(Produced by China ComputerWorld Publishing Service)
Recently, CIOs have been paying more attention to work-life balance than ever before, but achieving it is not an easy task.
Work-life balance, a loose principle of an individual's equal distribution of time and energy between work and life, is good for both individual and company development if handled properly.
Experienced CIOs say that a healthy work-life balance can improve health, productivity, retention, and turnover, so emotional burnout can be avoided. However, in the special period of the spread of the epidemic, striking a healthy balance between personal life and work seems more elusive than ever.
Covid-19 has had a tremendous impact on the economy and society, creating more opportunities and responsibilities for CIOs on boards, but also putting additional pressure on project delivery teams to accelerate the implementation of multi-year digital transformation initiatives. As a result, business expectations of IT teams have also begun to grow, which is a double-edged sword for IT teams.
Work-life balance for CIOs during the global pandemic
Jason James, CIO of NetHealth, a U.S.-based EHR (Electronic Health Record) software provider, says that in retrospect, we, like most technical executives, were fully engaged in our work at the beginning of the pandemic. Because it's one of the few things we can control. He admits that work has become a way to vent, but it is not sustainable.
Jason James, software provider NetHealth CIO
James said: "I work non-stop at lunchtime, in the evening and on weekends, with very little sleep time and without giving my family the attention they deserve. Maybe I'm a successful CIO, but as a father or husband, I'm not the best. ”
To that end, James developed a plan to make the work more balanced. He sets a time slot for checking emails and messages, and sets aside lunch break to walk outside. But work still takes up family time, and it's hard to stop.
For Tariq Khan, CDIO (Chief Digital Information Officer) in London's Camden, work-life balance means something completely different. Khan started his first CIO job last year, and during the national lockdown, he had to juggle work and homeschooling his children, meet new colleagues online, and do a good job of supporting government services with limited resources.
"I could have done better," he admitted. "I need to learn a lot of things quickly, and during the epidemic, there is a lot of reactive demand for local government services in all aspects, which makes the workload increase a lot."
Lead teams in isolation
Some CIOs say it is difficult for them to work in isolation. They point out that when faced with transactional video conferencing and lack of interpersonal communication, there is a lot of stress, and the same pressure arises when they lead, motivate, and support teams and ecological partners.
For some, the challenge is to overcome the desire to do more during a shutdown. Michelle Kearns joined Boots Ireland last year in the new role of HEAD of IT. She previously spent 16 years at Caredoc, a family doctor services company, as the company's CIO. She acknowledges that it is a big challenge to make a good impression in a new job while maintaining a normal family life.
Kearns said, "Even this year I was working while I was on annual leave. Because we're working on a project, I usually call in the evening to ask about progress. Part of the reason is that since I'm the new CIO, I hope the project will be a success. I think it's very difficult not to contact colleagues. ”
Mark Bramwel, CIO of Saeed Business School, Oxford
For Mark Bramwell, CIO of Saeed Business School, Oxford, the shift was particularly abrupt. A heart attack last May forced him to re-evaluate his priorities in life. He described the incident as a "wake-up call" to push himself to take better care of himself, though he has now recovered.
Bramwell advocates for personal values to guide work. Bramwell says I've realized that the outcome of things isn't just determined by how hard you work and how long you work, but how you prioritize, delegate, and handle the work wisely. As a result, I learned to set new boundaries for the workday, how to say "no" more, and learned to better retain some "ego time" in my journal to get work done, reflect, plan, and exercise.