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Social entrepreneurs struggle with work-life balance in the digital age
Social entrepreneurs struggle with work-life balance in the digital age
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
Social entrepreneurs struggle with work-life balance in the digital age
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
When Dolly Parton sang “Working 9 to 5 what a way to make a difference†she didn’t have social entrepreneurs’ online presence in mind. A lack of boundaries between work and social life has become a key issue to social entrepreneurs according to recent research. The study looking at work-life balance in the digital age was carried out by the Digital Brain Switch Project, an interdisciplinary project funded by the EPSRC and involving Royal Holloway University, Lancaster University, Open University and the University of Kent. **'The line between what’s work and what’s your personal commitment can be quite blurred'** (social entrepreneur) Gillian Symon, a professor from Royal Holloway University involved with the project presents the findings below.
At the Digital Brain Switch project, we were interested in learning more about how individuals working in different kinds of contexts manage the boundaries between different areas of their lives in the digital age. Social entrepreneurs were one of the groups taking part in the study. In this blog I share some of what they told us about their boundaries and use of digital technology, to contribute to the ongoing debate in UnLtd. The lack of boundaries is often part of the attraction of social enterprise for many social entrepreneurs. They want their work to be something they are personally passionate about and allows them to express their own values through their work. 'I find with my social enterprise I’m totally me… my whole social enterprise is set up around what I believe in and my values' (Fiona, social entrepreneur) The success of entrepreneurs’ social venture was in some cases even felt to be linked to entrepreneurs’ sense of well-being. 'the success of the job is actually about the success of me' (Stephen, social entrepreneur)
For innovative social ventures that may not have the budgets of larger, purely commercial businesses, social media represents a cheap marketing tool and a way of communicating with potential supporters and users of your service or product. However, the Digital Brain Switch project also found that the desire to demonstrate commitment and passion about the venture, the feeling of pressure to be constantly online, may lead to feeling overwhelmed and not taking any downtime for self and family. 'I don’t want to miss out on something that happens on the website..I don’t want somebody coming to the website and not getting a response' (Alan, social entrepreneur) The study highlights that, while in general social entrepreneurs wanted fewer boundaries between work and life, a clearly defined separation of private and public was important. This was especially true on social media. 'I don’t like the thought of putting out a lot of personal information…just in case it is used by someone against me at some point in the future' (David, social entrepreneur)
As part of the study social entrepreneurs were asked to record their own work-life boundary on video cameras. This gave them an idea about their own habits and helped identify behaviour that was potentially damaging to their welfare. 'It made me appreciate how I can do very long hours sitting in front of a computer….So I came away with a good impression of the fact that I care a lot but sometimes I get too enwrapped in it and it’s okay to step back' (Jez, social entrepreneur) The aim of this was to help social entrepreneurs themselves realise that although they may treat their social ventures as their whole lives, sometimes it’s healthy and beneficial to take a step back. Overall, the way forward seemed to be, as Cressida said, ""more about sane engagement with technology rather than insane engagement with technology†and figuring out what that ‘sane engagement’ might be is something that could be achieved collectively by groups of social entrepreneurs sharing experiences and ideas.' More about the work of the Digital Brain Switch can be found in this video. We would love to hear from any communities of social entrepreneurs who have experiences they would like to share or who would like to work with us on further exploring these issues. Please do contact Gillian Symon ([email protected])