The past two decades saw the corporate world talking about work-life balance and trying many theories and practices but has it really worked? Traditionally, ‘Work-Life Balance’ is a business imperative directly impacting productivity and business performance, and is the goal of almost every modern day professional to maintain an overall sense of harmony in life.
The underlying concept is that you can compartmentalize everything into either ‘work’ activity or ‘life’ activity and by doing so ‘have it all’. In practice, though, this theory falls apart.
The idea that there is a perfect balance, is a red herring. For most people, work and life are practically inseparable though it is intended to always make trade-offs. How practical is this?
A more realistic goal is to have better integration between work and the rest of life. Work-life balance has long been considered a strict separation between work and personal life, but the lines between the two have gradually become blurred, attributable to the technological advancements which permit people to be constantly connected and businesses to be active and accessible at all times without boundaries.
Two sides of the same coin
Today, we are living in a 24/7 business environment. Professionals in all industries demand instant gratification and instant connectivity, and desire to optimize their precious time as effectively as possible. Instead of looking at work and life as opposites that must be precariously balanced, it’s better to look at them as different sides of the same coin.
You don’t stop being alive when you go to work and you definitely don’t stop thinking about work just because you’re at home. Work is a fact of life. You go to your job, which gives you money, which gives you the means to survive and enjoy premium cable and wonderful life experiences and so on.
Work enables life in many ways, but work is still, well…work. It’s hard! It takes all day, happens almost every day and demands the sum total of your life’s learning and experience! It’s a lot to ask of someone, even though you’re paying them.
Integration
Even if you strictly view an employee, as an investment, a matter of cost analysis and ROI, you’ve still got to recognize the importance a good work-life integration plays in an employee’s long term success.
In practice, while you would pre-dominantly work on separate priorities depending on where you are; at home or in office, disengaging from either is not humanly possible.
Rather than thinking about the work you need to do on Monday, if you had access to technology and you could do it on Saturday morning.
Doing it from home gives you a better frame of mind to enjoy the weekend with your family rather than stressing over it until Monday. Leveraging rapid advancements in technology, working-on-the-go has become easier than ever before, and organizations need to provide the right business tools for employees to work wherever and whenever.
With the right software and applications to permit live file sharing, mobile access, video chat and video conferencing, employees can stay connected and collaborative inside and outside the office.
We work to live and to live we need to work. It doesn’t really matter where you do what, as long as your mix and commitment gives you the best outcome in both. Overall, people are rethinking the traditional concept of work-life balance as two separate entities, and accepting the fact that work will interrupt some personal time, and some personal time will interrupt work. ‘True’ balance will most likely never be found, but a harmony through work-life integration is attainable.