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Gonna need you to…

October is Work-Life Balance Month.  Who knew?  Clearly none of my previous employers.  I’m sure some of you lucky ones are currently experiencing this while the rest of us laugh or silently cry at our desks (which is what I would be doing if I were still at my last job).

For those unsure what it is, Work-Life Balance examines how, when, where, and to what extent employees work.  What may be ideal for one person may not be for another.  Various options exist for Work-Life Balance including flexible hours, telecommuting (which is an adult way of saying I’ll be working from home in my sweatpants today), flexible paid time off, seasonal relocation (yes please) and paternity leave to name just a few.  Taking this even further and what I hope will eventually become the future is the Results-Only Work Environment, shifting focus away from when and where you do your job to results, efficiency, and effectiveness.  Whoa.  You mean treat employees like adults expecting quality work done on time?  What, a crazy concept.

But it makes sense.  At least to me.  We don’t live in a Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5pm culture anymore.  We live in a 24/7 global community, 365 days a year with business being done around the clock.  If we can order groceries online at 2:00 am, why can’t our work lives adjust as well?  You know everyone with a Crackberry or Smartphone is continually checking work emails (and personal email, Facebook, and Twitter simultaneously) from sunrise to sunset.  Although some jobs may always require on-site employees during specific office hours, the majority of positions no longer do.  Work-Life Balance is meant to be tailored for each company, department, and employee/manager.  It’s not a one-size fits all plan so employer and employee have the opportunity to sit down and agree upon the terms that best suit them.

When 88% of employees are experiencing difficulty juggling work and life[1], 40% describing their office environment as “most like a real-life survivor program”[2], and 39% feeling very angry toward their employers[3], do companies really think they are getting the best from their employees?  Wouldn’t people be more productive if they weren’t making mental lists of everything they need to do after work during work?  It doesn’t mean they are bad employees.  But if they can’t find a balance, eventually the two blur together and you’re left with employees worried about home at work and work at home and not performing their best at either.  In the United States employees work more hours yearly than Japanese, French and British employees. [4] European countries have more paid leave (4-5 weeks minimum) per year than the United States but their productivity rate is still higher. [5] Accordingly, 40% of US employees work overtime or bring work home with them at least once a week[6].  It’s depressing just typing that information let alone having to live it.  And yet, we have to take a vacation day to wait for the cable guy (as if that isn’t frustrating enough)?  Or spend 3 hours commuting to work in a snow storm instead of just working from home?  You know, working.

People, especially younger generations, are reevaluating what is important to them in the workforce.  Currently, 92% of Gen Y/Millennials cite career-life fit as their top priority[7] and even 65% of workers aged 45 to 70 say they are looking for ways to better manage work and personal life.[8] Maybe the key is to look at Work-Life Balance like Best Buy and Marriott International did and move focus away from schedules and set hours to efficiency and effectiveness.  This allows employees (i.e. the adults you’ve hired and entrusted to do a job) to take responsibility for their work and set the schedules that best allow them to do their job AND live their life.

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[1] (Aon Consulting)
[2] (USAToday.com, 2004)
[3] (Overwork in America: Whey the Way We Work Becomes Too Much)
[4] (ILO Report)
[5] (U.S. Federal Reserve Board)
[6] (Xylo Report, 2000)
[7] (Deloitte, 2011)
[8] (AARP)