Is having a Work/Life Balance actually working?

The importance of a Work-life balance has become an omnipresent phrase to describe the importance of balancing our professional and personal lives

It is a term used in mission statements, company culture surveys, job interviews and wellbeing seminars.

For me the term, "work-life balance" has never been the best way to describe what I wanted from my work and life. And thats to"have it all", the want for fulfilment from work and life, and to be able to choose my best path for each. Is that too much to ask???

To dig a little deeper into this, the idea of work-life balance suggests that the two are not connected and there should be time for both. In my opinion this creates a sense of separate identity, one for work and one for life. We are choosing to offset our lives in order to work, so that we can obtain the life we really want to live.

But in truth without work (in whatever form or fashion) there lacks a sense of purpose, without life what is the point of having a purpose to begin with? Work is synonymous with Life and vice versa.

Companies need to identify that satisfying their employees needs for a "whole life approach" have risen and leaders are under new pressure to deliver a better experiences for work and for life. 

Wendy Leshgold , co-founder of The Fast Forward Group, describes

"The Whole Life approach". It’s way bigger than work-life balance. Some people might have work-life balance, but keep things so split that it doesn’t ultimately benefit them. At the root of the whole life approach is asking: what does success look like in my whole life. The answer might be slightly different for professional vs. more personal areas in your life, but more often than not, it’s the same.

An individual’s workplace wellbeing does not exist as a snapshot of time or situations, but is rather an ever evolving state of a person’s life at every age and every phase. To see things from a holistic point of view.

It is important that employees feel supported by their employers to develop the best version of themselves. By the companies ability to develop programs that focus on elements that cause concerns at various stages of life, and not limited to psychological productivity, commercial needs or group activities.

In a Remote/Hybrid working world the ability to keep employees engaged, motivated, satisfied and included; while also working physically separate from colleagues, usually at home, is a challenge many organisations are facing today.

The lines of where work ends and life begins has become more blurred than ever. I feel a truer reflection is that work & life flow together. Be it starting at 7am to get more heads down time before the slack messages begin to cascade, going to the gym in the middle of the day, doing the school run, having a VC with the team in the US at 8pm, popping to the shops or playing playstation during downtime; as adults we find ourselves in a constant shift in prioritising our tasks (personal & professional) of our day to day, moment to moment existence. We should just call it Life.

So what do we do to create the "whole life experience"?

1. Let your people know they are valued. The opportunity to feel connected to the bigger picture, and to know our work matters is key to employees, so let people know they are valued. 
2. TRUST: Create a culture of choice for where, when and how work gets done. We want to know that our employers respect and value us as whole person, not just for the time we are exceptional in our jobs. So trust that we are capable of managing our lives and time.
3. Have a clear and defined approach to wellbeing: Let employees know that their wellbeing takes priority, and create a culture of wellbeing. Staff are more important than clients, customers and deliverables. So it is important to understand that in order to be the best versions of ourselves, we need to take care of ourselves. Only then can we be trusted to take care of our responsibilities in all aspects of life.

I feel it is time now to be rid of the term work/ life balance and put more focus on how to live a balanced, wholesome and fulfilling life. But it requires a cultural shift, an emphasis on core values that are conducive to this way of existing. You need to communicate if you need to leave in the middle of the day, and be proactive about deadlines. It requires more thinking and accountability on everyone’s part to fully take advantage of it.

If you would like help in implementing this type of culture into your business, I am happy to discuss how this can work for your team. Here's to living a whole life.