Kossek

CEO of Me: Managing work-life relationships in the Flexible Job

Age

Michigan State University University Distinguished Professor Ellen Ernst Kossek, Ph.D.School of Labor & Industrial RelationsEast Lansing, Michigan [email protected]: http://ellenkossek.lir.msu.edu/

Overview

Understand current work life challenges evidence -based research

Identify your own flexstyle and those you work and live with

Reflect on vision and tools for change

Professor Ellen Ernst Kossek, Ph.D. Michigan State University USA

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Unhappy/frustrated Separator story (consider versions with different genders/situations, etc.). Frances: A separator mom said when things didn’t turn out well: But I can get rigid and feel really stressed when I'm too attached to this preference for separating, because, as we working moms know, the best laid plans usually have to be revised. A few times. And orthodontists don't work on Sundays. And I've got two kids who have crooked teeth. And so on.

FLEXSTYLE

Finding an Approach that Works for You

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In the current business environment, many employers are seeking new ways to improve work engagement and productivity. The goal of our session today is to provide help youments can use to help their employees managers develop personal effectiveness strategies to improve focus at work to improve productivity and improve personal well-being and reduce stress at the same time. Much of the material in this module has been adapted from Kossek, E. & Lautsch, B. 2008. CEO of Me: Creating a Life That Works in the Flexible Job Age. Philadelphia: Wharton School Publishing. Frances: Sadly but true, the days of nine to five had gone!

Flexstyles are our approaches to

managing: BOUNDARIES ATTENTION RELATIONSHIPS

Between our work and personal life.

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These 3 areas all relate to our flexstyle the different approaches we have to manage boundaries, attention and relationships to impact work engagement. BOUNDARIES: borders management between realms of work and family/personal life ATTENTION: Face to face and electronic communication and technology interactions, what to focus on and when, responding to interruptions, energy allocation RELATIONSHIPS: setting expectations at home and work, communicating one’s values and dedication, the intensity we identify with a relationship Frances: (from Ellen’s lecture) giving full attention to one thing often improve the relationships.

Theme1 : For many of us, work-life could be

working better!

Work-Life Paradox: Many individuals are having greater difficulties being engaged at work (e.g. work-life conflicts and job role overload) despite the growing use of technology tools presence of many employer flexibility and work-life policies. & its growth is viewed as legitimate problem of everyday life in.

societal and organizational cultures. Professor jobs have job autonomy in job design on paper but often

not in how many experience this job.

Source: Kossek and Lautsch, 2008

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Technology & Changing Work-Life Relationships Creating Work Engagement Challenges

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Changing structure of work- work or family is increasingly available in different domains Technology and the transformation of work and personal relationships has changed how different people engage in work. There more options & different ways to engage in work than people realize); and the increasing family/personal life changes means more demands from personal life. Lifestyles and the way our business is run have shifted where today there is less down time, there are more ways to engage in work and more demands on individuals from both rising work and family demands with less time to recover.


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Professional employees face unique work challenges- Workload and 24-7 availability Time/Energy Imbalance: Putting Work

Above Everything Else Factors contributing to the

pressures to overwork: New Workplace technology makes it easier

to bring work home Global interactions require 24 hour

communications Competitive Pressures to continually show

you add value and are on career track

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Academic Freedom/ ability to work 24-7 requires high self-regulation.

Must avoid-constant multi-tasking &-overwork from being accessible to E-workMust understand not everyone works the same way

Take Away Tip:We must take control of work –life relationships to self-manage engagement

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We need to avoid the “avoid the flexibility con” the tendency to work all the time. In the book CEO of Me, Kossek and Lautsch, (2008) argue that individuals who have access to flexibility like the ability to do email or work text messaging will not have satisfying work life relationships unless individuals actively self regulate these relationships and sometimes shut off technology to focus on one task at a time. A November 2008 New York Times article reported that the more people multitasked by checking email etc., the faster they worked, and the more stressed they felt at the end of the day, but the less work was done. It is recommended that we need to try and focus more on one task at a time for high value work where we need to concentrate.

Linking Positive Work- Life Engagement to Productivity Work –Life engagement increases productivity through

positive work and home environments that challenge us in a positive way where we experience “flow”

Lack of Work Engagement decreases productivity and performance due to increased stress poorer health role overload Turnover, health costs, mistakes, accidents, mood

disorder

U. S, NIH National Work Family Health Network Ineffective work engagement strategy increases switching

costs!

