"The Top 10 Career Mistakes To Avoid"Work-Life Balance? - What Nonsense
June 10, 2008 Job Satisfaction, Lifestyle Design, Work Life Balance TrackBack URLI get fed up with people talking about “Work-Life balance.”
To me, the term Work-Life Balance infers that ‘work’ is the opposite to ‘Life.’ Which in the literal sense could mean death (!) or something equally negative.
Which really is nonsense.
Our ultimate aim should be to do work that is interesting, fulfilling and meaningful whilst still enabling you to achieve goals and priorities in other parts of your life.
i.e. Work that compliments other parts of your life - instead of competing against them. As soon as you talk about a balance between actvities - the assumption is that they are competing actvities.
I was inspired to write this having read an interesting post today on Tim Ferris‘ blog. In it he talks about viewing the 4 areas of ‘work’ , ‘home’, ‘community’ and ’self’ like you would a jazz quartet.
Using this metaphor, true success does not coming from playing one instrument at the expense of others, but in finding a way to have 4 instruments collectively create great music.
In the same way, if your aim is live a happy and enjoyable life then your ultimate goal should not be about having more time for ‘home’ or ’self’ at the expense of ‘work’ - but instead finding a blend of all various aspects of your life that collectively create the ‘music’ you want.
If you are in a job that you enjoy and find rewarding (beyond the obvious financial rewards), then work can give you satisfaction in the same way that activities away from work do.
I have friends working in some of the larger investment banks who boast about how they get “work-life balance” days off. They see this as a ‘perk’ - but that’s because they’re doing jobs that they don’t really enjoy and working hours that do not suit their lifestyle - that’s precisly why the banks use the term ‘balance’. Because the job doesn’t allow them to live much of a ‘life’ away from the work!
But the real key to finding the right blend is to do work that is satisfying and enjoyable. Once you have that, work becomes a very key part of your own jazz quartet.
But that’s just my opinion - what do you think? Feel free to let me know in the comments box below….
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:34 am
Sital, There are also cultural aspects to the work-life balance myth worth mentioning.
For example, here in Japan many permanent back office staff (I am referring to Foreign Banks) are working to 7, 8 or later every weekday night.
Visitors from Oz and certain European countries used to remark on how late many people worked - and especially on how the long term foreigners (including me) seemed to be culturally conditioned to do so after a few years here.
Then again, I knew quite a few IT folks who really enjoyed the long hours and high pay world of living and working in Tokyo. Horses for courses.
regards
July 19th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Thanks Mark,
You’re right - the culture has a big impact
You even see it in mainland Europe which often (not always, but often)has a different work ethic and culture to the UK - which seems to be more similar to the US than UK
Sital
November 4th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Hi Sital:
I love the metaphor of jazz quartet. I also coach people on work life balance, although I always emphasize the kind of balance I’m referring to is NOT the balance scale where you can easily get off balance, or, as you said, need to sacrifice one for the other. The balance I prefer is like Yin/Yan balance — having 8 major areas of life in harmony.
If you use the music metaphor, it would be like conducting a symphony, with every part of your life in harmony, while taking into the account that sometimes one area or two might need a little solo time. But overall, all the instruments have to work together to create the beautiful music that is your life.
Hueina
November 9th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Hueina
thanks for the comment. Yes the jazz quartet is a great analogy
S