What is work-life balance all about?
Maintaining a work-life balance is an important social issue that has been studied for several years. Not surprisingly, given that the average worker spends between 152 and 168 hours a month at work.
The situation was to be remedied to a significant extent by Directive 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) of June 20, 2019. on work-life balance for parents and caregivers, or the so-called “work-life balance directive. work-life balance directive.
One of the landmarks in terms of work-life balance was the publication of the results of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s 2021 study. Although European Union countries do not occupy the top three places when it comes to the average number of hours workers spend at work (Mexico, Costa Rica and Chile are in the lead), this does not mean that the problem does not affect EU residents.
Among EU countries, Greeks work the most. This is followed by Poles (about 1,928 hours per year), Irish, Estonian and Czech residents. All these countries are significantly above the average of OECD countries.
Benefits of work-life balance
At first glance, it may seem that all moves to introduce work-life balance are actually measures that will benefit employees and lose employers. Is this actually the case? Not necessarily, because in the long run the positive effects of the changes will also be felt by companies.
What will the employer gain?
A company can benefit in many ways from a better work-life balance for employees. Many studies have addressed the topic of employee productivity in relation to hours spent at work. They show that those who work shorter hours maintain the same level of productivity while being… more satisfied with life. An overtired employee will work less efficiently, and everyone loses out.
An employee who can devote time outside of work to spending time with his family, developing hobbies and relaxing will be happier, which will translate into greater job satisfaction and a slower decline in motivation. In fact, we are talking about reducing the risk of job burnout, which today even affects people in their early thirties.
For most employees, the most important factor in deciding where to work is salary. The higher the salary, however, the more often employees look around for non-wage benefits. More vacation days or fewer working hours are just one of the many options, but both have an impact on loyalty and therefore make employee turnover noticeably lower. Hiring for the long term, on the other hand, saves a lot of money on recruitment and offers the chance for a better atmosphere in the company.
A company that cares about its employees and provides them with work-life balance can also use this fact to build a positive reputation and image. This, in turn, will translate into increased interest in working for such a company.
What will the employee gain?
The obvious beneficiaries of the changes are working people. While employees also pay close attention to the reduced risk of burnout (after all, no one wants to hate their job), especially important to them are the more tangible benefits that they can feel immediately.
One of them is greater flexibility. The ability to use remote or hybrid work, leave work during the day to run important errands, move work hours to the evening, or take additional hours or vacation days are all attractive benefits that increase job satisfaction and allow for greater balance.
Work-life balance is not only about more leisure time, but also about taking care of the wellbeing of employees. It also consists of clearer rules regarding compensation, career paths and the overall direction of the company.
Finally, the most obvious of the benefits, which is more time off. The directive’s provisions provide for additional days off in various situations, which means that employees will ultimately spend less time at work.
What are the goals of the work-life balance directive?
The European Union issued the work-life balance directive in 2019, requiring member countries (including Poland) to implement its provisions by August 2, 2022. This – as we already know – failed. Poland scored a slip of less than a year – the new regulations saw the light of day in April 2023.
Today, however, the directive is working and achieving its goals, among which we will find an expansion of existing labor rights, an increase in parental leave, encouragement of greater involvement of fathers in the child-rearing process, or equalization of women’s opportunities in the labor market.
What changes does the work-life balance directive introduce?
The implementation of EU regulations into Polish law has resulted in a number of real changes for employees working in companies operating in the country. Since last year, those employed can enjoy a number of new or expanded rights. Here are the most important of them.
Longer parental leave
As of 2023, parental leave is 41 weeks if one child is born, or 43 weeks in the case of a multiple pregnancy. Moreover, each parent can take 9 weeks of parental leave. This time cannot be transferred to the other parent, and unused time is forfeited.
The parental allowance has also increased since the introduction of the new regulations – it is now 81.5% of salary and applies to the entire parental leave period.
New care leave
Employees can take up to 5 days of care leave per year. However, this is contingent on submitting a proper application and properly justifying the need to take the leave.
The new care leave is unpaid – the employee should be aware that he will receive a correspondingly lower salary for the particular month in which he has taken care leave.