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Work engagement affects productivity in three ways: a) Increased productivity from positive environments or flow b) Stress and poor fit (when demands exceed resources ) there is lower performance due to poor fit c) Increased switching Costs (Kossek & Lautsch, 2008; K. Pattison, July 2008, Fast Company Magazine, “Worker, Interrupted”.)

TYPES OF SUPERVISORY SUPPORT FOR FAMILY

Emotional Support for Family

Practical Support with Scheduling Conflicts

Work-Family Role Modeling

Creative Work-Family Management

Portland State University & Michigan State University (PSU/MSU) study trained supervisors to support grocery workers’ family and personal lives through family supportivebehaviors.

Links between Health and WFC supported in Many Studies

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MTC delivers

Results of PSU/MSU study published in Harvard Business Review 2008

Workers supervised by family-supportive managers are more likely to experience:

Lower levels of work and family conflict

Higher job satisfaction

Lower intentions to turnover

Higher reports of mental and physical health

Kossek, E. E., & Hammer, L. B. (November, 2008). Work/Life Training for Supervisors Gets Big Results. Harvard Business Review.

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National Work Family Health Network

Link Between Work Family Conflicts & Health

Harvard study of long-term care nurses and nurse assistants in Massachusetts.

“Openness” of managers to help/adjust for employees’ work-family needs (e.g., schedules) and the “Creativity” of managers in applying current policies predicted employee cardiovascular risk and sleep duration in extended care settings.

http://www.kpchr.org/WORKFAMILYHEALTHNETWORK/public/default.aspx

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Poor work-family practices are associated with

increased risk of cardiovascular disease and

short sleep duration among low-wage

employees in long term care.

National Work Family Health Network

Link Between Work Family Health

Conflicts & Health

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MTC delivers

Theme 2: Flexstyles

Flexstyles are our approaches to

managing: BOUNDARIES ATTENTION RELATIONSHIPS

Between our work and personal life.

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These 3 areas all relate to our flexstyle the different approaches we have to manage boundaries, attention and relationships to impact work engagement. BOUNDARIES: borders management between realms of work and family/personal life ATTENTION: Face to face and electronic communication and technology interactions, what to focus on and when, responding to interruptions, energy allocation RELATIONSHIPS: setting expectations at home and work, communicating one’s values and dedication, the intensity we identify with a relationship Frances: (from Ellen’s lecture) giving full attention to one thing often improve the relationships.

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Talk about different responses and Changing your situation may not change your experience. You have to develop self-awareness about what you want/value and what works for you. Picture with story about how two people can be in the same situation and using similar strategies and one can be happy and another can be unhappy.

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Boundaries

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Technology, rising workloads, shifting family structures, long commutes and the 24-7 global economy are transforming and blurring work and personal life relationships and work interactions. Questions to ask yourself….. Do I have clear boundaries between work and the rest of life? Do I want to? How clear are they – to me and to others? How strong are they? How permanent are they? How permeable are they? Am I in charge of my boundaries? Frances: (from Ellen’s lecture) This is no best way to arrange the boundaries. The most important thing is to feel in control of your boundaries. When people feel that they’re forced to mix roles and they do not want to do it at that time, that’s when your style creates problems. It is important that you and your stakeholders feel OK about how you manage your boundaries. A story about boundaries…

divided deficit scattered Switching costs (process losses

from switching) Overload multi-tasking

ATTENTIONATTENTION

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Our attention is increasingly being divided and more and more parties are competing for our attention. We can make choices regarding how me manage our attention . It involves how we chose to relate to people in Face to face communication, whether we try to multitask in meetings using electronic communication, our preferences for blending work related technology interactions, and our choices on how we choose to what to focus on, as well as how we respond to interruption and allocate our energy. If you had a colleague who called you while in the drive up lane of a bank and start talking about work, how would you feel about the message they were sending you? Would it bother you? Would you be this person? Here are some words that might resonate with you in how you allocate attention today.

RelationshipsRELATIONSHIPS

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We are in all sorts of relationships – with coworkers, clients, family members, community members, etc. Questions to ask yourself: Who are the key people in my life? What do people expect of me? What do I expect from my relationships? What roles are most important to me? Add a story about relationships

Theme 3: Self-Assessment and

Reflection

The psychological and physical ways we manage

BoundariesAttentionRelationships

between our jobs and personal lives

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Defining FlexStyle

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What are flexstyles? Kossek and Lautsch (2008) define them as: The psychological and physical ways we manage boundaries, attention and relationships between our job and personal life Why are they important. In order to make change to align your life pie and enable positive work engagement Step 1: We must understand your flexstyle to develop strategies to gain more control and alignment Step 2: Must relate flexstyle to preferences and those of co-workers, managers, customers, family

Patterns vary because everyone has one of 3 main styles to manage work and personal life: Integrators Separators Volleyors

Separators

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Separators keep work and personal tasks

and commitments

divided.

