Work Life Balance - A Real Issue or a Hype?

Work Life Balance – a Real Issue or a Hype?

‘Work Life Balance’ is a popular topic in many debates on human productivity and happiness.

It is rightly believed that one needs sufficient rest and recreation to continue being productive at work for a long time. Some attention needs to be paid towards one’s health, fitness and development. The immediate family has due rights on one’s time for doing some household things, for sharing & guidance, for their hobbies, interests & recreation and for togetherness & fellowship. One has some responsibility towards parents, extended family, friends, relatives and society in general as well. All this needs time.

It has been noticed that people aspiring for fast growth often give over importance to work and devote too much time to it at the cost of other dimensions of their life. Some others are forced to devote more hours to work because of their inefficiency or low productivity. In some cases, the organizations are not rightly staffed and this increases the work load on people which they are not able to complete within the stipulated time.

Such lopsided distribution of time can have many negative fall outs of one’s life. The first victim is the well being and comfort of the immediate family. Slowly the relationship with the spouse and children gets affected. The children’s studies and development can also suffer. This sometimes happens due to lack of adequate guidance or support and sometimes in rebellion to the perceived negligence of their needs.

Many times, one tries to use expensive gifts, frequent outings and unnecessary shopping to compensate for lack of regular interactions with the family. This brings in the additional dimension of financial imprudence. Please remember, money cannot buy love.

Working continuously under pressure without adequate rest & recreation can lead to stress. In medium term, this affects the person’s health and fitness also. Life style diseases like obesity, diabetes and blood pressure are common among people not taking sufficient care of themselves. A stressed person often misbehaves with others and thus spoils the relationships. We all know that relations and influence are very important to ensure sustainable success and accelerated growth.

To achieve fast growth, continuous learning and re-skilling is very vital. That is possible only if one devotes sufficient time for it.

Overall if see, one must strike a balance among work, self care, immediate family and extended family / friends / society.

While the importance of ‘work life balance’ is obvious, I also see it being occasionally used as an excuse for escaping one’s share of responsibilities. I often feel that in the case of an over whelming majority, ‘work life balance’ in a redundant issue.

Out of 168 hours in a week, in India, one is supposed to work only for 48 hours. Including commuting time and occasional over stay, one may be devoting 60 hours to work apparently. Of the remaining 108 hours, 77 hours may be used for sleeping, eating and personal hygiene. Most get at least 31 hours a week to do whatever they want. Add to that the closed holidays and annual leaves then one gets around 35 hours a week on an average.

During this time, one can indulge in sports, fitness or other hobbies. One can spend this time with family members and take them for an outing, to a movie or to a restaurant. They can also indulge in some common hobbies or interests.

Over and above, it is not that people do not devote a small part of working hours doing personal things. They do make or accept phone call, pay bills, check personal mails, respond to Facebook or Whatsapp messages and so on. Likewise, a couple of hours for work at home on weekends can make the forth coming weekdays quite comfortable.

I hear that in some European countries, people want to work only for around 35 hours a week. It is difficult to digest that people can get so over stressed in just this much work.

Most will agree that we lead an integrated life. It cannot be compartmentalized in to various chambers of work, self, family and others. All the dimensions of our life exist concurrently and congruently. Each of it needs to be addressed as and when it needs attention. Of course there is a preferred time for each dimension respectively.

Personally, this topic was irrelevant for me during the first 14 years of my career. I rarely travelled in those days and most of the times I was home by 5.30 pm. There was enough time available to indulge in whatever we liked. We socialized, played, actively organized or participated in Officers Club activities and partied. Only occasionally there would be a call from the plant if there was some trouble.

Since April 2005, all the jobs I have been in involve lot of travelling. Also, there are frequent phone calls, messages and mails to be attended to during evenings and off days. Since the last 2.5 years, I have been staying away from my family and come home only on the weekends.

Because of all these, the question of ‘work life balance’ keeps popping up. I do wonder sometimes whether I am doing justice to my family or self and a few times even my colleagues have asked me this question.

Coincidentally, living alone and frequent travelling gives me sufficient time to pursue my hobbies of reading & now, writing and caring for my fitness. In the 28 years since I have been away from my parents, we have come to accept weekly phone calls & once in a year meetings as enough to sustain the closeness.

I am lucky to have an educated, mature & self sufficient wife who coincidentally is not working and can drive a car, quite well. Means, my daughter can attend her various hobby classes and birthday parties without problem. Between her coaching class just 500 meters away and the mother, her educational needs are easily taken care of.

My wife and I have a regular telephonic conversation twice in a day and ensure nothing is left unshared. All 3 of us are movie buffs and watch one or two movies a month on Friday nights. I make sure to spend at least 2 hours in weekends exclusively with my daughter to take care of her balance education needs, provide career guidance or just hear to all the exciting things happening in her life. I make sure to attend the parent teacher meets if held on Saturdays and other important events even if I have to take leave.

Once in a year we travel some place. 2013 we went to Switzerland & Paris and in 2014 we went to Jaipur for my college reunion. Every New Year’s Eve, we stay in a hotel holding special celebrations.

In nut shell, in spite of living separately and travelling frequently, we are able to spend enough quality time together to ensure that all emotional and intellectual needs are taken care of.

At work also, we have tried to develop a close bonding within the team and also with the family members. Once in a quarter we have a family get together wherein we ensure that every one participates in the fun and enjoys thoroughly. The families clearly seems more comfortable with their spouses occasional extended hours at work post such get togethers.

I personally believe that if one uses proper time management techniques, is reasonably quick & efficient, takes time & proactive action and follows the proper PDCA (Plan, Do Check and Act) cycle, there will hardly be any need to put in long hours or work on weekends. Also, regular communication with family members and quality time together can take care of their needs. The occasional extra time work will not upset the apple cart if the time together is filled with laughter and closeness.

‘Work Life Balance’ does not mean demonizing or despising work and responsibility. It really means taking full care of each of the dimension of one’s life such as work, self, family, relatives, friends and society.