Work-life balance: what it means and how to do it well

Published on November 30, 2023   20 min

Other Talks in the Series: Workplace Wellbeing

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0:00
My name is Dave Cook. I'm an anthropologist and I conduct research on remote work, digital nomads, and emerging work trends at the University College London. In this talk, I'm going to focus on the concept of work-life balance. I'm going to explore what it means and how work-life balance can impact all aspects of our lives. I'm going to explore how it relates to personal and public health and how addressing work-life balance can positively impact company cultures and individual performance.
0:36
In summary, I'll start with a short overview of my research. I will then introduce some emerging trends, such as the work from anywhere culture and digital nomadism. These are given to encourage you to think about work-life balance across a number of different contexts.
0:55
Broadly speaking, anthropology is the study of people throughout place and time. I study the workplace and how that fits into people's daily lives. I also work with UCL's eWorkResearch task force, eworkresearch.org, where I have studied the effects of work-life balance in the workplace. Specifically, 1. How it relates to remote work and hybrid settings. 2. Defining what work-life balance means precisely. 3. How to implement work-life balance in practice and how to maintain work-life balance successfully.
1:34
It's all too easy to forget that before the pandemic remote work was not widely accepted. At best, it was a gradually rising trend. According to the UK's Office of National Statistics, less than 6% of workers worked from home before the pandemic permanently. Prior to the pandemic, I was working on an 8-year research project studying digital nomads who lived and traveled in places like Thailand and Southeast Asia. Pre-pandemic, remote work was quite a niche practice that one and an enthusiastic minority were interested in. Until March 2020, when the pandemic struck and remote work suddenly became unexpectedly mainstream. I've been researching remote work quietly for years, and very few people were interested in the topic, but in March 2020, I suddenly started to get calls from journalists, HR professionals, managers, and consultants because I had been running one of the longest continuous studies into remote work.

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Work-life balance: what it means and how to do it well

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