Important!
Care leave does not carry over to the following year – an employee can use a maximum of 5 days during the year, and if he or she fails to do so, the unused days are forfeited.
Additional work stoppages
The work-life balance directive also introduced two additional breaks – each lasting a minimum of a quarter of an hour. An employee earns the right to a second break if he or she works more than nine hours in a 24-hour period, and a third if he or she works more than 16 hours in a 24-hour period.
Dismissal due to force majeure
Every employee is entitled to time off from work due to force majeure. Included in this – rather enigmatically defined – group is time off for urgent family matters caused by illness or accident that makes it impossible to attend or perform work.
The force majeure exemption can last for a maximum of 2 days or 16 hours.
An important provision, concerning the exemption in question, is that the employer cannot refuse to grant the exemption to the employee in such a case, and the employee only has to make a request in any form and forward it to the employer.
The salary paid for the days an employee spent on force majeure leave is 50% of the standard salary.
Flexible work arrangements
Employees appreciate the ability to organize their work in a flexible way. Lack of rigid working hours, hybrid work, remote work – these are all benefits that help many working people derive greater satisfaction from their professional and personal lives.
Flexible working time arrangements can be used by employees who care for a child up to 8. year of age. Among the solutions introduced with the work-life balance directive will be mobile working time, the possibility to draw up an individual work schedule, intermittent working time or the possibility to use remote working.
Important!
As in the case of exemption due to force majeure, the employer must consider the request of the guardian of a child under 8. for remote work – as long as this is possible in the position held.
In other cases, the employer is not obliged to agree to flexible working hours, but is required to justify any refusal.
Protection of employees
The changes proposed in the directive under discussion are broad in scope and strongly affect the organization of working time in companies. Anticipating that the implementation of the changes may be met with reluctance on the part of entrepreneurs, as well as with concerns on the part of employees, the authors of the document introduced the concept of protection of employees exercising the above-mentioned rights.
According to the regulations already in effect, an employer cannot terminate an employment contract, or even prepare for termination, if the employee:
- is on maternity, paternity, parental or guardianship leave,
- submitted a request for a change in the type of employment contract,
- has applied for the introduction of flexible work arrangements,
- has applied for maternity, paternity, parental or guardianship leave.
Protection from dismissal applies from the date of application for leave until the end of the leave. An exception to this rule is the declaration of bankruptcy or liquidation of the workplace.
Moreover, an employee taking care, parental, maternity or paternity leave retains the right to return to his former position. If this is not possible (for example, when the department in which the employee worked has been liquidated), the employer is obliged to provide the person returning from leave with an equivalent position and working conditions at least as favorable as those before the leave.
How to launch work-life balance in your company?
Implementing work-life balance principles in a company is a multi-step process, but a necessary one. How to meet each of the conditions for implementation?
Introduction of flexible working hours
This will include allowing remote work, hybrid work and flexible working hours. A popular solution is to set so-called office hours or core hours, which are the hours when each employee should be available – for example, between 10 am and 2 pm. This gives employees the opportunity to start and finish work earlier or later depending on their preferences, while also securing time for meetings, video conferences and working together on projects.
Employees should also have the right to schedule their individual work time. This solution requires the involvement of the HR department or cooperation between the employee and his/her immediate supervisor.
Solutions to support parents and caregivers
At a minimum, the plan is for the employer to honor all childcare leave records. Some companies decide to take further steps to support parents and caregivers – such as arranging for childcare space on company premises (this solution works especially well in large companies), subsidizing the cost of care, etc.
Benefits taking into account work-life balance of non-parents
The provisions of the EU’s work-life balance directive devote special attention to parents and those who care for children. Supporters of these solutions point to the desire to level the playing field and protect parents from labor market conditions, but skeptics point to the fact that other employees may feel undervalued. All this could be counterproductive and make parents (who have a package of entitlements unavailable to others) undesirable in companies.
One potential way out of this situation is for the entrepreneur to introduce such solutions that extend their coverage to people who are not parents or guardians.
