Relinquishee, Adoptee, MPE
Author, Speaker.

There IS Work-Life Balance

“I suppose the greatest lesson I learned is how right Socrates was when he said all those years ago that ‘ the unexamined life is not worth living.’ Making the time and taking the effort to think, truly think, about your life is the main battle.

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How are You doing on your New Year’s Resolution?

According to ACNielson, a global provider of marketing research information services, 56% of people around the world made New Year’s resolutions for 2007.

Of that fifty-six percent, 51% were seeking a better work and life balance (second only to those who wanted to exercise more at 62%).

That means that a full 28% of people around the world are aspiring to lead a more balanced life.

Astonishing, isn’t it?

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Work-Family Balance and Gender Lines

Courtney E. Martin has an interesting article over at The American Prospect titled “Fighting Apart for Time Together: Why is all the activism for work/life balance split along gender lines?”

Ms. Martin takes the very complicated issue of work-family balance activism and makes it understandable. Here is how the discussion shakes out:

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How Important is Work-Life in Recruitment?

I spent a little time perusing several of the larger job boards recently and noticed that, no matter the job, there’s an increasing trend to offer a statement about the employer’s dedication to work-life and work-family support of its employees.

This statement sometimes comes in the job description, or is often included in the “about the company” section of the posting, but generally reads like this:

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Virginia Tech – In Our Thoughts

My PDA phone cashed it in the other day and I had to purchase a new one. I’ve spent several hours over the past 3 days getting up to speed and ensuring that all my data has transfered to the new one. I also played around a bit, much to my wife’s amusement, importing some pictures so that when my wife and kids called, I’d see their smiling faces on my phone’s display.

My daughter is a bit finicky about her photos and didn’t like the one that I chose, so I went to her MySpace page to download one that she had posted, reasoning that she’d obviously given it the thumbs up, and here’s what I found instead:

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Ethics and Work-Life Balance

According to a survey released yesterday by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, there is a strong correlation between work-life balance offered and supported by companies and the ethical (or non-ethical) behavior of employees at those companies.

The survey found that:

* 91 percent of all employed adults agreed that workers are more likely to behave ethically at work when they have a good work-life balance.

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Family Friendly Workplaces for Fathers

Fact: When we talk about “family friendly” companies, we’re usually thinking about working mothers, not working fathers.

Family friendly workplaces are usually characterized by discussions surrounding flexible hours, telecommuting, time off and leaves, child care support and assistance, and company culture – and company culture involves all of the aforementioned.

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Is Blogging on the Beach a Violation of Work-Life Balance?

That’s what Susie Wee asks over at her HP Research, Technology, & Teamwork blog.

You see, Susie is conflicted – she’s laying on a beach in sunny Hawaii, blogging away, and feeling a little bit guilty that she’s not able to “sit back, relax, and reflect.”

Susie feels that she may be rationalizing things

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Personal Concierge Services Promise Life Balance

In an earlier post today, I wrote about examining our motives when it comes to buying things – goods and services – to seemingly make our lives easier.

The vicious cycle looks like this: We work hard and long, so we wind up dining out several nights a week, or we hire a service to attend to our lawn or our homes or our pets because we “don’t have enough time.” We rely upon these things, and they become integral to our new budgets. This becomes our new ‘norm.’

We then want still more, so we work even harder, finding ourselves with even less time …. The pattern goes on and on.

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Engaging in ‘Retail Therapy’ to Achieve Work-Life Balance

Check out this post from A.J. Donnison, “the grumpy developer in the corner: Retail Therapy or Low Self Esteem?

‘Retail Therapy’ refers to something many of us indulge in: the act of buying something to make ourselves feel better after working many long hours. It may seem innocent enough, but, as Adam points out, it might serve us well to examine out motives:

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Work-Life Balance? Not Bloody Likely!

Tom Peters, management ‘guru’ and author of In Search of Excellence has this message for us:

“Life-work balance is pretty much an illusion if you want to make an impact in today’s economy.”

Speaking on a panel at a Leadership Forum at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, Peters pointed out that executives at General Electric “arrive at the office every day at 6:15 a.m.”

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My Life Balance

Well, it’s snowing here. I find it extremely ironic that the Cleveland Indians are in town playing ball at Miller Park due to the snow storm in Ohio and because our stadium offers the protection from the elements in the form of its retractable – and close-able – roof.

I’m taking advantage of a canceled appointment or two and some snow closings to share with you some photos I snapped a few moments ago, as well as to let you all know that my life balance/ work-life balance/ work family balance doesn’t consist only of work!

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Work-Life Considerations for Job Seekers

Work-life balance ranks high on our lists of deciding factors when looking for companies to work for.

What should you look for in a company when Work-Life Balance is at or near the top of your list?

Determine if work-life balance is supported by attitudes and corporate culture at all levels of the organization or is simply a Human Resources department directive.

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Work-Life Synergy?

I came across an interesting report written recently by Lori Herz and Arnie Herz over at Legal Sanity titled “BEYOND BALANCE: How to Cultivate Work-Life Synergy in the Law.”

The report is written about the legal profession, but please feel free to insert your chosen profession where you read the words ‘law’, lawyer’, and/or ‘legal.’ I believe their observations ring true for many of us.

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Work-Life Balance: “One of Most Significant Struggles Faced By Modern Man”

Dr. Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People and co-founder of the FranklinCovey Company, had this to say in his recent column Work-Life Balance: A Different Cut in Forbes.com: “The challenge of work-life balance is without question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man. I’ve surveyed thousands of audiences about their greatest personal and professional challenges. Life balance is always at or near the top.”

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Extreme Jobs and Work Life Balance

Last December the Center for Work-Life Policy released a report that ran in the December issue of the Harvard Business Review titled: “Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek.” The study characterized workers as “extreme” if they involved long hours (thus the 70 hour workweek mentioned in the title) and 5 categories of pressure relating to job performance.

Main factors attributed to extreme jobs are globalization, Blackberries, and Type A personalities. The study lists two huge personal costs of these jobs: Almost 60% of these workers beleieve their career undermines their relationship with their children. Additionally, 50% say their work interferes with their sex lives.

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Work-Life Balance for Empty Nesters

My wife and I became empty-nesters last August when our youngest went off to college, and we’ve been adjusting our balance ever since.

Not being one to always want to have to reinvent the wheel, I asked several friends who had been through this chapter in their lives to share with me what it was like for them and what they had learned. Although the range of experiences was huge, I did garner two consensus opinions: First, that things were strange for a while. Second, that it was a wonderful time for all.

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