In September, I’m doing a new presentation, “Balance is for Ballerinas…and other Myths about Life-Work Balance.”
If you haven’t already figured this out, 20-40 year old employees value Life-Work Balance (LWB) more than just about every other workplace attribute.
Our trusty super-hero intern, Lauren, is helping me assemble the presentation. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:
- Life-Work Balance means different things to different people. So…managers are going to have to (gasp) talk to their employees about what life-work balance means to them. This is a tricky task. Especially since a lot of leaders work very hard to avoid talking to their staff at all cost. An equal number have no clue as to what it looks or feels like to be ‘balanced.’ Having your boss talk to you about balance is like having your priest coach you about sex. Weird.
- We are helpless to the allure of email. You’ve probably sensed this, but science proves it: our brains respond to all electronic, lit-up stimuli as if it’s urgent. The ambulance and fire trucks have swirling lights because they trigger our brains to think, Emergency! Same thing at work. You’re reading this blog right now on your well-lit monitor because your brain thinks it’s more important than returning calls from clients or having a conversation with your beloved. (Stop it right now, and proceed immediately to the most important task on your list.) Your brain can’t help it - if 12 of your emails are forwarded jokes from your grandparents, it processes them as if they’re urgent...and therefore more important than other truly important things on your To Do list. (I mean it, stop reading this and go do something important!)
- Interruptions savage productivity. You need anywhere from four to seventeen minutes to get back in flow after you’ve been interrupted by a coworker, a telephone call, or an email. Do the math: if you have 10 interruptions in a day (I’ve had two walk-ins in the last 10 minutes…even though my door is closed), you’ve lost between 40 minutes and up to three hours just getting back on track.
So far, our research on life-work balance dwindles down to two truths:
- Our leaders don’t know how to talk with us about life-work balance, and therefore have difficulty framing cultures that embrace it; and
- The nature of work - including email and other interruptions - are incredible time wasters.
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