by D.X. » Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:50 am
Hi,
My first comment is that in terms of work/life balance, the desire to have more balance in favor of life is an age and stage issue. When I was younger, the work life balance was tipped towards more work and less life. I think that's probably the more frequent order, we tend to work more to build our careers when younger.
Second, the tipping point towards balanced, still linked to age and stage, is driven internally and is I guess a more self-control item as say family and personal pursuits become more meaningful in life vs. career aspects. Things that you once found meaninful in careers, such as that promotion or recognition by team are still important but become less and less meanginful - I guess linked to the realization that our work, is not our life an life, is not work.
So for me, I guess as a senior member of the forum, I prioritize my personal balance needs are, within reason to business needs.
In my past, I actually prioritized business needs over my personal needs. My wife (ex-girlfriend) never let's me forget the time i prioritzed a business meeting over a family vacation in Greece. Yes I did that - she was meeting her sister, whose boyfriend had family there. She went, I stayed and went to some corporate meeting in Las Vegas where I didn't see the light of sun for 3 days. Shameful no? but I did it. Today, that would never happen.
So what do I do? I establish boundries. For example, I leave the office at 5:30 PM MAX. Non-negotiable and often its earlier. I'm in the dark until my kid goes to sleep then i'll do about an hour of work max, and only during the week.
Why? because I've increased my at work-productivity. Long idle talks at the Coffee don't happen anymore. I've carved out useless conversations on Lync and reduced attendance at non-productive meetings or meetings where I'm the "I" in a RACI, - often dialing in to a meeting that's down the hall, while doing work.
Unless its a business impacting emergency, which are really not many if you take the view that those who have that view don't know what a true emergency is in terms of saving a life, then I don't take phone calls after work, nor do I send or respond to emails on the weekend.
Unless politically damaging, i don't attend corporate dinners with management. This has changed as I've aged where it was impossible that I wouldn't show up for such events. So i really prioritize and I have my checks and balances with the personal assistents of management, they'll give me a heads up if I should attend - I have an unwritten rule with them that they are not to invite me to any dinner meeting and must let me know if I'm expected there.
I also use flex-time - an often i'm out earlier but often I do let my colleagues know that I have a child waiting to be picked up etc.
PG mentioned European vacation time vs US, so I won't mention that, but what I will mention is in general i find European companies having culture that allow my behaviors and do accept a level of work life balance - for example, I will get a reminder email from HR around July if I have not scheduled 2 continuous weeks of holiday by that time (per local law). They intensify by the begining of the 4th quarter. My colleagues in US originating companies complain of work-life balance issues - but I think its changing sadly. For example, I'll call out some of the Big Pharma/Biotechs they have offices on the west coast and often its the US office calling in the shots, so you have alot of folks here on TCs starting at 6 or 7 or 8PM - sadly our American counterparts are not the early risers to compensate.
As far as burnout. Never had it,fully but came close. Based on my experiences, burnout I have seen has not been mainly linked to workload, i saw it maybe a handful of times but mostly, burnout I've seen has been linked to a demotivation, be it a misaligned view of recognition, feelings of diminished advancement and well work that then becomes laborious - the work load hasn't changed but it can feel really heavy when demotivated. What helps is the shift to more personal balance.
So can a person be useful with a shift to more balance? yes, see my point about increase at work productivity.
As far as balance vs industry and academia - I'm with Rich - depends on personal situation and environment you're working in.
And another point, where i live we only have stores open one day on the weekend - its the country really, also on Sundays you can't really do noisy yard work per local laws/regulations so you do have to rest and relax, that also helps!
Best,
DX