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Separators keep work and personal tasks and commitments divided. For separators, there is a clear line between their work life and their personal life. Separators focus on work when they are at work and to focus on their personal life when they are at home. Separators use physical space, their schedules, and mental perceptions to keep aspects of their life compartmentalized. Frances: (from Ellen’s lecture) Some separators become so because they choose to while others are forced to.

Integrators Constantly Blend


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Integrators blend work and personal tasks and commitments.

Volleyers switch back and forth between integrating and separating the work life and personal life.

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Integrators blend work and personal tasks and commitments. For integrators, there is not a clear line between work life and personal life. Integrators are often the people you see at sporting events or on vacation while taking business calls or emails. Integrators may work nonstandard hours in order to attend to personal needs or attend to pressing business matters.

What matters most for well-being:

a) alignment between your ideal personal values for how you would prefer to allocate your life pie

b) control of how you manage work-life relationships

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Know your FlexStyle

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Why are flexstyles important? They matter are an indicator of our well-being: He measure the degree of a) alignment between your ideal personal values for how you would prefer to allocate your life buckets And the degree of b) control of how you manage work-life relationships (flexstyle) “Good flexstyles are ones where we feel aligned and have control. Bad flexstyles are where our values are out of alignment, we lack control and work=life relationships always feel at odds. Ask the class to give examples from their experience or people they know.. Kossek and Lautsch, 2008

Self-Assessment: Identifying Your FlexstylePages 32-33 from CEO of Me

Statement Strongly Agree

Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree Strongly Disagree

1. I rarely attend to personal or family issues during the workday.

1 2 3 4 5

2. When I’m at home I rarely think about work, so I can fully get away from my job.

1 2 3 4 5

3. In general, I don’t take work-related phone calls or e-mails during evenings, weekends, holidays, or vacations.

1 2 3 4 5

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Finding Your Flexstyle Exercise Ask class members is they have completed the “Self-Assessment” on pages 32 and 33 of Kossek and Lautsch (2008). Here on this the next slide, I will show examples of the sample questions.

4. In general, I don’t take work-related phone calls or e-mails during evenings, weekends, holidays, or vacations.

1 2 3 4 5

5. With most of my family and friends, I tend not to talk about work issues as I like to keep work separate.

1 2 3 4 5

6. I do not think about my family, friends, and personal interests when at work, so I can focus.

1 2 3 4 5

7. I usually handle e-mails related to my family or personal life separately from e-mails related to my work.

1 2 3 4 5

Calculating your score: Add up the total number of circles you placed in each column, and write the totals in the boxes to the right.

Strongly Agree

Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree Strongly Disagree

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Here are more sample questions from page 32, and 33 of Kossek and Lautsch 2008, which you may have completed before class. Now add up your flexstyle scores from these sample items and the rest in CEO of Me on page 32, and 33 If you are mostly 1s and 2s you are a separator, mostly 4s and 5s you are an integrator, and if you are mostly 3s or have a range of responses with no clear pattern, you are a Volleyer.


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TABLE 2-1: Effective and Ineffective FLEXSTYLES(from Kossek & Lautsch: CEO of Me)

WELL-BEING HAPPINESS LEVEL

INTEGRATORS VOLLEYERS SEPARATORS

High(Feeling in Control, work and personal life have positive relationships)

Fusion Lover Quality time Work or Family First

Low (overwhelmed, overworked, out of control, work and personal life often feel at odds )

Reactors Job Warriors Captives

Don’t assume your style is the best style. There are different ways to work effectively.

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Frances: (from Ellen’s lecture) Different flexstyle is a diversity issue – we are now working with people who are with a different style and therefore, more and more negotiation regarding time line will take place.

