Managing work-life balance expectations - The March post from Paiano
31/03/2010, Author: Luigi Paiano
What do you do to help those you lead achieve a work-life balance that is suitable for them?
I believe that work-life balance is specific to individuals and changes over time. The balance can shift in reaction to many factors – here are just five examples:
o Monetary requirements
o Familial pressures
o Work pressures
o How much the individual enjoys the job
o What else the individual has going on in their lives
As leaders we can have varying degrees of influence over these, from showing concern to putting something in place to help.
I have a couple of anecdotes to share…
Firstly, many years ago my wife and I decided to start a family. The problem was that I was a 2 hour commute away and frequently travelled away. In other words, I would have been an absent dad. I had to make the decision to look for employment closer to home, slash salary and so on. Not only was it completely worth it but I had the full support of my employer. They demonstrated empathy, compassion and allowed me time to search for new employment. And get this – we even managed to negotiate a redundancy payment as there were linked business areas that were closing down, and whilst mine wasn’t, there were employees in other areas who wanted to remain. So, they had an existing employee take over from me in a structured hand-off and I was able to be around for the family with a few pounds to tide me over in my search for employment.
My second story is very recent. I had inadvertently double-booked – I was meant to be doing the school run as my wife was in ‘un-get-out-of-able’ meetings, and I agreed to attend an all day seminar for Criterion. Following an inability for me to arrange cover, the compromise was that I took my son into ‘breakfast club’ and turned up to the conference 2 hours late, with a colleague covering the early shift. They could have said no. They could have even made me feel guilty. They didn’t – they were willing to compromise and I was able to come in that little bit later – thus keeping the work-life balance in kilter and peace on earth to all men (well, me at least).
As a leader I like to think that I would have acted this way…
I would welcome any ex-colleagues thoughts on this, but also for you dear readers to contribute your thoughts on these questions:
What can we do to understand and enable a work life balance that suits?
What stories do you have?
Where is the line?
Cheers all… Luigi
If you find this post offensive please contact us
Comments
No Comments
You must be logged in to leave comments. You can register here».
