Webinar: "Nights, Holidays, and Weekends": A Conversation on Work/Life Balance

Last year, Steve Tarca had his first opportunity to speak at the IAAPA Expo. He was also expecting his first child just under two months later. A seminal career and a seminal life moment occurring just weeks apart. The day after speaking, he received the phone call he worried about most: his wife was in labor. While he made it back to the northeast in time for her birth, he has reflected heavily on work/life balance: what does that mean for him as a leader, and what does that mean for the team he leads? How do we, as workers, manage shifting work/life priorities, especially in environments that often require nights, weekends, and holidays? This chat will provide tips and tricks for leaders to promote healthy work/life balance. We will touch on the subject of burnout, discuss how can life disruptions impact work and work disruptions impact life, and uncover organizational and cultural practices that can enrich and improve the intersection between the two. 

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the importance of work/life balance. I have worked with leaders who have little sympathy or understanding for its importance on a deeper level. This has been shown to negatively impact work culture and cause burnout. This ultimately transfers to our guest experience. If we cannot take care of our team, then we cannot take care of our guests.
• Analyze and evaluate the benefits of embracing a culture that supports work/life balance. These were noted in the above section, but we will include talking points on lower turnover, higher productivity, increased engagement, stronger mental and physical health, attracting top talent, and better customer service and organizational performance.
• Evaluate our own organizational practices that identify areas of opportunity. Some of these solutions are often quite simple. For instance, soliciting feedback from team members to see if current scheduling practices are supportive. We will discuss some of our personal experiences working at SUMMIT and beyond. We will discuss the importance of EAP but truly dig in on supplemental programming that goes beyond the "checkbox" items. For instance, SUMMIT provides the Calm app for all of its employees to encourage health and wellness, which is another important factor when establishing and maintaining a healthy work/life culture.

A question-and-answer session will follow the webinar.

Attendees are eligible to earn one continuing education unit (1 CEU) towards IAAPA recertification. For more information about IAAPA Certifications, please contact Alissa DeMeglio.