Separator Tradeoff:Stunted Life

Long days (Job or Family Creep)Others’ misunderstanding about availability Perceptions about professionalismHigher switching costs & role restructuring Lack of buffers, Transition times

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Stunted personal, community, family or social life Lack of access to cross-domain enrichment and supports Stunted unhealthy social life (for work firsters) or downshifted career dreams (family firsters) ADD STORIES Frances: Source: http://dbcs.typepad.com/lifeatwork/2010/01/moms-lifework-post-2-blend-or-separate.html If you're a separator, you might want to: Discuss this with your family. Talk with them about what kind of availability you have to talk during the work day. Acknowledge that it's OK to make changes to your schedule for out-of-the-ordinary circumstances (for example, when there's a big deadline at work or when you have a sick child at home). Designate an area at home where you can work when needed. Frances: Some separators have 3 twitter IDs to separate work and life – Her story: I'm an enthusiastic separator. I have three Twitter IDs (which I am re-thinking, by the way!) My friends and family hardly ever hear me talk about work. My clients and readers don't hear much about my vacations or movies I've seen. My Facebook account is for personal friends only. I recently moved from a home office to an office space in my neighborhood, which feels fantastic. I don't work on the weekends. I seldom see friends during work hours. It's lovely when this all works out. But I can get rigid and feel really stressed when I'm too attached to this preference for separating, because, as we working moms know, the best laid plans usually have to be revised. A few times. And orthodontists don't work on Sundays. And I've got two kids who have crooked teeth. And so on. So every once in a while I check email at 11 pm or send a client something on a Sunday or see my friend who's home with infant triplets (!) on a Thursday for lunch and manage not to have a stress attack because I'm blending more than separating. And this is real progress. You don't have to do work and family any one way. Just do it your way, and talk with your family about how it can work for everyone, at least most of the time. Another story: I feel guilty sometimes because I really do separate myself from what the kids are doing during the day - so much so that I've gone weeks without checking in during the day. And the reverse is true -when I get home I shed the work day completely -it's like it never happened. If you call me at home with a work question, I can't guarantee you'll get an answer that isn't jibberish. When the husband calls me at work with a question about dinner- I just get annoyed - I just don't want to think about it. Being a mom though, my separation lines can get fuzzy. When I'm at the office, I strive for work-only time but I usually end up taking breaks to do some kid/family tasks that need just a few minutes attention. Of course those minutes add up and some days I feel like that's all I've done and that's a frustrating place to be. I'd feel better if I was more available to work when I'm at home but see above - just can't do it right now. I have really envied those people who can jump on a conference call and sound smart and professional all while putting together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I rarely discuss work with my friends, I have a personal email account and a work email address. I recieve personal emails at both which is fine but most of the time I try to send personal emails from the personal account. I don't twitter because I don't have time.

Integrator Tradeoff: Manage Switching Costs

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Long days (Job or Family Creep) Others’ misunderstanding about availability Perceptions about professionalism Higher switching costs & role restructuring Lack of buffers, Transition times ADD STORIES Frances: http://hrringleader.com/2009/11/23/worklife-integration-leaders-series/ In this story, Eric Winegardner (management in Monster.com) considered guilt is one switching cost for the integrators because it prevents people from working to their highest potential. Frances: There’re some strategies to prevent the job or family creep from happening ( from “7 habits of highly effective people”). Frances: Source: http://dbcs.typepad.com/lifeatwork/2010/01/moms-lifework-post-2-blend-or-separate.html If you're a integrator, you might want to: Discuss this with your family. Tell them that you move back and forth quickly between worlds so they can adjust their expectations. Talk with your family about your availability to them and how you'll signal to them when you need to be working. Plan adequate time cushions between appointments so that you don't have a client call in the hallway of your kid's elementary school. Set a time in the evening after which you won't check email, so you can get enough rest.

Volleyer Tradeoff: Role Confusion

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Increased cognitive complexity Difficulty prioritizing- must make tough choices Job creep Role confusion Job Warriors’ special needs (fatigue, vulnerability to breakdown of support system) ADD STORIES

Choose flexstyle aligning with values Some flexstyles are not sustainable All have pros and cons If your life is overloaded, minor flexstyle

changes won’t work because you lack control or resources.

If you are undergoing major personal or professional change, it is likely your flexstyle is out of alignment.

Tenets of Flexstyle Trade-offs

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Here are common flexstyle tradeoff tenets. You must make conscious choice: which flexstyle best aligns with values (life bucket analysis is one way of assessing alignment.) Goal is to have pros of flexstyle outweigh cons. Some flexstyles not sustainable over time or good for mental and physical health (or family members who live with you). If your life is overloaded, minor flexstyle changes won’t work because you lack control or resources. If you are undergoing major personal or professional change (e.g. divorce, marriage, new baby, illness, new job etc., job loss) , it is likely your flexstyle is out of alignment. Source: Kossek and Lautsch, 2008.

Tips for Navigating your Flexstyle

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Your Flexstyle is not good or bad in and of itself – it’s what you do with it that matter. Now we are going to talk about ways to get you on a path to creating a better life.

