All leaders expect their employees to work hard. The general idea is that more times at work equal to better chances of success. With modern technologies like smartphones and cloud computing, it is now easy to keep everyone at work all the time regardless of time and location. Your employees are most likely connected to the Internet even at home, and therefore have constant access to company’s database. Although the “always-on” culture allows them to do more for the organization, the inability to enjoy personal time leads to stress which then reduces productivity at the end. Just because such management style appears to be the norm, it does not mean you have to follow suit. It is an ineffective way to manage people; and if you have already exercised the same practice in your company or organization, you should put a stop to it. Employees need downtime to manage stress levels so they can come back ready and at full power the next day.

 Give time to power down

It is entirely possible that you use computers at workplace not only for work-related tasks, but also for personal affairs such as making dinner reservations, buying books in online stores, or making video calls with friends. Technology makes the world seem smaller and everything is just few clicks away. Whether or not you want to admit it, employees have the same constant access to the Internet. Despite the ease of establishing communication between leader and employees, it does not mean the former has the rights to call all the time.

 There must be distinction between work devices and personal ones, although both are often the same technology for examples smartphones, tablets, and laptops. You can make personal calls using company’s phone, but it would be irritating if your personal phone is flooded with work emails on your days off or leisure times. If this applies to leaders, it also does to everybody else.

 Employees work for you; that much is true. That being said, they don’t work for you 24/7 throughout the year. Give them time to power down so they can reserve their energy and intellectual for the appropriate time a.k.a. their office hours. Relentless demands for information, updates, confirmation, revisions, reports, and everything work-related is draining their physical and emotional well-being. It is demoralizing because employees can see this as an obvious sign of distrust.

 Be careful with what you consider “urgent” situations

 About 57% of employees agree that technology has its roles in ruining their family dinners, while 40% have no problems answering work emails at dinner table as long as the circumstances are deemed urgent, according to infographic of Work/Life balance in the Modern Era by Family Living Today.[1]

 Not every work problem is listed under “urgent” category. Deadline and crisis may fall under that category, but things like project planning or customers’ complaints can wait at least until the next morning. It always depends on the kind of organization or company you lead. In a healthcare company, for example, there can be a lot of situations that fit perfectly under “emergency” list, while a utility company has a different approach to task prioritization.

 Clients (and public at large) like companies who treat their employees as real people. Employees are not robots in the sense that they need to wind down every now and then, have time for a personal life, and be mentally recharged by having the opportunities to rest and stop being busy on regular basis.

 Appreciate the boundaries between personal and work times

 Perhaps you are one of those who enjoy working on weekends because it allows you to be better prepared for everything when Monday comes. But expecting your employees to do the same is no different from taking away their rights to have personal life. You have all work hours during weekdays to demand performance, so be willing to limit communication off the clock. It is a good way to keep them fresh, motivated, and best of all, enjoy what they do when you need them the most.

 Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook