How Workplace Flexibility Helped Me Prevent Burnout and Create Work-Life Balance
A few years ago, I had one key shift in my career that really helped me create more balance and ease in how I worked.
I am, as many humans are, a multi-faceted person with multiple passions and priorities in my life. My work isn’t the only priority I have in my life.
I have:
Family and friends
Outdoor recreation
Cooking
Feminine embodiment
My work isn’t the only priority I have in my life, like most people. Nor should it be, to live a fulfilled life.
The Reality of Office Work During the Pandemic Shift
Creating flexibility in my work helped me create more time and energy for these other priorities in my life. A few years ago, I was working five days in the office. It was near the end of the pandemic. The office was quite empty. Maybe a quarter of the office space was occupied.
Walking into the office felt very strange, as I would see desk after desk not occupied by a human.
So the opportunity to socialize and meet new people in the office was minimal.
There was a one-hour commute each day, which drained my time and energy from other priorities such as my own hobbies.
So asking for the flexibility of working from home felt like a natural boundary for me to set.
How Flexible Work Improved My Work-Life Balance
Fortunately, when I made the request to have a flexible work arrangement, management approved it.
So, I was able to work in a hybrid model where I worked a few days in the office and a few days from home.
Working from home a few days a week felt more energizing.
Some of the benefits I received from working from home were:
Having the time and energy to cook meals from scratch
Some of the most delicious meals I like to make are ones from scratch, such as pasta sauce from scratch
Working from home gave me the time and energy to complete the feminine embodiment coaching certification through the School of Embodied Arts
It also gave me more time to spend with my partner and to visit family while working remotely
Workplace Flexibility and Burnout
Workplace flexibility impacts burnout because burnout is not just about working too many hours, it’s also about a lack of autonomy, chronic stress, and misalignment.
When workplace flexibility is present, it can reduce burnout because it restores:
Autonomy (choosing when and how you work)
Energy alignment (working with your natural rhythms instead of against them)
Recovery time (integrating rest before exhaustion hits)
Without flexibility, people often experience rigid schedules that ignore their mental, emotional, and physical states.
How Work Culture Is Changing in Today’s World
Why this matters right now in Western culture is that we are seeing a cultural shift.
The traditional 9-5 model came out of the Industrial Revolution, a time when work was physical, repetitive, and measured by hours, not outcomes.
But today, most knowledge workers in the West are doing cognitive work, creative problem solving, and emotional labour.
That kind of work does not function well in rigid time blocks.
Furthermore, we are seeing a growing awareness around mental health, nervous system regulation, and work-life integration.
This is often why we saw cultural movements like quiet quitting and the Great Resignation during the pandemic.
These trends are showing a shift in how many of us are viewing work in a changing world.
How Productivity Culture Impacts Burnout
Many workplace cultures in the West still operate on the narratives that output equals worth, and busyness equals value.
Flexibility offers a different narrative than these beliefs by introducing:
Cycles instead of constant output
Rest as productive
Boundaries as healthy instead of selfish
Introducing flexibility can disrupt deeply ingrained beliefs about what it means to be a “good worker.”
Many of us working in white-collar 9-5 roles in the West are right now experiencing being caught in between two worlds.
The old world model of working, which was structured and predictable but restrictive, and a new world that has not yet been birthed and take full form.
How I Prevented Burnout by Trusting My Intuition
How I navigated these challenges of workplace culture still operating on output equals worth, and busyness equals value is by increasing my own intuition and trusting myself.
By doing that, I learned from past experiences of burnout, and I was able to proactively prevent burnout by creating flexibility in my work schedule.
Through embodiment practice, I have developed the skills of sensitivity and intuition.
From that place, I am able to easily discern when a particular work arrangement feels draining or energizing without overthinking it.
Thus, I am able to create the boundary of flexible work arrangements with ease.
I am able to trust what I feel and act from that place.
As described by Michaela Boehm in her book The Wild Woman’s Way (2018):
“Sensitization allows each of us to perceive more of what our body, a finely tuned instrument, is telling us. … When we sensitize, we naturally begin to feel how to regulate ourselves in eating, exercising, and relating to others.”
The Impact of Flexible Work on My Life and Well-Being
Requesting a flexible work arrangement helped me create balance in how I worked.
It helped me cultivate the energy to explore my passions outside of work such as travelling, outdoor recreation, and getting certified as a feminine embodiment coach.
Work With Me
If you would like support with dialing up your sensitivity and intuition, I have created a feminine embodiment practice that can help you with this so you can rejuvenate your energy after burnout, which can be accessed through the link here:
Lastly, if you desire one on one support to prevent workplace burnout and create openness in your schedule so you can rest when you need to based on your internal rhythms, then you can book a feminine embodiment coaching session with me here.
References
Boehm, M. (2018). The Wild Woman’s Way: Reconnect to Your Body’s Wisdom. Atria/Enliven Books.
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