Career Stories & Articles
“Work/life balance” has
become a frequently used term in the last few years.
While many people have trouble defining the term, most of us know
it when we don’t see it. Both
in the workforce in general, and here at the Goddard Space Flight Center,
many people are seeking a way to reach a more evenly balanced daily
life…one that makes room for work and professional life while providing
needed time for other activities. In
this four part article, we will look at “balance” and why it has
become more of need, then explore change and how understanding it helps
reach balance. In part 3, we’ll look at values and passion and how you can
use them to create a more balanced life.
Finally, in part 4 we suggest activities that can help you begin
getting more work/life balance for yourself.
Underlying the desire for
balance is a need for integration and harmony.
As people in an advanced and complex civilization, we lead
multi-faceted lives. We have
needs for shelter, security, companionship, and personal fulfillment,
among others. To a very large
extent, these needs are—or can—be met through holding a job.
This is especially true of “knowledge workers” who add value by
working with information and ideas. While
many needs can be met by work, some needs, say for family relations or for
relaxation, can’t be met by work. In
fact they get harder to meet the more time that’s given to work.
Which raises another
point…work is occupying a larger part of most peoples’ weeks (at least
here in the United States). The
average work week has increased significantly for many people in the last
two decades, especially for managerial and professional employees.
In the commercial world, increased competitive pressures and a more
money-focused management style have resulted in downsizing and workload
increases. In government and
other sectors, similar cost pressures and productivity demands have caused
many people to feel increased work pressures. [NASA-specific
observations here.] In
society as a whole, two-working parent families have become the norm,
which can exert more time pressure through creating “family work” that
must be done, somehow, some time.
In addition to these
increased demands, the need for increased integration and harmony has felt
like more of a need for two other reasons.
First, the Baby Boomer generation (born 1945-1964) has begun
entering middle age. Its
older members are less than a decade away from retirement. Like other
generations at this time of life, this large part of the U.S. workforce
has started questioning its earlier, intense commitment to “success”
and all the term implied. More and more, people feel a need to integrate and harmonize
other parts of life. The
age-cohort following the Boomers, the Generation X group (born 1965-1990),
has made a priority of life/work balance from its entry into the
workplace.
In response to the pressures
and changing perspectives just described, organizations have created
various policies and practices that enable more balance, including flex
time, parental leave, flexible benefits and telecommuting.
While these have been welcomed, the tension of work demands and the
need for integration remains. To
a large extent, the dilemma arises from unresolved conflict among our
individual needs. For
instance, the need for economic security and income versus the need for a
work week that allows significant family time.
It should be noted that people have widely different combinations
of needs and wants. A 24 year
old single person with a newly earned Ph.D. in astrophysics will have a
different equation for “balance” than a 47 year old married person
with a working spouse, three pre-college children, and a mortgage.
Work-life balance remains a very individual matter that really has
to be addressed at an individual level.
