Archinect - News

Belgium approves four-day workweek and other worker protection measures

2022-02-16T15:29:00-05:00

Workers in Belgium will soon be able to choose a four-day week under a series of labour market reforms announced on Tuesday. The reform package agreed by the country's multi-party coalition government will also give workers the right to turn off work devices and ignore work-related messages after hours without fear of reprisal.

Belgium’s new labor reforms aim to improve the work-life balance of employees in both the public and private sectors. Workers in the gig economy will receive stronger legal protections and full-time employees will be able to work more flexible schedules. As reported by Euronews, employees will be able to request to work four days a week for a period of six months. Following this, they could choose to continue the arrangement of return to a five-day week.

Previously on Archinect: Revisiting the 4-day work week in architecture

In Belgium’s new model, the 38-hour working week would be condensed into four days, with the additional day off compensating for the longer workdays. In addition, workers will be able to request variable work schedules, and companies will be required to provide work schedules at least seven days in advance. The draft legislation must now pass multiple readings by federal lawmakers before being enacted.

Are you working too hard?

2020-01-07T15:57:00-05:00

In a recent Harvard Business Review essay, Rebecca Zucker, an executive leadership coach, dove into a discussion on workaholism and over work. In the piece, she identifies 5 key signs that a professional is overworking themselves:

1. You aren't taking time off.

Zucker writes that those who consistently put off vacations, regularly work all weekend, or dismiss the idea of an occasional day off are on a path to burnout. She advocates that even smaller, more frequent breaks, like taking the weekend to regroup or allotting personal time in the evenings can be helpful in keeping energy levels sustainable.

2. You deprioritize personal relationships.

Social relationships, Zucker writes, are directly related to our health and our overall lifespan. When we put our social relationships on the back-burner to make more time for work, we are inadvertently effecting our health and wellness. Zucker cites research that suggests a lack of social relationships has the same effect as smoking 15 cigare...

Despite progress, architecture still favors 'the young and childless'

2016-10-31T15:04:00-04:00

Work-life balance is always a question within our building, and within the industry at large. In a lot of ways, [architecture] really favors the young and childless. I'm recently married, and I don't have any kids yet. It’s really interesting to see people who eat, sleep, and breathe their work, but who then have kids (or something else about their life changes), and they have to draw back a little bit.

Work-life balance: how one architect collaborates with his teenage son

2015-07-17T08:12:00-04:00

Sometimes, the inspiration for a single design element can be hard to pin down. Other times, it’s coming straight out of your hammy fourteen year-old kid. This is something of a regular occurrence for Hector M. Perez, a San Diego-based architect who often collaborates with his son Adrian on projects for his own firm, De-Arc.

For a small mix-use project in downtown San Diego, La Esquina (pictured above), Perez had planned identical entryways for seven lofts, until his son intervened. Worrying that tenants might come home discombobulated from a night on the town and try to enter the wrong doorway, Adrian suggested marking each entryway with its own distinct color. Hector happily accepted the critique, and adapted it into the design. A short film made by Breadtruck Films captures Adrian's sage delivery to his father, "You're not doing it right!":

Hector M. Perez // Designer from BREADTRUCK FILMS on Vimeo.

Hector himself comments in the film on the very conscious involvement of his son in ...

Archinect & The Architecture Lobby wants to know how satisfied you are with your job

2015-06-19T13:51:00-04:00

While the employment market is very ripe for job-seeking architects at the moment, there’s no guarantee that some of those opportunities won’t turn out rotten. The architecture profession is infamous for its highly skewed work-life balance, emphasis on the work, and office culture may not offer much relief. Impossibly long hours, low pay grades and demanding principals are almost seen as badges of honor. There are of course the golden eggs, the ideal employers who respect their employee’s life outside the office, and produce better work because of it.

But much of the work-life balance conversation in architecture is very cloak and dagger: no one wants to badmouth an employer, or limit their chances of gaining a high-profile position, and sometimes, it can be hard to distinguish ethical treatment from cultural convention. Now that the market has improved, and employees can afford to be a bit pickier, work-life balance will play a pivotal role in the distribution of architectural talen...