Work-LIfe Balance

Folks, don't beat me up if this doesn't go the way you want to.

Work-Life balance , this is the buzz word these days ,as the going becomes tough and the economic crisis not seem to be abating anytime in the near future, it is getting very stressful at work place as we get very emotionally drained with all negative news surrounding us.

I hear people say they are working "ridiculous" hours and its too tough for people to cope with the pressure and unable to balance work and life.

Let's ask ourselves a simple question "Who is to be blamed for the position we are in?" - Managers,Organization,Family,Colleagues,Current economic situation who should be blamed. should it not be ourselves to blame.

Why do i say so? The reasons are multi-folded. Lets analyze this in a very pragmatic way.

By definition work-life balance is prioritizing between work/career and personal life. So if that is what is defined as work-life then the one element that differentiates good work-life and probably not so good is "Priority" .

Who can do the prioritization , it can only be us and no one else. No one apart from the individual can decide what he or she wants to be the priority. So why don't we go ahead and do it.

Reasons lay in the root of our upbringing. Parents say that this world is ultra competitive and one needs to work hard to come up . We take that in literal sense , for us a sixteen hour work day is the hard work part. We think working long hours equals rewards or recognition . I know people in various organizations who being at the helm are able to balance work and their personal life .

The recent incident that comes to my mind is that of the new CEO at the ailing insurance giant AIG - Robert Benmosche. He basically took a vacation in Croatia for about two weeks,when his firm was in turmoil and so much of media coverage was been given . However he defended his position and rightly so .When a CEO of a giant corporation having offices in many countries and in such a problem can balance his work and life . Why cannot we do it?

Just take a moment to think about it ? It is a serious matter . We need to plan our work and also plan how we want to do things .

One of the strong things that iam encouraging new mom's and dad's is to teach their kids how to plan things . It is extremely important .

Although i do agree that there are other things that some times hinder proper planning but even if we get 80% planning in our work , we would be much better of in terms of work and life . Else its going to be a sad story of people being in office for those ridiculous hours and keep cribbing.

We can change the way we want to do with due respect to work . Let's also bear in mind the concept of work was certainly not defined in 20th Century . Let's appreciate the fact that people have been working for ages and in many of them in hostile/tough conditions but the work-life issue is a recent phenomena. Why would be so . Primarily due to the attitude of people. Our attitude towards work has to be slightly altered and we need to understand work is not end all . Work is just one part of life.

It's just a matter of applying ourselves and planning . Remember a time and health once lost is lost forever .

Hope with this blog iam able to change the mind set of at least few people.