Disclaimer

I am using an automatic transcript service as it is not possible for me to do it on my own and I cannot afford human transcription at the moment. The service claims to have about 95% accuracy, which means there will still be some mistakes, so my apologies for having a less than perfect transcript, but I hope I can afford human transcription soon and I will solve this problem. However, the service is pretty good, and the transcript is almost perfect.

Transcript

Welcome to a new episode from English plus podcast. Today, we’re going to talk about work-life balance. This is a new business English episode, and we will talk about stress. We will talk about ways to relieve stress or downshift, and we will talk about many word combinations with the word stress itself.

[00:00:25] So without further ado, Let’s start talking about work-life balance in a new business English episode from English plus podcast. Now, first let’s talk about stress. People talk about being under a lot of stress or pressure. So when you are under stress, you use this expression. You are under stress or under a lot of stress or pressure.

[00:00:47] They say their work is stressful and they say they feel stressed or stressed out. So here we have a lot of words related to stress, right? We say, we are under stress. We say that our work is stressful. We say that we feel stressed or stressed out. And these people want to find ways to de stress, to relieve the pressure, to decrease the level of stress to de stress.

[00:01:15] They may complain that they have a stress-related illness, an illness caused by stress. We call that a stress-related illness. Some people may suffer burnout or a complete nervous breakdown. Now, of course, when people reach the stage, it’s very difficult for them to continue working. They might leave their jobs, or they might stay at their jobs, but they will be doing almost nothing.

[00:01:40] And the more important thing is that they will not feel happy anymore. So when people suffer burnout or a complete breakdown or nervous breakdown, that means that they are no longer able to work. This is a common thing that you hear all the time. And we talked about the different combinations of this word, stress that we can use without bad under stress.

[00:02:04] You talk about your work, you describe your work or your job as stressful. You feel stressed or stressed out. You may want to distress. There are stress related illnesses. Some people may suffer burnout, a complete nervous breakdown. All these words are related to stress. Now I am talking about these things.

[00:02:23] Hopefully you never feel them, but let’s be honest. This is life. We feel that from time to time. And now, before we talk about the causes of stress, let’s talk about some words related to stress or some frequent combinations with the word stress. We say stress counselor. We have people that are called stress counselors, and these are people who advise stress suffers.

[00:02:46] We advise people who are under a lot of stress or who are feeling stressed or stressed out. These are stress counselors, someone who advises stress sufferers. And we have stress factor, and that is something that causes stress. We have stress symptoms assign that someone is under stress, or we have stress management ways of dealing with stress.

[00:03:10] And we have an interesting combination, and that is stress industry that is used by critics who say that stress problems are overestimated and to refer to the unnecessary in their view, counseling research, done in relation to stress. That is they call this dress industry. So stress, counselor factors, symptom management, or industry.

[00:03:32] These are some frequent combinations with the word stress. Now let’s talk about an important thing, and that is the causes of stress. Now you might relate to some of these causes, you might relate to all of them and hopefully you don’t have all of them because if you have all of them, you’re definitely under a lot of stress.

[00:03:49] What causes stress? What are the most common causes of stress? Now the first and maybe the most obvious thing is the heavy workload, heavy workloads that is when you try to do too much. And you are overworked. Maybe not because you want that. Maybe because you have to. You have to do a lot of things. You have a lot of work to accomplish, and you always feel behind or buried under a lot of things.

[00:04:16] You have to do your overwork. That is a heavy workload that can cause stress. What else? Office politics. What does that mean? That is the problems with colleagues who want to advance their own position and most probably at your own expense. It’s not personal, but it happens to be that it is at your own expense.

[00:04:34] So that is when you have this problem with colleagues, you call it office politics. And these people like playing politics, right. And another cause of stress is role ambiguity. And that is when your responsibilities are not clear. You don’t know exactly what you’re doing in the place where you work. In general.

[00:04:52] Yes. You know what your job is, but you don’t know your responsibilities. And that is why it is very important to make it clear to employees what they are supposed to do. This is not meant to limit initiative, just like I’m just doing my job. I’m just. Doing my responsibilities and nothing else. No, but it is important to know what is expected of me, the expectations, and that is to manage the expectations, both for the employees and for the company.

[00:05:20] And that has to be clear, but sometimes there is this role, ambiguity responsibilities are unclear. That is another cause of stress. And there’s also the lack of management support. That can be a big cause of stress. When managers do not provide the necessary help and resources, the lack of management support, or there might be another cause.

[00:05:41] And that is the effort reward imbalance. We’re not talking about a balance here when there is a balance. There’s no problem, but there’s an imbalance between effort and reward. You’re not getting sufficient recognition or pay. Or both, because sometimes you want both, you need both. Maybe some people prefer one over the other, but all of us need both.

[00:06:02] Most of us actually need both recognition and be sufficient for what we’re doing for the effort we’re giving to the company. And there’s also another imbalance that can contribute to our stress levels. And that is home work imbalance. That is when you don’t have enough time for your family or personal interests, your hobbies, et cetera, that can cause stress as well.

