Human Resources: Turn Your Cell Phone Off At Home!

As Canadians continue to work longer hours, their personal relationships are suffering. WarrenShepell, a provider of Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) and related organizational health and wellness services, wants employers to be aware that work-life conflict and stress is having a negative impact on their employees.

Forty per cent of Canadians are working more than 50 hours a week*, and levels of personal and workplace stress are rising dramatically according to recent data from the WarrenShepell Research Group, subsidiary of WarrenShepell. Recent statistics reveal that fifty-nine per cent of employees check their voicemail after hours, 30 per cent accept work-related faxes at home, and 29 per cent keep their cell phones on. Forty-six per cent consider this work-related contact to be an intrusion on their lives**.

WarrenShepell has some helpful tips to help you improve your work-life balance, maintain intimate relationships, and reconnect with your partner each and every day.

Make a Special Effort to Demonstrate Thoughtfulness. A phone call to your partner to say ''Hi. I''m thinking of you''; a whole day devoted to your partner´s favorite activities; or a special dinner for no particular reason can go a long way.
Develop Interests and Activities That Can Be Done Together, as well as on your own. Sharing an enjoyable hobby, joining a health club, or visiting extended family members and friends can go a long way in building connections, while pursuing our own interests provides for personal growth and interesting conversations with our partner.
Rekindle the Romance. Romance can be difficult to maintain in the midst of family and work demands, but it''s important to give attention to that part of your life. Spend some time considering what you most like to do with your spouse or partner - then build it into your life. If we wait until we''ve got the energy, have the time or sense the opportunity, we just might wait forever, so set a deliberate schedule. Evening walks, frequent weekend getaways or scheduled date nights are a few good ways to start.
Check Your Communication Styles. Are you listening and communicating as much as you should? Have you fallen into any bad habits, such as letting important issues go, harboring anger or resentment, feeling isolated but not sharing your feelings? Sometimes, just paying extra attention to our patterns of communication can motivate us to improve them.
Clarify Responsibilities Together. Do you connect regularly to air issues and establish solutions? Are you both contributing to the running of the household? Are there areas of daily stress that can be remedied with more flexible ground rules?
Make Plans for the Future. A couple can strengthen their sense of togetherness by discussing their vision of the future and working together towards those goals. What skills do you want to develop? Is there a favorite place in the world that you can build travel plans around? Looking ahead and building plans for both of you helps create a sense of optimism and relationship strength.

The WarrenShepell Research Group has completed its second annual Marital/Relationship Issues Report, based on a review of three years of data from 40,000 cases assessed by WarrenShepell´s EAP.

According to the Report:

* Relationship issues account for nearly 30 per cent of all EAP presenting issues. This includes marital and relationship discord, separation and divorce, and domestic violence.
* Marital and relationship discord, alone, accounts for 23 per cent of all EAP presenting issues. This is the single most frequent presenting issue.
* Other primary presenting issues, such as personal or workplace stress, often ''mask'' marital and relationship discord, even if the latter is not reported as a primary issue.
* Marital and relationship discord is highest in the entertainment, automotive, agriculture, food and beverage, and manufacturing sectors and lowest in healthcare and hospital settings, and the communications sector.

* Duxbury, L., & Higgins, C. (2001). Work-life balance in the new millenium: Where are we? Where do we need to go. CPRN Discussion Paper. Ottawa, ON.: Canadian Policy Research Networks.

** Ipsos-Reid (2002). Canadians and stress: A special report. Toronto, ON