The Work-Life Balance Trap
November 19th, 2007 by Cali & Jody
According to a recent survey on Monster.com, 82 per cent of employees feel their prospective employer’s work-life balance initiatives are important when considering their job offer. But only 49 percent of HR professionals feel they have attracted better candidates because of these initiatives. (Read this nice summary of the findings here.) So why the gap?
The problem lies with the nature of the questions. The survey essentially asked people if they wanted work-life balance. Not surprisingly the great majority said yes. But the survey asked the HR community not whether or not work-life balance was good for their employees, or a responsible approach to managing people, but if it was a good perk. It’s a completely different set of assumptions.
We don’t feel that work-life balance should be a perk. Everyone is entitled to working and living in a humane way. If you’re getting your work done and contributing to the bottom line, then being able to go to the doctor when you’re sick shouldn’t be a perk. Coming in at 9:00 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m. because it took a little longer to get your kids out the door shouldn’t be a perk. If you treat everyone like adults, then the great majority will act like adults. You won’t have to take surveys about the importance about work-life balance. Because everyone will have it.
[...] KUT wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe survey essentially asked people if they wanted work-life balance. Not surprisingly the great majority said yes. But the survey asked the HR community not whether or not work-life balance was good for their employees, … [...]
Perk? Indeed! I do my best to balance my own life! Good grief, I’ll just say waiting around for my employer to that for me is just plain stupidity.
You see, I work for one of those employer, and admit it many of you out there do too, that still like their management (leadership we are now called) to work 55-60 hours/week if we are working “hard”. The fact is I’m really intelligent, creative, technically competent, effificient & productive; I’m still expected to work as long as my “slower” counterparts and/or those you spend a lot of time socializing, slacking, etc and have to spend longer hours in the office.
So penalize me for sticking my nose in my work, getting the job done and wanting to get home at a reasonable hour. Oh, and never mind that I came inat zero dark thirty and no one saw me……….geez.