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I typically do a good job of balancing my work with my personal life. However, there are times in my life when I’ve chosen to give a little more to one or the other. Typically, these coincide with opportunities that, if I strictly balanced work and life, I wouldn’t be able to pursue. While the concept of work life balance is widely considered a worthwhile and healthy pursuit, I’m going to make the argument for why it can be overrated.
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Different Priorities for Different Stages in Life
Depending on the season of your life, you may have different priorities. For instance, when you are younger and just starting out in your career, most people dedicate more time to work to get ahead. They are excited about the work and hungry to achieve success. As you get older and start a family, you may spend less time working and more time raising a family. As the kids grow up and leave for college and eventually their own lives, you may choose to work more, or simply retire and forgo working altogether.
Fluid and Transparent Boundaries
In today’s connected world, the boundaries between work and life are becoming more blurred. We have benefits such as working from home or flex work to allow workers to work outside normal working locations and hours. While you can argue that it feels like we’re always working because the boundary isn’t as well defined, I would argue that it provides more flexibility to work on the work priorities you are most passionate about.
Instead of having to stay at work late, some have the opportunity to go home, spend personal time with their family, and start working again once everyone has settled in. I argue this gives us the opportunity to have work life balance, but not in the traditional sense.
Personal Satisfaction
For some, work life balance isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If you are very interested or passionate about your work, you may derive immense satisfaction out of working more. In this case, focusing too much on work life balance might seem counterproductive.
Likewise, if you only work to be able to pursue your passions outside of work, it may be worth it to exhaust all of your paid time off pursuing those passions or to work and save diligently early on in life to be able to solely enjoy your passions later in life. I would group the folks who advocate for early retirement in this category.
Passion Projects and Entrepreneurs
People who pursue passion projects (I would lump entrepreneurs in with this group) often choose to blur the lines between work and personal life. To them, the project is more than just a job, it’s linked to some larger goal. Whether that is something material like financial independence and immense wealth or something altruistic, such as providing education opportunities for underprivileged children. It’s a goal that these individuals will work on tirelessly, not because they feel forced to, but because they want to.
Cultural Differences
Cultures value work-life balance differently. Some may discourage working less and taking time off by providing less paid time off as part of their salary packages or promoting only those workers that work the longest and are always on-call. Still others may give more paid time off and encourage taking time off from work by making it mandatory to disconnect.
For instance, employees in Australia have mandatory 4 weeks paid vacation, supported by federal law. There is no federal law regulating paid vacation minimums in America.
Another example of encouraging time off, is “Right to Disconnect” law in France. As of 2017, employers in France with at least 50 workers must negotiate agreements with unions allowing employees to disconnect from work technology after hours. If the parties don’t reach an agreement, the employer must establish a right-to-disconnect policy on after-hours technology use (SHRM; “France and Spain: Right to Disconnect Spreads”).
Seasonal or Project Based Work
Some industries or professions require periods of intense work followed by periods of downtime. For instance, a project manager on a construction project may be able to work less during the initial planning phase as well as the closeout phase, when there are fewer moving parts and only folks working during the day. However, while the execution phase is ongoing with all of the contractors and subcontractors on site performing work might require longer hours for the project manager to keep up.
Another example of this is commercial fishing. Often, there is a specified season for commercial fishing depending on the location and type of fish. Fisherman work long, dangerous hours during the commercial fishing season, but are able to take off during the off-season (or work a second job if they feel so compelled).
Work Life Balance Is Up to You
Ultimately, work life balance comes down to your personal preference. Some folks prefer the grind of doggedly pursuing a passion project, while others prefer spending more time pursuing passions outside of work. As long as you choose to do it and are not blindly following someone else, there is no wrong answer.
Respect each person’s choice and don’t try to impose your philosophy on others. While striving for a balanced life is generally considered beneficial for well-being, it is not a one-size-fits-all concept and doesn’t apply to everyone, all the time.
Do you seek to achieve work life balance? If so, how? If not, why not?