The Work-Life Imbalance
Duena Blomstrom
Author | Keynote Speaker | Podcaster |Digital Transformation & Organizational Psychology Expert | Creator of Emotional Banking?, NeuroSpicy@Work & HumanDebt? | Co-Founder of PeopleNotTech? | AuADHD
Let’s talk about work/life and the so-called “balance”. I wrote about this in my last book “People Before Tech” and I am exploring the many possible models that are being trialled in an effort to avoid WFAA in my upcoming “Tech-Led Culture” one as well of course.
That said, let me tell you what brought it back from theoretical to very personal for me.
Over the last few weeks, not only has my 12-year-old had some school issues that need sorting and a trip to London to see a kidney specialist but has been complaining of “face pain” -which is an indication of how new he is to insufferable tooth pain- so we have had multiple trips to the dentist as well.
Now we are definitely lucky because all of my kiddo’s parents (myself, his dad and his stepdad) are in technology and very senior in our positions and have enough days WFH between us to deal with all these commitments and needs. We are well aware of how fortunate and privileged we are to be in that position and it makes me wonder how would a single parent who had to come into the office every day even deal with this short of taking the full day off.
My husband has had to postpone a strategic data architectural meeting so he can take him when I had my publisher come to my office for a half-day editing chat. My ex has had to juggle his ever-growing list of to-dos managing teams of developers when we were too tied up to take the kiddo to the specialist, and at long last, I have had to duck out of important product meetings regarding the new ISO certification testing so that I can take him myself.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy or stress-free, when the expectation of 9-to-5 is there (as it is for his dads), the stress is exponential. But it was possible. Doable. How utterly invaluable is that in lieu of the alternative which is either to cut work for the day or ignore your child’s medical issue?
Now - I am someone who had long had to be a primary carer for my brother and mother for years before she passed and juggle an exec career in between. Easy? No. Doable? Yes if you’re either self-employed, your own boss or an executive and I have been lucky to be all of those and be able to do it. That said it was still riddled with stress and anxiety.
I don’t remember one single week of my working life where calls/appointments/deliveries/medicines/etc have had to be dealt with and work was the only thing on the agenda.
Can you? Can anyone? No. We all have families, lives, communities and endless to-do’s. Now again, if we’re honest, the higher up one is in the organisation the more intrinsic flexibility they have always enjoyed so these things are hard to plan and execute but not impossible to slide in. Does it mean that only higher-ups can fulfil their personal lives obligation? No. Everyone manages somehow just at a much higher stress cost.
The 4-days-work week, whilst not at all the beacon of flexibility or ease that some paint it, at the very least offers some time-boxed time for this by freeing up a work day when people can attempt to cram all their allotted “personal to-do’s”
What causes this?
Lastly, we can blame it strongly on being human. That’s the real root of this. If we weren’t and had these pesky lives that inconvenience our resource-owner aka the employer none of this would be an issue.
While I am not discounting the importance of securing one’s job in particular in this economic climate, we can’t stop demanding the right to also be all the things we need to be.
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<This article was originally published on the www. duenablomstrom.com website?here>
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1 年I'm really liking your articles. They are bang on. As a mother of 3 myself, this is super important. ??