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Ms Nido, you were involved in developing and assessing the Swisscom work/life balance study. What motivated you to do this and how does the study relate to your area of research?

Ms Nido, you were involved in developing and assessing the Swisscom work/life balance study. What motivated you to do this and how does the study relate to your area of research?

The topic of achieving a balance between the various areas of life (life-domain balance) is very current and it comes up again and again in the scope of my job as a work and organisational psychologist. Many employees are finding it increasingly difficult to balance their work and private lives. This is due to many technological and social developments that are diverse and complex. Technology, such as e-mail and mobile phones, has fundamentally changed our communication behaviour over the past 20 years. This has also caused the boundaries between work and private life to become more penetrable. We all know people who constantly check their BlackBerrys in their free time. There are many reasons for this, including a high level of commitment or attempts to demonstrate social status. For my dissertation, I examined the conditions required for healthy work commitment and discovered that the ability to distance oneself and relax sufficiently, along with many other factors, play a key role.

You have already touched upon it – how have the new technological possibilities changed communication behaviour?

Human beings have always had a strong need to communicate and exchange ideas. Today, this exchange frequently takes place via phone and the Internet, in the form of e-mails or on social networks like Facebook. Everything from invitations to love letters are now rarely created in the form of a letter, and messages reach their recipients in a split second. Technological progress has always had a major influence on life, work and society as a whole – we need only think of the invention of the steam engine and the Industrial Revolution. Computers and the Internet heralded a similarly significant change. These technological innovations and the associated opportunities change our lives by making things quicker. This increased speed and high availability have an impact on our private and professional lives.

How does this acceleration and high availability impact employees' personal and professional lives?

The fast pace in today's world combined with increased availability brings many advantages, but also disadvantages, for our personal and professional lives. For example, there are scientifically well researched carry-over effects – both positive and negative – from work to personal life, on the one hand, but also from our personal lives to work. These can also be increased by changes in our communication behaviour. It's not really surprising that theSwisscom work/life balance study   showed that 78 % of employees find it important to lead their professional and personal lives at separate times and that 12 % have problems balancing their work hours with family or social commitments.
We need to separate the various areas of our lives more consciously and develop strategies to get a grip on today's fast pace and information floods. Constant interruptions, particularly in a professional environment, are also a key topic. Constant interruptions have been proven to lead to decreased performance and health risks.

“Stress” seems to be a buzz word. SECO commissioned a study on this in 2010. How do the new communications devices, such as smartphones, and communications channels, such as Facebook, affect the way individuals perceive stress?

Stress is a buzz word – and rightly so. However, a distinction needs to be made between our everyday understanding of stress and the psychological definition. Colloquially, just about everyone is “stressed”. However, as the “Stress study”  showed, 34 % of the Swiss working population consider themselves to be chronically stressed (frequently to very frequently), of whom 7 % handle stress badly or not at all. These are high values that other studies have confirmed. In 2000, the “Stress study” revealed that 27 % of employees were stressed – so there has been no significant increase. The WHO even names stress as the greatest health risk of the 21st century. Stress has been proven to impair mental and physical health. The most common stress factors named were frequent interruptions, constantly working at a fast pace and constant time pressure. This quickly brings us back to the ‘new’ means of communication – the use of Facebook, Twitter, etc. is changing our long-term information and communication behaviour, as mentioned previously. Initial studies on this have already been performed, although they are hardly representative.

Approximately one third of employees stated that they would like to restrict their availability both during and outside of working hours. Could such a tool have a positive effect on the work/life balance?

That would certainly be a desirable consequence. However, it is important to consider a number of points. The tool needs to be easy to use and it must be possible to clearly define which contacts are filtered out. If such a technology were implemented at an organisation, it would of course also be necessary to anticipate the implications that this would have on the structures, culture and management and to optimise these together. For example, as well as regulations for use, expectations regarding use would also need to be communicated clearly.

And finally, what is your view. How will communication behaviour develop in the near future? Do you see a trend?

There will always be new, even more sophisticated technological possibilities which will influence communication behaviour. It will therefore be increasingly important to show users strategies for dealing with these new technological possibilities. A “healthy” relationship with these possibilities is key. The technology should enrich and simplify our lives, not dictate it or make us ill.

Thank you very much for this interesting interview.

Are you interested in the detailed results of the Swisscom work–life balance study and would like to find out what kind of communicator you are? Then visit our work/life balance website, where you will find lots of interesting information and the work/life balance test.