How Progressive Companies Can Instil Greater Work-Life Balance Within Their Organisation
| 21 December 2009
It just seems that companies have got the whole work life balance out of sync. For some reason you have designed it so that your career obligations (and time required at work) peak during the most important time of your young families life. Then when your children are grown up and have left the house you are then encouraged to reduce your workload and retire.
Do you want to have a top executive or vice presented that is stressed to his eyeballs, unhealthy with a separated spouse and children that never knew them? You can't expect sound judgement and decision making from someone in this position.
How much will their errors in judgement cost your business?
Do you want to be footing the bill for the exponential growth in cost of healthcare for your stressed out and overwhelmed workers.
Well a fundamental shift in how you employ and assign roles and responsibilities in your organization will be required.
Here is how a progressive company could instil the a healthy work life balance in their organization:
Fast Track Your Young Movers And Shakers.
Identify the talented workers in their twenties. Give the more demanding, time consuming and higher paid positions to the younger generation while they have the energy of youth to handle it. Let these younger executives be the ones who have to travel interstate and overseas for meetings and presentations and stay back late to complete deadlines.Have more senior and experienced staff to mentor them.
Provide Options For Your Young Parents To Reduce Their Time At Work
Encourage young parents from their mid to late thirties to reduce their hours so that they can have more of a life at home and have the time to develop a strong family unit and a healthy lifestyle. Provide training in wellness lifestyle programs to improve vitality and energy in your employees and reduce healthcare costs.
Provide Options For More Senior Staff To Expand Their Roles
When children have moved out of home to start their career or to go to college the parents have a lot more time on their hands. Take advantage of their experience by putting them in roles of high responsibility and strategic planning. Before expanding their roles and time requirements at work, ensure that they are following a wellness program that can support their health through these increased work demands.
With generation Yers, work life balance is of increasing importance in selection of jobs. An appropriate work life balance within any organization would improve productivity, attract talented employees, lower healthcare costs and save money on training from improved staff retention.
Have we Got This Whole Work- Life Balance Concept Out of Sync?
| 18 December 2009
On Saturday morning I took my children with me to visit a friend of mine who was turning 40 only to find that he wasn't home. He was at his son's athletics carnival. Since I hadn't seen him for a couple of months we decided to catch up with him there.
But who I met at the carnival wasn't the person I knew. He was red-faced, bloated and frazzled. The extra 15 pounds that he had put on over the last couple of months seemed to make him look 15 years older.
I have seen many patients come to me looking like this before and my health training had taught me the potential alarming consequences. To see these disturbing signs in my friend caused me to break short on my birthday greetings.
"Happy Birth... What's up? You look like a heart attack waiting to happen."
"Mate, I can't talk now. I'm up to my eyeballs with the kid’s sports and rehearsals and my work is piling up so much I'll have to spend half of tomorrow at work to catch up. Thanks for catching up. I'll get in touch when things calm down."
Why is it that so many people in their thirties and forties are so stretched to the limit that their bodies and minds are stretched close to breaking point? It just seems that we have got the whole work life balance out of sync. For some reason we have designed it so that your career obligations (and time required at work) peak during the most important time of your young families life. Then when your children are grown up and have left the house you are then encouraged to reduce your workload and retire. It's time for a new approach to a healthy Work Life Balance...
The mid-life crisis is really a work-life crisis
| 01 October 2009
On Saturday morning I took my children with me to visit a friend of mine who was turning 40 only to find that he wasn’t home. He was at his son’s athletics carnival. Since I hadn’t seen him for a couple of months we decided to catch up with him there.
But who I met at the carnival there wasn’t the person I knew. He was red-faced, bloated and frazzled. The extra 15 pounds that he had put on over the last couple of months seemed to make him look 15 years older.
I have seen many patients come to me looking like this before and my health training had taught me the potential alarming consequences. To see these disturbing signs in my friend caused me to break short on my birthday greetings.
“Happy Birth… . What’s up? You look like a heart attack waiting to happen.”
“Mate, I can’t talk now. I’m up to my eyeballs with the kids’ sports and rehearsals and my work is piling up so much I’ll have to spend half of tomorrow at work to catch up. Thanks for catching up. I’ll get in touch when things calm down.”
Why is it that so many people in there thirties and forties are so stretched to the limit that their bodies and minds are stretched close to breaking point? It just seems that we have got the whole work life balance out of sync. For some reason we have designed it so that your career obligations (and time required at work) peak during the most important time of your young families life. Then when your children are grown up and have left the house you are then encouraged to reduce your workload and retire. It is why I believe the mid-life crisis is more of a work-life crisis.
Put life into your work and put work into your life
| 23 July 2009
We’ve all heard different work-life balance experts and commentators regurgitate the same old clichéd advice, “You should work to live and not live to work.” But when you think about it, it would have to be one of the more ridiculous statements bandied about the public arena.
Do these supposed work-life balance experts that parrot this idealistic mantra belief that the occupation that you choose should be a sidelight in your life? Is your work really some evil dastardly villain that steals all your time and the possibility of any joy or fulfillment outside its walls?