Special Note to Those Upset at the Blurring Line Between Work and Life...
November 13, 2009
Stop whining. The revolution will not be televised - or at least that's what Flavor Flav told me. Beatings will continue until morale improves.
Fights will go on as long as they have to....
Work/Life balance was one of the topics for a recent roundtable sponsored by Halogen Software (the HR Raging Debates Roundtable), one of my favorite vendors in the Talent Management sotware space. The roundtable participants include thought leaders: Josh Bersin, President and CEO, Bersin & Associates; Peter Cappelli, Professor of Management at The Wharton School; David Creelman, CEO, Creelman Research; Kris Dunn, VP of People, DAXKO and blogger at HR Capitalist and Fistful of Talent (WHO?); Richard Hadden, author of the Contented Cows leadership books; Lance Haun, Vice President of Outreach, MeritBuilder and blogger at Rehaul; Sharlyn Lauby, President, Internal Talent Management Group and blogger at HR Bartender; Ed Lawler, Distinguished Professor of Business at the Marshall School of Business; Laurie Ruettimann, Blogger at PunkRock HR; and Libby Sartain, former CHRO of Yahoo! Inc. and Southwest Airlines, author, and HR advisor.
It's a cool series, so go check it out.
Back to the topic - we discussed work/life balance and even coined a new phrase - "weisure". Here's the question for today from the series:
Is "weisure" good for business or do we need to maintain boundaries between work and leisure?
Here's what I said:
"Unless you are an hourly worker in America, boundries between work and leisure are dead. Work bleeds into life, and life bleeds into work. People have the smart phone, aka the “digital leash”. Work will never be the same. It’s already gone.
For those of you who say you’re going to enforce your own boundries and not work when you’re out of the office, I hope you’ve already made your bones in your career. Why? Because if you’re competing against others, the boss getting a response from a team member within 20 minutes vs having to wait until the next morning to hear from you means one thing: You’ll be in the job you’re currently holding for a long, long time.
Perception is reality.
As for the talent, “weisure” means one thing. You’re going to be working away from the office, so find something you love for a career — otherwise you’re going to hate your life. For the company – if you have any smartphones in your workforce, PLEASE stop making your talent that holds a smartphone take 3 hours of PTO to go to the doctor. You’re trying to have it both ways, and it’s lame. You may think you’re hardcore on this, but trust me – the managers who get it have already stopped tracking PTO for stuff like this - regardless of your policy. <written during Sunday night with football in the background>
My favorite part about the response is that work/life balance is a choice, as is working 50 vs. 40 hours. You can do it. There's also someone out there more than willing to outwork you or be responsive on the weekends.
Choose wisely, my friends. And check out the other responses in the Raging Debate series by clicking here....
I read some of the responses to this question on the "raging HR roundtable". The necessities of Boundaries between work and life came up all over the place. As a person who learned too late in life the vital importance of boundaries--I found this discussion compelling.
Boundries are hugely important everywhere (work and life). Even if the boundaries are kept in your head--you must have them. Who said you have to share every boundary with your boss. Heck, that may be your boundary there, "my boundary is not to share EVERYTHING with my WORK". So I don't think "weisure" and boundaries are mutually exclusive.
I do think,though, that the Capitalist is Right. Work life for 99% of SUCCESSFUL business people is pretty blurred. And those who manage successful people know it is with more freedoms than less (ie--Employee X please go to your 3rd graders graduation for goodness sake).
I am willing to bet if there were a study done there would be a high correlation between employees/managers that embrace "weisure" and high salaries.
My thoughts---if you don't want a higher salary or promotability (which is completely fine btw) then set hard time boundaries, separate work from life completely and be happy. If promotablity and moo-la float your boat---weisure on Wayne, weisure on Garth.
Posted by: Dawn Hrdlica | November 15, 2009 at 08:19 PM