Interview Questions – ‘How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?’

For Service-leavers who haven’t got recent interview experience, the prospect can seem daunting. Here, we dissect another of the more common but no less difficult interview questions so that you can show your best side to interviewers and land your next post-Services role.

‘How do you maintain a healthy work- life balance?’

Where does work fit in?
This question is almost unfair. None of us should want to do nothing but work but at the same time, an employer will want to establish how much you’re prepared to do for them.

There’s a twist
Employers don’t want employees that do nothing but work – and think about work. Employers do not want to hire somebody that has no other interests, or someone who is going to get easily stressed and crumple under pressure. Work-life balance is an issue that the employer should also be taking seriously, if they are interested in recruiting people for the long term. 

This is all about outcomes
Frankly, how you keep the stresses of your personal life away from your work is your business – and to a large extent unimportant to the interviewer. It’s all about the outcomes.

Only if you’re asked
There’s plenty of advice around that will tell you that it’s a bad idea to raise the idea of work-life balance since there’s no real way to bring it up without rousing the suspicion that you’re a clock-watcher. Annoyingly, there’s always the chance that the interviewer will bring it up.

Balance
You should aim to find an answer that steers you away from looking as though work is an exhausting experience and that you struggle to keep up, while not coming over as a workaholic either. 

The interviewer wants simple assurance that you are experienced enough to juggle the competing demands for your attention – as we all do. 

Practical solutions
Suggest how you have created solutions to working smarter rather than harder.

Rest
Confirm that you understand that down-time is healthy and that additionally, that investment in rest and relaxation pays you back through productivity at work. 

Enjoyment
Ideally, the interviewer is looking for someone who will respect and even enjoy their work. If it looks like the opposite is true, or it’s going to be a slog, you might both be wasting your time.