Work-Life Blending: Does It Work?

In the 1980s, knowledge workers, globalization, and computer networks became commonplace. As employees felt more connected to the office, they felt more pressure to “get ahead” by staying at work longer. Since there were only twenty-four hours in the day, something had to give. These typically focused on personal health, relationships, spirituality, hobbies and free time – everything beyond work.

Today, the so-called “borderless workplace” has gotten exponentially worse. We check our emails first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Our work inboxes and to-do lists alert us everywhere we go, often interfering with our free time. Top company perks even include in-office dry cleaning, fitness centers, and three gourmet meals a day, all of which inspire us to connect with our colleagues and improve everyone’s bottom line at the expense of our own.
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What is the antidote? Our only hope seems to be We create our own company where we decide how we live and how we want to balance work and life..

Although the term is bad – work is an important part of life and not a contradictory aspect – the term “Work-life balance” is pretty specific: We need to balance regular demands on our time, including work commitments, romantic relationships, physical and mental well-being, and individual activities. We now know that a poor work-life balance is a recipe for stress and burnout. It turns out that it’s important to have multiple facets in our lives – something more than just working around the clock.

However, at some point we drifted away from work-life balance. Maybe it’s because our results are so poor, or maybe, and maybe more likely, it’s because our employers secretly (or not so secretly) want us to work as many hours as possible. It doesn’t matter productivity In fact, working hours slow down considerably before reaching 40 hours per week.
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But for these and perhaps other reasons, a new belief has emerged. It’s like this: work-life balance is impossible; This is why we must instead advocate for a mix between professional and private life.

Work-life balance is increasingly out of fashion and work-life blending is becoming more and more popular. Instead of facing the reality that work time cannot also be sleep, leisure, or family time, some of us have adopted the semi-fictional belief that we can accomplish our work while still enjoying the other important aspects of our lives.
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We wrongly believe that there is no compromise in our decisions. We figure we can just answer a few work emails while enjoying our beach vacation. We believe we can accommodate this important call in the evening, provided it does not take place at the table. We even think we can “talk shop” while enjoying a happy hour with colleagues. It seems like we can do everything we want and need at the same time without sacrificing anything. But are we deluding ourselves?

Blake Snow, entrepreneur and author of Disconnect: How to Stay Connected After DisconnectingWe tried to achieve work-life balance for six years before calling it that, and discovered that it was largely a pipe dream – nothing more than a new term invented by workaholics to justify the way they think they should live. For some it may be a choice, for others a requirement, but regardless, it is human nature to rationalize our behavior.I always work for an important reason!

Unfortunately, even if you are not physically in the office, if so spiritual If you’re in the office all the time, there are consequences. Strained relationships, shorter lives, and one-dimensional thinking top the list. In fact it is Research suggests just keeping your smartphone with you when you’re around other people, let alone pick it upcan affect your connection with them.

If you only talk or think about work, it means you are not talking or thinking about work. other things that might help you have stronger, happier, more satisfying interactions with the others.

Sometimes work-life balance is determined by the common saying: “If you do a job you love, you will never work a day in your life.” » » There is some truth to this saying, but we mistakenly think that just because we love our work, it is okay for our work to replace, mix with, or interfere with the other important things in our lives. Of course, this logic ignores the other side of the coin: things other than work are important and also deserve our attention.

The truth is that life requires compromise. Call it what you want, but ambitious professionals will always face imbalance, discord, competing priorities, compromises, and conflicting responsibilities. How we handle these trade-offs determines whether we find balance or whether we become work-obsessed, relationship-neglectful narcissists who prefer to look at shiny objects rather than look people in the eye when they speak to us.
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This piece was co-written by Blake SnowAuthor of Disconnect: How to Stay Connected After Disconnecting and Dr. Chiki Davis.