A recent poll on Blind, a popular and anonymous networking website for professionals, generated thousands of responses to the question, “Has the current WFH [work from home] situation improved or worsened your WLB [work life balance]?” This provocative question was posed by an Amazon professional who confessed to the blurring of lines between work and home-life time
I reached out to Kyum Kim, co founder of Blind, about the poll question and the responses it generated about work life balance during a pandemic.
Who is Blind?
Blind is an online professionals’ platform of 3.8 million users, where professional, corporate and industry information is shared, and questions are asked.
“Blind’s unique, anonymous platforms offer users security in their transparency allowing them to share information like job offer details, honest company feedback, and direct advice, without fear of judgment or retribution,” explained Kim. “Blind [also] provides private company channels, where users are able to communicate with co-workers, or in an open forum across companies and industries.”
Added Kim, “Blind is a platform for change, encouraging transparency in corporate culture by breaking down professional barriers empowering employees with knowledge and peer support.”
In an attempt to reveal how the pandemic has impacted work and personal time while working from home, an Amazon professional used Blind to query others about their work life balance this year.
5,500 users across major companies responded. Here are some of the findings:
• 57% of professionals say the current WFH situation worsened their work-life balance
• 65% of Amazon professionals say the current WFH situation worsened their work-life balance
• 67% of Facebook professionals say the current WFH situation worsened their work-life balance
• 76% of Lyft professionals say the current WFH situation worsened their work-life balance
• 75% of Visa professionals say the current WFH situation worsened their work-life balance
“I was not surprised to discover how many professionals say that the current WFH situation worsened their work-life balance,” shared Kim.
“I believe the root cause of the struggles with work life balance lie in the change in environment,” stated Kim. “Professionals used to have a divide between work and living space, and now that divide does not exist. This leads to people working more hours; a lot of people didn’t have the right systems within their life to WFH. They don’t have a routine to start and end work.”
Remarked Kim, “WFH itself is not a bad or evil thing, the issue is that people were forced into it without having the right routine and space to do their job.”
It is not surprising that Kim leaned into collaboration as a strategy to help correct the matter, when he stated, “Professionals should work together to figure out the best routine and environments where you can coexist with life and work.”
Take our poll to describe the degree to which your current work-life balance has been affected as a result of the pandemic.
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