Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Workaholic? Don’t let office hurt your family and health

Make responsible yet healthy choices, and live with the consequences. photo | fotosearch Make responsible yet healthy choices, and live with the consequences. photo | fotosearch 
Rummaging through the archive of old papers at my parents’ home in London earlier this year I came across the Christmas 1955 issue of the Shell Magazine, whose lead story was about the opening ceremony at Shell UK’s annual staff art exhibition. My father’s work was among the exhibits, and indeed the feature included a photograph of the painting he had submitted of some aubergines and maize, green peppers and tomatoes, resting on one of our kitchen chairs.
But let me come to why I am telling you about this. It is because in the article I read that before introducing the chief guest — the President of Britain’s Royal Academy — Shell’s then managing director Felix Guépin advised those present that “it is a valuable thing for men and women to be able to detach themselves completely from their normal responsibilities in their leisure hours and devote themselves to giving expression to their artistic impulses. Their minds and bodies are thereby immeasurably refreshed.”
Yes, in 1955 the managing director of one of the world’s leading multinationals was talking about work-life balance — who knows, maybe because Mr Guépin also enjoyed painting.
Bryan Dyson, former CEO of Coca-Cola, was of the same school of thought as the man from Shell. In his much-circulated 30-second speech on the subject he had us imagine that life is a game in which we are juggling five balls in the air: work, family, health, friends and spirit. “Work is a rubber ball,” he explained. “If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other balls are made of glass. If you drop one of these they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same.”
So Dyson recommended that we work efficiently during office hours and leave on time, give the required time to our family and friends and have proper rest. That is much easier said than done in this age of instant e-communication, of everyone being challenged not only with demanding targets but with always doing more with less. Yet if the CEO of Coca-Cola suggested it should and could be so, who am I to argue?
Dyson was obviously not a “workaholic” — the term coined by Wayne Oates in his 1972 book Confessions of a Workaholic. In it Oates said such people need help, implying disagreement with the celebrated former CEO of GE Jack Welch, who claimed that “if your boss is doing their job right they’ll make yours so exciting that your personal life becomes less compelling”. Sounds like an unfortunate win-lose!
Many of us work long hours because we are responsibility-aholics and perfectionists. Are you? And if so is it thanks to being surrounded by responsibility-phobics, by sloppy people with low standards? Whatever the cause, do not be in denial.
Evaluate the room for manoeuvre and the trade-offs. Make responsible yet healthy choices, and live with the consequences.
Make some new work-life Balance resolutions, sorting your imbalances into three categories: areas where you can take immediate action; ones where future action is feasible, leading to improvements over time; and others where you must simply accept the inconvenience and adapt to it… or resign and go to a less demanding environment.
Managing work-life balance challenges us to find ways of managing stress, including saying “No” when this is justified; distinguishing between the urgent and the important; switching off when on holiday; and generally going through life cheerfully and flexibly.
So please reflect on what you could be doing more of and less of, and please have conversations about work-life balance with your supervisor, peers and others around you.
By the way, doesn’t the expression work-life balance assume there’s an intrinsic conflict between leading a healthy, enjoyable life and working? I prefer alternatives such as work-leisure balance, or work-family balance.

No comments :

Post a Comment