Comments on: Work-life balance

By: Russ

Russ — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:06:09 +0000

Work/Life balance is a tricky thing and really needs to be managed. I think there really is a happy medium out there and to achieve it should be everyone’s goal…

By: Alexander

Alexander — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:21:03 +0000

Greg: Life-balance. I like it.

Kevin: The cell phone has pretty much become the symbol of the “always-available” employee, and many people still don’t have the tools to deal with it.

I’ve predicted for a while now that soon we will see vacations, hotels, bars that advertise no cell-phone connection – where you have no signal or the signal is jammed. These will be sanctuaries for people who need a break from “always-on”.

snand: “Don’t spend time at work – live there.” I love it!

By: snand

snand — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 04:55:15 +0000

am happily surprised as I myself conduct happiness workshops in INDIA and so when my friends (who are my children) told me about you I thought it would be nice to go to your blog.
my concept of work is as a a place ,where we spend half the
waking hours of the best of the years of life say 23 to 60.
how can I be unhappy there and still live my life.So I advocate
happiness in all areas of life including work and instead of
spending time at work,start living there.It did wonders for me and will like you to share your experience.

By: Kevin Carson

Kevin Carson — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 06:53:56 +0000

As bad as I hate wage labor under the direction of a boss, in today’s environment of speedups and downsizing, I’m still glad I don’t work in a white collar job that requires me to be accessible by cell phone. I don’t even own a cell phone, and hate them a little more every time I go out in public and see all the people on their electronic leashes. I prefer an absolute, concrete-reinforced boundary between work and my real life. I’d sooner put a camper shell on my truck and live in it than work at a job that required me to carry a cell phone that could ring and ruin my day at literally any minute of the day. I don’t want my real life contaminated by any communication whatsoever from my job.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 07:42:04 +0000

Work-Life balance?? As you point out in the post with things getting more interesting and creative work is also more interesting, and the line between the tow blurs.
Isn’t it more about a LIFE balance – work, personal, relationship, family, leisure, etc … all in a healthy balance and how we WANT them to be….
Work and life are NOT polar opposites and always in competition ….

By: Alexander

Alexander — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 07:31:55 +0000

Great question Ben. I passed it on here:
http://positivesharing.com/2006/10/ask-the-cho-what-can-companies-do-for-work-life-balance

By: Ask the CHO: What can companies do for work-life balance

Ask the CHO: What can companies do for work-life balance — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 07:17:41 +0000

[...] Work-life balance [...]

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:34:17 +0000

Interestingly, our company has a section on our intranet site called “Work/Life Balance”. It points out the company give us 8 paid holidays a year, vacation and sick time, a paid floating holiday, bereavement pay, and paid military or jury duty.

You pay the employees for some time off, which is great… but that doesn’t help guide employees how to strike the balance between the two! I recently went on a trip for our wedding anniversary and while on that trip I received a call from a coworker and one from a customer. Both expected help. I had set numerous protocols to help people while I was out, notified people via an outgoing email, out-of-office notifier on my email, and a voicemail on my desk phone. This was the ONLY vacation trip I would get this year and it was only three days long. Still, I was expected to work.

Unfortunately, its not uncommon. If I take vacation time (even if I’m just sitting at home), I get called at least once. And before the end of it, I usually log in to check email and make sure I’m not blind-sided by too much when I return. Unfortunately, in my position I give out my cell number to everyone when I’m on-call, so its widely known.

So the question I have for everyone is this: What can companies do to help employees find that work/life balance? I know when one of my employees goes on vacation, I get a list of items that may be coming up that I’ll have to handle, and then I refuse to call the employee or give out any number to reach them.