GWR's Work/Life Balance
By definition, Work/Life Balance is the focus on minimizing
work related stress while maintaining good health and well being. Rewind
a couple of years ago, and the very definition of this was suddenly
changed. The boundaries that used to exist between work and home were
suddenly fuzzy, if even existent at all. Commuters once had a start and
an end to a work day and now those same people struggle to find the boundary,
thus creating the very stress that the change should have alleviated.
At GWR, our properties were considered essential businesses so
they did not close (for long). There were, however, plenty of adjustments
that contributed to the blended line of work/life balance and frankly the very
nature of what we do does not start and stop with a regular business day.
We provide homes to people, and those homes and the needs of our residents don’t
start and stop with business hours, they go on into and often throughout the
night. Couple that need with advanced technology and our ability to serve
residents certainly does not stop when the offices close. Our need for
work/life balance was in place long before Covid threw us a curve ball. At GWR, we are grounded in doing our part to provide the tools for every team
member to find the balance that works for them. In fact, “work/life
balance” is a term I prefer not to use. Rather, I find “personal balance”
to be more appropriate. Not everyone has the same hard line. Some
are self prescribed “workaholics”, some have home needs that other don’t have
(such as children, elderly parents, dependent care, etc.), some are driven
personally from doing more at work, and some need to leave work at the
workplace in order to be present at home. None of these are right or wrong,
they are just personal and for each person to apply as appropriate to
themselves.
Given all of this, GWR puts policies and benefits in place
giving each employee the ability to make selections that are best for
themselves. These range from Wellness Programs, exceptional PTO programs
that surpass most in our industry, Mental Health resources, Work From Anywhere
benefits, and they all start with the Leadership Team setting expectations and policies
that are considerate of the employees first. We have made our employees
our priority since formation and are committed to the same year after year.
All my best,
Gina Y. Erwin