PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD | Table of Contents: |
Recently we talked about what IT can do to help organizations restore work/life balance to the soul-sucking, 24/7, boundary-less, CrackBerry-crazed, anxiety-drenched work culture it helped (pretty innocently) create.
It was a popular piece, but soon after it posted, I felt bad. I realized that many readers probably came seeking help for themselves. “Sure, it’s great to help the company,” I imagined them thinking, “But what about ME? My own work/life is so mixed up that yesterday I told my boss I’d read him his favorite story if he made poopies.”
So today is all about you. We’ll look at some free or low-cost technologies for use in your own personal, quiet struggle for “balance.” If you’re like me, you need the help.
He should know
While still grappling with the recent Forrester Research report that got me started on all this (Embracing Chaos Is Smarter Than Seeking An Elusive Work/Life Balance), the other tasseled loafer dropped.
At the Society for Human Resource Management's annual meeting last month, management deity Jack Welch declared, according to a Wall Street Journal story, "there's no such thing as work/life balance.”
Dang.
Now the Forrester people are smart, but the former GE chairman is probably even smarter (richer, certainly). And if he, who has raised and leveled mighty businesses, careers and several marriages, says it’s can’t be done, well… I wondered what it would be like to actually sleep under my desk, like Seinfeld’s George Costanza when he worked for the Yankees, only at night.
Then I read on. “Neutron Jack” continued: "There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences." The comments echoed a piece on “The Welch Way” Website:
Sure, there’s a lot of politically correct advocacy for a kind of perfect equilibrium, and it may well be that many people want a 50-50 split between work and life. But some people love work so much and find it so gratifying that they want to live a different equation, like 70-30, say. Still others want to work just enough to support a life of avocation. ..
Balance, we’re saying, is a personal choice based on what feels right to you given what you want from life personally and professionally... When you choose to work 80 hours a week and you have a family, you’re also choosing to give up some level of intimacy with your spouse and children. When you choose to work 35 hours a week in order to see more of them, you’re also choosing to take yourself off the fast track to senior management. There’s no right or wrong here. There are just individual choices and their consequences.
That jibes with one of Forrester’s conclusions: no such thing as a one-size-fits-all balance. Fair enough. But what then?
Tools for YOUR Balancing Act
You may, as Forrester suggests, choose to endlessly alternate attention between work and non-work throughout the week. Or like Jack Welch, you might simply suck it up, stop whining and make peace with the choices you’ve made.
Whatever path you take, the following simple technologies and tools may help. Use them at work, home, on your commute – wherever. Don’t let their simplicity fool. A light touch is often all that’s needed to balance the scale. Or a slap on the head.
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