Arm Work-Life Balance & Wellbeing

What’s your quotable principle for keeping a sustainable work pace — and what signal shows it works?

To maintain a sustainable work pace I look to delivering high-quality work without depleting energy for my home and family life. There are times when that balance shifts. Engineers thrive on optimizing systems whilst sometimes forgetting they too are a system that needs to work sustainably. Sprints are short for a reason so without correction to the balance the risk is building technical debt in your home life. 

I measure if it’s effective if I am not resenting either work or home sides of my life. For example, not dreading Monday morning being able to go on leave without the work collapsing. Sustainability isn’t about doing less, it's about finding a rhythm that you can repeat for years.

Which policy or norm makes flexible work succeed — and how do you measure impact?

Rewarding quality output over presenteeism. Quality output also covers team cohesion and a team that can be flexible and empathetic to life events is a stronger team.

Which wellbeing-related resource do people actually use — and what improvement have you seen on your team?

There are a variety of resources people have access to, and from personal experience, the health-related resources are helpful. Even simple things like prompting regular health screening supports us to enjoy a better quality of life. Access to a gym in the workplace is also a great resource that people can use and helps break up the sedentary desk work with some physical challenges.