Business vs. Personal

If there's room for the personal in business, how should I define it?

This is an interesting question to me as I've seen many colleagues work burnout hours. Others let every aspect of their personal life show up at work. I've tried hard to be accommodating; I've needed space myself at times. The trick is in finding and honoring a threshold. The middle way.

In some cases, life intrudes and we all must deal with it. I'm not talking about involuntary invasions, but rather the entirely voluntary ones. Are they contemplated? How much do you really want or need to tell me?

The dog in the picture above is Layla. The photograph was taken the day we adopted her. I needed a product demo to talk about measuring human behavior. What simpler thing than putting a "donate" and "adopt" button under a dog for testing glory? Some users get one dog and slogan, while others get an alternative. Which dog and slogan wins the clicking contest?

Looking at pictures of my dog relaxes me. The dog pictures relax the people watching my demo. Everybody has a better time than if I had put up some stock photographs. I sometimes tell my audience it's my dog, and sometimes I don't.

Yuki, the family cat, has his own set of images, and for cat-loving audiences, I can switch. Don't tell Layla.