Work-life balance: How much do you value it?

 

How important is work-life balance to you?

Does work-life balance factor into where you choose to work?

Or whether or not you stay in a position or with a company?

If you believe that work-life balance is integral to the company culture and in improving workplace happiness, this memo from a CEO might get under your skin a little bit.

Adweek posted a memo from Rob Schwartz, a New York chief executive of an agency about work-life balance.

It read:

The creative review went late last night.
Not past midnight late. Or even 10pm late.
Just it’s-really-dark-outside late.
The creative teams had a number of ideas.
Some of them quite good.
Jexy and Nuno were one of those teams with good ideas.
[…]
Then they had to go. Weekend plans. A bachelor party in Miami.
And with that they left the room.
Chris Garbutt and the rest of us listened to the rest of the ideas from the rest of teams. Some good ideas. Some crappy ones. A creative review. You know the drill.
Then something happened.
Jexy and Nuno came back into the room.
“We’re not going to the bachelor party. We’re going to stay here this weekend.”
Chris asked them why.
“We’ve got work to do.”
This is a decision each and everyone of us has to make.
Work or other stuff?
I never bought into the whole “work-life-balance” thing.
Work is life. Life is work, in my book.
We are lucky enough to work in a creative business.
We are paid to dream for clients.
That takes a bit of time. Sometimes time on the weekend.
Now, I’m not saying you should work every weekend.
Or miss your daughter’s 7th birthday.
Or your grandfather’s 70th.
What I am saying is that sometimes you have to miss a bachelor party or a boat party or some other kind of fiesta.
In the grand scheme of things, you won’t miss much.
But what you just might gain is a great idea. An idea that transforms a brand. An idea that makes a dent in the universe. An idea that makes a mark on your career.
[..] Read the full memo here

 

Above and (way?) beyond in the name of work-life balance

The memo could be perceived as a ‘pat on the back’ to those employees who stay late. An ‘atta boy’ to those who work hard and reap the benefits.

The employees in the memo did go above and beyond in the name of work-life balance. So I can see why a CEO would want to recognize their efforts.

It’s also great that the CEO noticed that these employees went above and beyond.

What we’ve seen with our users is that often times, when employees feel like they are not being noticed or heard, they stop caring at work.

Which is why we stress talking in the workplace about the daily, weekly or monthly employee mood results and taking action on the feedback.

So, it’s great to see that upper management is involved with their staff.

However, I wonder how the employees feel about the situation and the memo.

Is work-life balance important enough for your team to bring it up when you discuss what makes people press red?

In our experience, overworked and a lack of work-life balance contributes to a negative work environment and a decline in mood.

Declines in mood create a sort of cycle of unhappiness.

Employees end up overworked, stressed and frustrated at work which bleeds into their personal life causing issues in work-life balance. This can cause issues in their personal lives which again, they can bring into work causing redder button days.

Cause that bachelor in Miami, well, it kind of sounded fun right?

And the invitation probably went out for a reason! (Hint: their friend wanted to share one life’s greatest moments with them.)

What do you think about this memo? How would you react as an employee?

Is work-life balance important enough to you or your team to press the red button occasionally?

 

 

How can we get more people to wake up in the morning and feel good about going to work?

Get a Celpax device and get richer conversations at work to discover what drives your employees. Measure. Talk. Improve. Repeat!

 

 

Hey there! I’m Alex, marketing specialist at Celpax and I love helping to create workplaces people love. We’re a for-profit helping workplaces improve employee morale with simple tech tools. Be sure to follow Celpax on Twitter, ‘Like’ us on Facebook or LinkedIn to talk work-life balance.