There are many questions such as, how do leadership and well-being methods help
individuals to invest in their own personal well-being at work, and in their leisure
time? Where does work time start, and leisure time end? Does this difference
exist anymore?
Work goes everywhere and we are always within reach. With modern
technology and flexibility it is possible to work at home and even at the beach.
Who is responsible of well-being at work when working is possible anywhere?
How will new leadership and well-being actions cover working life, so that it fits
all areas of work and everyday life?
Since industrialization began in Scandinavia we have long
separated work and other areas of life. Balancing work with family life, society
involvement, coping in the culture we live in, or developing our own personal
self-image did not belong to the discussions of professional identity and
professional self-esteem. When we do reviews at work we still find it a taboo
to talk about how we or our family is coping with the way we work!
According to the definition of The Finnish Institution of Occupational
Health, well-being is an entity that combines work, health, safety and welfare.
Occupational well-being is a broad concept, where labor, health, safety and
well-being issues and their various features are simultaneously examined. Well-being
at work can be examined, for example, through objective working conditions, the
subjective experience of well-being, and through compensation perspectives. The
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, defines well-being at work to mean
that the work is carried out in a meaningful, well flowing, safe,
health-promoting, career and community supporting environment. Well-being at
work can be measured. Wellbeing at work is closely related to the concept of
quality of working life.
Several definitions of well-being at work still examine it as a ‘stand
alone’ entity that takes place only at work premises.
We should be looking more than just our working environment, at
all levels of society:
- individual lives during work and outside work hours (almost impossible to separate in a lot of professions)
- groups we are involved in (at work and outside),
- at our work place/organization in its entirety (we tend to look at only our immediate collaborators)
- the society and culture we live and grow in
Still substantially the missing areas are the individual's relationship to family, communities and cultures. Individual's relationship to their closest collaborators at work is examined, but the relationship to people and the environment outside the work is missing.
Well-being at work in health care is often understood only to
cover working time in specific working areas where work is performed. This way
we only look at work related problems when they arise at work. We do not look
at factors that arise outside workinghours. It overlooks each employee as an individual
participating in a wider environment, in groups, organizations, community and
society.
The way and where we work is changing so we need to change the
definition and actions of working life as well. Since we can´t separate working
and free time, we have come to a time where well-being at work should have more
holistic approach.
Let’s look at Finland
Every 3 out of 10 workers
in Finland work remotely at least once a month, every fourth work remotely
sometimes. Every twentieth worker is a full time remote worker. Men work
remotely more than women. Of men 45 % and of women 34 % say they work remotely
sometimes. To work remotely is more common around the capital city of Helsinki.
In Helsinki and surrounding areas 46 % work remotely from home sometimes, when
the rest of the country percentage is 39 %. Distance to work has an effect, but
according to the study it is not a substantial factor. People want to work
remotely, since it brings flexibility to their everyday life. According to the
study (below) working at home is a more peaceful environment to work, and
involves less commuting, time and money. This
Study was done during August and September 2012 for an Insurance Company
that introduced a new insurance for remote workers. There were 1,094 working
persons who answered the study.
Let’s look at Microsoft in Finland
They have a new concept called “Läsnätyö”. Translation does not
exist yet in English language so let’s separate the word in two parts. “Läsnä”
means to be present and “työ” means work. So it is freely translated “work
being where you are present”. You can give full work input regardless of where
your location is. New technology is making this possible, and the agreed rules
of the game. It needs new examination of
how we manage and organize our work and leisure time.
More and more work and leisure activities are merged into a single entity of human
life. Thus, it is time to deal with well-being as a whole. Well-being at work
is “where you are present”. Therefore, the concept of well-being at work should
be transformed to the well-being of people of working age, to cover all four
levels of society (individual, group, organization and society), which are more
and more integrated in the work.
The key issues at work, as in
life, is to be part of a meaningful environment that is promoting openness,
self-direction, intentionality,
sense of community and common purpose.
We need to look at a more humanistic aspect of well-being, where working is taken into
various levels reflecting each other. What affects
the individual level is also affected by
the other levels of the society and vice versa. If the entity is not
feeling well individually it is reflected negatively at other levels (group, organization and
society) and in both direction. One level
can’t function without the other.
 |
| Society of WellBeing – Reflections on four levels of the society |
There are various methods and tools to
develop the well-being of people of working
age. Supervision, coaching, and humanistic management are holistic
approaches that count in the areas that are so often still missing.
Helena
Kemppainen, supervisor, coach, empowerment trainerÒ, humanistic management specialist, gsm:
+358 (0)50 4922161, Email
Ulla Heinonen, Ph.D., Lic.Ed., Master-CSLE®, gsm: +358 (0)50
591 7199, Email
Society
of Well-being develops methods and tools for improving
working life. We
promote well-being
on all areas of life, and are part of The Global Humanistic Management
Network.
Sources:
http://www.taloussanomat.fi/tyo-ja-koulutus/2012/09/21/nain-moni-tekee-joskus-etatoita/201238350/139
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