Director of Information Security Operations in Consumer Goods, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
Free vacation days and 1 day in the office bi weeklyDirector, Information Security Engineering and Operations in Manufacturing, 5,001 - 10,000 employees
I block time in my calendar for personal things, and mark it as either “busy” or “out of office”. This allows me for far greater flexibility than the traditional 9 to 5. I give priority to my family much more than what I used to. Director of IT in Software, 201 - 500 employees
Better management of my time and having specific "time off" during the week where I am fully detached from work (for a few hours) to spend time with family.Setting up "do not disturb" time on the phone and turning off email notifications during the weekend. I still check my emails during the off-time but it's at my pace vs checking them every time the phone buzz.
I leave my phone home when I go out to play with my kids or put it away when we have family/friends time or visitors.
Director, Information Security in Education, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
This is something really enabled by working from home but I've split my working schedule to mornings and evenings (rather than 9-5).This has worked remarkably well for letting me focus the time worked on when it'd be most necessary (in our case, when our incoming incident detections are highest) while not sitting around "working" when not much is going on. Additionally it makes it easier to focus when offline for hours where non-urgent pings come up.
For the life part of this balance it's made childcare constraints easier to accomodate for my wife and I since I've freed up afternoons for that, while working after they are asleep. This also frees up the time for errands and such
Director of Information Security in Manufacturing, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
Also to spark a bit of discussion; I actually extended my hours a bit, but with a hole in the middle.Just to clarify; I start working really early in the morning when the family is still asleep. This gives me some time to really focus on my inbox or any planned tasks that do not need a lot of interaction with others. The remainder of the morning is for meetings and calls, after which I call it a day, typically around 2 pm.
Afternoon, and Dinner time are for my family, and then after dinner another small round of e-mail catchup.
Net/Net; the number of hours I spend at work did not really reduce, but the time of day dedicated to family works much better in our specific schedule.
CIO/CISO in Healthcare and Biotech, 11 - 50 employees
Luckily, with our hybrid work situation and summer Fridays, its a bit easier now to make sure family time has a prominent place in my schedule. Outside of summer, I make sure I take liberal vacation and personal day time throughout the year, and also am more selective with booking meetings during peak family time eventsHead, Information Security and Compliance in Finance (non-banking), 1,001 - 5,000 employees
Work-life balance while working remotely or work from home, one might think that working remotely would make it easier to achieve work-life balance. However, remote work presents its own challenges. 1. I plan ahead to combine work activities with leisure, social, or fitness activities.
2. I set blocks of time for different tasks.
3. I end work at a certain time.
4. Even I am working from home, I go out for lunch with co-workers one in a month at least.
5. I take time off monthly
6. I communicate with my manager If poor work-life balance
CISO in Software, 10,001+ employees
It is all about structure and setting the time slots that are not movable on both sides. It is work life "choice" and not balance. You make the choices that are best for you.Director, Security Operations in Telecommunication, 501 - 1,000 employees
With few exceptions, I maintain "office hours" while working mostly from the home office. I've been working remotely for many, many years now and up until recently, I absolutely did fall into the typical rut of over working, mostly due to my own insecurities regarding contributions, while working from home. I don't know, maybe it's just something that I suffered, but I always felt guilty about putting in a regular day while working from the home office.... I've gotten past that now. It's not to say that I don't spend any time working outside of normal business hours, this can not be avoided in the type of role I have, however that is not the exception rather than the rule.Content you might like
Yes, that's what's best for employees.71%
No, that would disrupt business.28%
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CTO in Software, 201 - 500 employees
Without a doubt - Technical Debt! It's a ball and chain that creates an ever increasing drag on any organization, stifles innovation, and prevents transformation.Community User in Software, 11 - 50 employees
organized a virtual escape room via https://www.puzzlebreak.us/ - even though his team lost it was a fun subtitue for just a "virtual happy hour"
1. I never double book meetings.
2. I draw boundaries as to when there is family time.
3. I drive my email queue to zero at least once every two weeks.
I've been doing those things for a long time now, and if I can manage them it allows me to factor in sleep pretty well.
Setting boundaries for family time is key. I was asked to take a two-week trip to Asia when my daughter was four weeks old; when I came back, she was six weeks old and didn't recognize me anymore. I went to work the next day and told my boss, “You can fire me or demote me, but I'm not taking a trip that's longer than two days for another year.” And he said, "Okay, we'll figure it out."
When I left the service, one of the things that I heard an old Sergeant major say was that I could now start to put my family first. So I made a commitment that whenever my wife or my son calls, I answer, because nobody is going to die based on whether or not I answer the phone anymore.