Balance is Dead...

...or so says Fast Company. In yet another article/proclamation that will reverse itself in five years (FC has been around long enough to contradict itself), Keith Hammonds describes a new take on balance. What is balance? It isn't an eight-hour work day followed by a yoga session and dinner with the kids. It's cumulative, like your 401(k), complete focus on one aspect of your life for a period of time, and then focus on another.

Wife getting on your back and telling you you're not pulling your weight at home? Screw her! Tell her you're in a career phase now and to just relax until your family phase kicks in.

Seriously, this isn't too far off the mark; but FC does mitigate the message by saying that for all of the areas that you are screwing to focus on, say, your career, you should at least pay genuine attention to them when you have those two extra seconds to spare.

The article brings up the "Happy Workaholics", those who put in 15-hour workdays but do it passionately. Unfortunately I suspect that makes up for a small percentage of the workforce. I had a boss who once said this is what he wanted for the world, "for everyone to love what they do." (Hey, it was the heady Dot Com era, so long as we were making money we loved it enough). Me, being the wet blanket that I can sometimes be, asked him, "Then who would pick up the garbage?"

I wonder, do we need people who don't love what they do to get some of the less-romantic aspects of work done? Do some people not need to do what they love? Do people stuck in "Day Jobs" not pray for the day when they can get out and do something else? Or do people get complacent, or--as my Mom would say--realistic, and not insist that what they do for money be nearly as exciting as their dreams.

I think FC is saying that there are plenty of people who don't like what they do for a living, so they leave the office at five, get in those workouts, have drinks with friends, patch a quilt, throw dinner parties, take Italian lessons. And they always live this way. Those are the people living yesterday's definition of balance.

I like this theory, but I'm not entirely sold. I don't have the secret sauce either. Even during peak career phases, people want love and connection in their lives; even in strong family periods, people yearn for accomplishment.

I could be wrong...

Comments

[Joy]

You're not wrong....Joy

[Jeremy]

Your mom's right. Which means you're right.

I guess it would be great if we all loved our work so much that we didn't spend half the day wishing we were with our friends and families or pursuing our "real" interests. For the vast majority of working folks, this will never be the case -- the best they can hope for is to not hate their work, and ideally it provides them with a sustainable and satisfying lifestyle.

The small percentage of self-actualized, ladder-climbing, creative dynamos make for excellent stories in Fast Company, but the concerns of the majority are interesting too. What if they started agitating for more time to focus on the things they enjoy doing without sacrificing too much of their incomes?

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