[00:06:24] So the common causes of stress are heavy workloads, office politics, role ambiguity, lack of management, support effort, three word imbalanced and homework imbalance. Now we talked about the negative side. Let’s talk about some positive things. Let’s talk about the quality of life. Now. Some people are workaholics.

[00:06:44] They think about very little except work, but others are increasingly looking for a better quality of life that is less commuting, more time with their families, et cetera, journalists, write about people, downshifting or rebalancing their lives. That is also to improve the quality of life. But what is the meaning of downshifting or rebalancing your life that is getting a better balance between work family, life, et cetera.

[00:07:11] These people may work. Part-time work from home, move to the country and so on. Now let’s talk about the positive sides of working from home and some negative sides, because some people think that it is a great thing, especially people who can’t work from home or those who are not allowed to work from home.

[00:07:30] They think that it is the perfect solution for all their problems. And it might be, I’m not saying that it’s not a good thing, but I have here the results of a recent survey about this, and we have some positive sides and some negative sides. So let’s start with the positive sides. And 95% of homeworkers said that they have a better work-life balance or homework balance than when they were in company, because they can spend more time with their families on leisure activities, et cetera, quality time with their families.

[00:08:03] Now, the least thing to be said is that they are cutting the time it takes to commute to work. And maybe they use this time to be more with their families to spend this time with their families. That can definitely reduce the levels of stress and increase happiness. And that is 95% of them said that, that they have a better work-life balance or homework balance.

[00:08:24] Now, 82% said that they have more autonomy and independence. What is autonomy and independence? That means they are able to organize their work and their time, how they want. They have a little bit more freedom. They feel free. Yeah, of course working from home doesn’t mean that you don’t work. You have to work.

[00:08:44] If you work eight hours in your company, you have to work eight hours at home as well, because you’re getting paid to do that. But you might be able to shift your time around to do things at different times to organize your life better around your work, but you still have to do the job, right. It doesn’t mean that you don’t do anything because sometimes people confuse working from home with.

[00:09:08] Taking a vacation that is definitely not taken a vacation. We’re not talking about a vacation here. You have to work just the same as if you were in the company, but here, maybe according to this survey as well, that 82% said that they have more autonomy and independence. They are able to organize their work and their time, how they want.

[00:09:27] We that’s a good thing. Now these were two good things. The survey revealed, but there are some negative sides. It’s not always a good thing to work from home. There are some negative sides and maybe a lot of us relate to that, especially now, because a lot of us work from home. It’s 73% of homeworkers said that there is no boundary, but we work on the one hand and personal life on the other, the two overlap.

[00:09:54] And that can be a problem you might be working and then your children step in. And while that might be a great thing, of course, you want to spend more time with your family, but you still need time to work. Right. And maybe, maybe not all of them, of course, not all the time, but maybe your family doesn’t understand that you’re working.

[00:10:13] They don’t always know that you have to be focusing on work and nothing else for one, two, three or four hours. And they kind of distract you from what you’re doing, just because you’re at home. Some people might feel that. And according to the survey, 73% of homeworkers said that there is no boundary between work on the one hand and personal life on the other, the two overlap.

[00:10:36] And then there is another problem. And 57% of people said, of course, I’m talking about 57% of homeworkers. They said that they feel lonely and isolated out of contact with others because they don’t have colleagues around them. No, some people may not mind that, but some people do mind. Some people need to have people around, some people need those coffee break conversations and it is not enough just to chat or do do it over Facebook or messenger, zoom or teams or whatever it is not enough.

[00:11:10] It needs to be face-to-face. We are social creatures after all. And that can cause a problem that, and actually 57% of people said they feel lonely and isolated. That might be the case for you now, since there are a lot of people working from home nowadays, you might relate to the results of the survey.

[00:11:28] Maybe all of them are true about you. Maybe some of them, maybe you have different feedback. And if you would like to share your feedback, you can of course take the link. I will leave in the description, go to our website and share your comments. We can talk about it if you want. Now, of course, in the description, you will find this link to the custom post we created for this episode.

[00:11:48] And there you will find the transcript of this episode, but. As I said again, if you would like to talk about it, we’re always there. And I have also added recently a chat functionality to the website sometimes I’m there. So I might just step in and talk to you directly. But at any time, if you would like to talk, you can just leave me a question and I will answer if not immediately, very soon.

[00:12:11] Now that is everything I wanted to say about work-life balance. I hope you learned something new. I hope I shed some light on this very important thing, and I hope most of you are not feeling stressed out at the moment, because I can say all of you, some people do feel stress and they have the right to do so.

[00:12:30] And I hope you find a way to downshift or to rebalance your lives. Now that will be all for today. But before I leave you, let me remind you that there is a link that will take you to our Patreon page. If you would like to become a patron of English, plus you will get access to all our premium episodes.

[00:12:47] And we are creating those premium episodes on a variety of topics. Now there’s the mini series business, English marketing, eight episodes. It’s out and I’m working now on two new series. Learn the English tenses. And another one, about 100 events that changed the world. So if you want to access the premium episodes from English, plus go ahead and become a patron of plus plus.

[00:13:08] And of course, by doing that, you will be supporting us and helping us continue. Now with that being said, this is your host, Danny. I would like to thank you very much for listening to another episode from English plus podcast. I will see you next time.