation and total overlap, recognizing that the lines between work and life are often blurred. 🔄

One of our readers nailed it when they said, “We all need work-life balance; anything outside the company in our spare time is our self-love and self-care day or days. It is a good thing to do because it helps your overall mental and physical health!” 💆‍♀️

According to research, work-life integration represents a holistic strategy, effectively and efficiently coordinating efforts among all stakeholders—employees, employers, families, and communities. The goal is to allow workers to fulfill their personal, work, family, and community obligations in a more seamless and satisfying way.

But, we know it’s not always easy to make this concept a reality. A couple of you shared your thoughts:

• “I want to make this a reality for my employees, so please share more details...Thank you!”

• “I’m familiar, but I’d like to hear different takes or stances on what this looks like.”

We hear you! But work-life integration isn’t really a “new” concept - but rather just an extension of flexible policies. There are 2 important points to remember:

• Difficult to apply for employees working from the office - If employees are expected to work entirely from the office, flexibility is already compromised, making work-life integration challenging to achieve. (Yet another reason why hybrid and remote work settings are gaining traction!)

• Doesn’t necessarily work for everyone - While some employees may embrace this concept, others might prefer a clear and distinct separation between work and life to maintain productivity and safeguard their mental health.

Let’s see what this can look like in practice:

So what are the practical ways to support employees in both situations? Let’s summarize

1. Flexibility is crucial. Whether it’s providing options for flexible hours or respecting fixed schedules, allowing employees to choose what works best for them is key. 

2. Trust your employees to manage their time effectively, whether they prefer integration or separation of work and life.

3. Recognize and respect employee boundaries and preferences. Some may thrive with work-life integration, while others may prefer a clear separation. Tailoring your approach to individual needs can lead to greater employee satisfaction and productivity.

What should we cover next?

P.S. we have received some of your suggestions, keep them coming! :) 

🤔 We want to hear from you! What workplace myths or topics should we tackle in our next newsletter?

From Our Readers | HR stories, experiences and frustrations 📝 

33% said - Yes, I’m burned out but still love my job 

• “It is difficult to not become more critical with employees and their "needs." The workplace has come a long way, and yes, we have a great deal more that can be learned and adopted. There is an increase in employee entitlement where the company should be thankful for the employee and do everything they demand, and the employee gives them most of their time and attention between 8 and 5. ”

• “I am only a few years away from retirement, have had an extremely difficult year personally/health-wise and have a younger supervisor who has never managed a team before. She is nearing the point where her 'style' may be considered 'micro-managing'. I am not sure I am up to training another younger supervisor. (I learned yesterday that another colleague, who is similar in age/experience, is struggling with similar frustrations.) Not sure what the solution is at this point. ”

• “COVID, followed by the great resignation, followed by layoffs, it all took a toll on all of us. We are tired!”

Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences, challenges, and frustrations. We hear you, and I am sure your stories resonate deeply with our other readers. 

What are your thoughts on these stories? How do you cope with burnout or manage difficult workplace dynamics? Share your insights with us

Stir up friendly competitions and banter with Trivia by Springworks

Rank individuals based on their scores with Leaderboards. Spice up the competition and encourage participation among your people. Remember, once you sweep the scorecards, you’ll have a lot of inside jokes and friendly banter to share. That’s Trivia for you!

🔓️ Unlock Free: AI Tools Weekly Round-Up

Every week on the TSOW: AI X HR Community, we do a round-up of AI tools that are making waves in HR/work. Here’s one for you:

That’s not it. Here’s our resource with ALL our round-ups till now, for free for you! Download here. 

Want AI X HR tools round-ups on a regular basis? Join the TSOW Community and watch out for our announcement of the next webinar!

Today’s HR Reads for You 📚️ 

1. 💟 Personal stories: Finding Joy as a Manager — Even on Bad Days

2. 💔 Cutting out DEI continues: ‘New dynamics at play’: Jack Daniel’s maker ends DEI initiatives | HR Dive

3.  🤖 AI and leadership:Are You Mentally Fit to Lead? AI Has Thoughts - WSJ’

That’s a wrap for today!

Got any additional feedback for me? Let me know! 👇️