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DAVID B. BOHL

Relinquishee, Adoptee, MPE
Author, Speaker.

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Outsource Your Life Balance?

I wrote a couple of weeks ago back about personal concierge services and how some have billed themselves as an answer to work-life balance. They’re pitching busy people – business owners, executives, working parents, and stay-at-home mothers – on their services.

Their premise isn’t difficult to relate to. We’re all struggling to maintain a balance between our work, family time, personal time, and hours spent with friends and in the community.

The latest pitch I read really got me thinking, however. The promotional copy suggested that we outsource our time. Apparently this would suggest farming out tasks or projects to others to make time for what we like to do, instead of what we have to do. In our instant-gratification society, this may make sense, but it may prove detrimental in the long run.

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April 27, 2007

Federal Government Work-Life Balance

The Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation (ISPPI) have released the third edition of The Best Places to Work in The Federal Government 2007. Here’s the overview and the rankings.

It is interesting to note that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), that same government agency that held hearings on April 17th about work-family balance and job bias, ranked a disappointing 30th overall on the list, 11th in the subcategory of “Family Friendly Culture and Benefits”, and an unsatisfactory 27th in the class “Work/Life Balance.”

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April 26, 2007

Work-Life Balance and Productivity

Rebel Dad drew my attention to a recent study conducted by researchers at three Ontario universities that found that people whose family commitments impact on their work life are given fewer career-advancing opportunities and have poorer relationships with their superiors.

Unfortunately, in making their assumptions, the authors have misused the term “work-family balance.”

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April 26, 2007

Less Vacation Equals Less Balance

According to a Hudson Highland Group survey, many workers don’t make use of their established vacation times. The report found the following:

* 56% of employees do not use all of their vacation days (30% of those use less than 1/2 of their days).

* 20% of workers only plan on getting away for long weekends this year instead of taking a full vacation.

* 30% of employees called in sick when they were not actually ill to “play hooky.”

What accounts for this? In a word: FEAR.

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April 26, 2007

Truth in Posting about Work-Life Balance

The gang over at Trulia Blog get a big thumbs up when it comes to Truth in Posting about their company, its culture, and job opportunities within their company.

Take this declaration for instance, from the “Benefits” section of their “Trulia is Hiring” post:

“We’re big on balance, so we offer a really competitive and comprehensive benefit package – full health coverage… options… European style vacation packages (well…not really European, but better than most start ups)…and, of course, our BOFFI culture.

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April 25, 2007

A Day to Balance Work and Family

Did you know that this Thursday, April 26th, is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day? Are you planning to participate?

According to the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day program was founded to create an opportunity for girls and boys to share and communicate their expectations for the future.

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April 24, 2007

Workaholics vs. Prisoners of Success

Conde Nast, a self-described publisher of several “lifestyle” magazines that include Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Vogue, Wired, Bon Appetit, Architectural Digest, and GQ, recently launched a new business magazine titled Portfolio.

It doesn’t take long to get a feel for the magazine – we’re reminded immediately, and at every turn, that business is about wealth, power, and status, and that we’re expected to aspire to those things.

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April 24, 2007

How Does Your Firm’s Work-Life Culture Compare?

Many companies today have recognized their employees’ needs to balance their personal and work lives.

Many employers have responded by creating initiatives that support this awareness by not only offering time off and leaves, as well as child care support and assistance, but making it known that utilizing this time will in no way jeopardize one’s standing at one’s firm.

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April 23, 2007

Freelancing as a Way to Achieve Life Balance

Many people who have sought alternatives to the corporate world have pursued professions as freelancers. Working independently on a job-by-job basis does allow freedom and variety to choose one’s projects and hours, but it is not without its risks.

Chief among these hazards are the uncertainty of work (and income)and lack of company infrastructure and benefits.

Wired & Hired blog, a blog written by job recruiters, has two posts on this topic:

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April 23, 2007

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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April 20, 2007

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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April 19, 2007

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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April 18, 2007

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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April 18, 2007

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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April 17, 2007

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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April 17, 2007

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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April 17, 2007

Does Top Management Understand Work-Life Balance?

I’ve made several posts to this blog opining about the work-life discussion as it relates to corporations and employees. The way the debate is being shaped today, there are two conflicting formulas at work here:

For the company, Work-Life Balance boils down to this: Company = Good, Family = Bad For the employee, it looks like this: Family and Personal Time = Good, Company = Bad.

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April 16, 2007
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