Imagine your Ideal

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Role model Frances: (from Ellen’s lecture) Take a moment to think about what you would like to be – think of a role model. ADD SLIDES WITH SPECIFIC INFO ABOUT WHAT TO DO AND THE BENEFITS, PLUS ANY CAUTIONS OR CONSIDERATIONS ADD A STORY ABOUT A CHANGE SOMEONE MADE USING THIS APPROACH.

Increase Support

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Coach, friend, people to trade off babysitting, exercise partner, etc. ADD SLIDES WITH SPECIFIC INFO ABOUT WHAT TO DO AND THE BENEFITS, PLUS ANY CAUTIONS OR CONSIDERATIONS ADD A STORY ABOUT A CHANGE SOMEONE MADE USING THIS APPROACH. Frances: http://hrringleader.com/2009/11/23/worklife-integration-leaders-series/ In this story, Eric Winegardner (management in Monster.com) shared his work life integration story. And one of his tips is not to feel guilty because that will prevent you from working to your highest potential. But as one of the follower commented, in order for him to do so requires a lot of social support from the family and work.

Manage Transition Times & Switching Costs

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ADD SLIDES WITH SPECIFIC INFO ABOUT WHAT TO DO AND THE BENEFITS, PLUS ANY CAUTIONS OR CONSIDERATIONS ADD A STORY ABOUT A CHANGE SOMEONE MADE USING THIS APPROACH.

Monitor Yourself and Experiment

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Time diaries, behavioural self-monitoring ADD SLIDES WITH SPECIFIC INFO ABOUT WHAT TO DO AND THE BENEFITS, PLUS ANY CAUTIONS OR CONSIDERATIONS ADD A STORY ABOUT A CHANGE SOMEONE MADE USING THIS APPROACH. .

What matters most ?What is the change you could make that would enrich your life?

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WE’D LIKE TO HAVE SOMETHING QUICK TO HELP FOLKS CREATE A SENSE OF HAVING A GOAL OR SOEMTHING TO WORK ON/THINK ABOUT. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS. ADD INFORMATION ABOUT NEXT STEPS – GOAL PLANNING ETC. CONSIDER BASING THESE ON THE TIPS ABOVE.

Develop work-life plan

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ADD SLIDES WITH SPECIFIC INFO ABOUT WHAT TO DO AND THE BENEFITS, PLUS ANY CAUTIONS OR CONSIDERATIONS ADD A STORY ABOUT A CHANGE SOMEONE MADE USING THIS APPROACH. Frances: Source: http://worklifefit.com/blog/ This is a blog about how to create a work-life plan – to fit work and life in 5 days.

Compare the two pies

How are they similar to and different from each other?

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Discuss trends that you see and common patterns. How might the way you were raised (your family situation, experiences) influence your perceptions of what’s normal/right in terms of how you organize your time? ADDITIONAL DEBREIF QUESTIONS NEEDED Frances: Some additional debrief questions could be: Is your current pie aligned with your values (do you arrange most time to the things that matter to most to you)? Do you think your current pie will have a great difference compared to the key stakeholders’ pies?

Negotiation 101

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ADD SLIDES WITH SPECIFIC INFO ABOUT WHAT TO DO AND THE BENEFITS, PLUS ANY CAUTIONS OR CONSIDERATIONS ADD A STORY ABOUT A CHANGE SOMEONE MADE USING THIS APPROACH.

Individual Level: Are the cons of your style outweighing the

pros? What about your ability to control work life

relationships and values (life pie alignment)?

Stakeholder Level: Perception is reality: Feedback from important others in life (family and work colleagues etc.)

Do you need to change?Remember the Gut Test

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It is important to remember the “gut test” in order to understand whether you need to make some flexstyle changes. At a personal Individual Level: Are cons of style outweighing pros? What about your ability to control work life relationships and values (life bucket alignment)? Do you feel in control of work –life relationships ? Are your values aligned values At a stakeholder Level: Perception is reality: Feedback from important others in life (family and work colleagues etc.) Have you had conflicts at home or work regarding your flexstyle. If so perception may be reality- time to consider some change. Source Kossek and Lautsch, 2008

CEO of Me: Creating a Life that Works in the Flexible Job Age

Available from Wharton School Publishing, Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles

1. Individuals need help reflecting on values and developing strategies to gain control.

2. Sometimes individuals need to separate particularly from work or family, & technology- avoid switching costs!

3. Take time to Reflect: has your work-life situation created conflicts- if so, time for change?

Kossek

Education

Transcript of Kossek