Is Work-Life Balance Realistic?


In our recent Employee Engagement Survey, one of the open-ended questions asked about work-life balance. Many of the responses indicate that this is a big issue for many of us, that stress and burnout are very real problems.

A recent piece by Arianna Huffington, on the website www.greatplacetowork.com, challenges the concept of work-life balance. Huffington writes,

“The way we’re working isn’t working. Our workplaces – and our lives – are fueled by stress and burnout, and it’s not sustainable. To be able to thrive both at home and at work, we need to bring humanity back to the workplace.

“This starts with the very simple recognition that we take our whole selves to work. We don’t leave our humanity behind when we head to the office. We don’t have a work silo and a home silo, a work life and a home life – we just have one life. And it’s all connected.

“This sounds obviously true, but the entire premise that so much of our workplace culture is based on – the idea of balance – says otherwise. To truly make our workplaces more human, we need to go beyond this outdated notion of balance. Work and life, well-being and productivity, are not on opposite sides – so they don’t need to be balanced. They’re on the same side, and they rise in tandem. Increase one and you increase the other – this is what the science clearly shows.”

I find this to be an interesting argument, though one that feels wrong at first glance. We all desire to give our best at work, and to give our best to our family at home, and often find the two desires seem to be in conflict. It often seems that one or the other, or sometimes both, suffer in the never-ending pursuit of excellence.

But maybe Huffington is on to something. Maybe it starts with us as leaders recognizing the holistic reality of those we are serving, and asking how we are helping them to achieve their best in all parts of their lives. Can we start by asking what our team members’ life dreams and goals are, and how we can best help them meet those?

Called to Lead, Section 1, quotes Lance Secretan: “Leadership is a serving relationship with others that inspires their growth and makes the world a better place.” This gives a glimpse at the leaders’ role in helping the employee’s holistic growth, being better in every part of their lives.



Secretan, Inspire! What Great Leaders Do (2004)
https://www.greatplacetowork.com/resources/blog/bringing-work-and-life-onto-the-same-side-of-the-coin

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