Work-Life Balance vs Work-Life Alignment
Mark Dobson, Workplace Incentives Partner Work-Life Balance vs Work-Life Alignment
“Never make a separation between work and life, because you'll end up resenting one of them."
That is a big statement but when you think about it, it definitely makes sense.
There is life. Just life. That is what we all have. As part of our lives we need money in order to survive (most of us anyway) and therefore we have to earn. Therefore working, to earn, is apart of life.
If you've got a member of staff that's talking about how they think they need a better work-life balance, they’re separating work and the, seemingly ‘good parts’ of their life.
Not only that, if they're saying that they're looking for a better work-life balance, what do you reckon they think is out of whack? It certainly isn’t the amount of work they’re doing!
Work is a component of life that needs to be fulfilling. Managers, leaders, employers and we, as individuals, need to take a role in making work filling. A job or role should suit their life.
There's an alignment that needs to happen and that's what you'll find that all partners of workplace incentives talk about. Work-life alignment is a term whereby your work and life are aligned. This will only happen when a few things occur. The first of which is acknowledging that the work-life balance concept is crazy. You're just not going to be able to balance work and life; the concept relies on compromise and therefore is surely impossible.
Secondly we need to listen to what our people want their life to be like and see if we can contribute to that. If you can contribute to a person’s life, then they want to be around you and your organisation. That's a no brainer.
Then we've got to look at how you can do that in the most cost effective, intelligent, educated, and strategic way. The plans here (Workplace Incentives) can do that sort of stuff but you as a manager you can do that right away. You just need to let go of any work-life balance concept, it's nuts. Look for work-life alignment. Ask yourself “Can work align with the non work elements of my life?” If so, then they can align and both help each other and help you to better enjoy your life, as a whole. Surely that's way more fun and rewarding than having to just ‘work’?
About the Author
Mark Dobson is a motivation expert. Working with Workplace Incentives to promote key thinking and methods that should be considered to make work more rewarding. Work-Life Alignemnt is something that Mark believes should replace the concept of Work-Life Balance.
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