Work-Life Balance

What is work-life balance and why do we talk about it so much? Work is part of our life, in fact we see our workmates more than our family. So wouldn't it be work-family balance or job-personal balance?

Plus, the one thing I don't understand is the thought that an intelligent company would actually want to overwork its employees. I run a focused, intense company of great, dedicated people, but never have we discussed the idea of overworking a person. A burned-out person is no good for anyone--themselves, their family, their company or their clients. It simply doesn't work. There are plenty of studies that show a person working 60 hours a week will get less done than one working 40 hours a week.

So does that mean we should never work one second longer than our minimum? 

No. There are times when we need to pitch in and help the client, save a situation or lend a hand to a struggling team member.

But what this does mean is that each of us has to do our best to make sure we are fresh, positive and valuable. If we're burned-out we are none of those things. 

If our focus was on how to communicate and how to remove obstacles in our path that stop us from being at our best, wouldn't we all be better off?

Barry LaBov

LaBov & Beyond

www.labov.com

Balancing Act

I'm not a big believer in balance. I guess it's because balance is sometimes used in what I feel is the wrong context. For example: "I don't want to try hard at work because I need to be a good parent." Or, "I have to balance what my company needs with what my client needs."

I think you can indeed, do a great job at work and go home and be a great parent. I believe you can do a great job and make both your company and your client thrilled.

But one area where balance can be good is in client focus. If you're a manufacturer that focuses only on its few top dealers, then there's a chance a lot of good things will be missed out on. Sometimes a smaller dealer does things better or has more potential than the dominant dealer. If you're a smaller company and have a dominant client who gets all your best people and thinking, you're shortchanging those smaller clients that could turn into big clients.

Plus, a little competition is good for all of us--why not have that big dealer look over his shoulder at the little dealer? That little dealer just might be treating customers better or might be selling more aggressively. That big dog could learn a few tricks from the toy dog.


Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com
LaBov Sales Channel
PB&J Newsletter

The Problem with Balance

Talk to a doctor and he/she will tell you that one thing we all dislike--pain--is actually a good thing. Pain is our body's warning system that something needs to be attended to. Without it, we'd be in big trouble. That's why pain medications can be damaging--they diminish or mask our body's warning system.

In our businesses we strive for balance in workloads. If you have a ten person department and you have 60 hours of work for them that day, the temptation is to give each person approximately six hours of work. But is that smart?

Say that eight of those people are in demand and ideally would be the best people to do that 60 hours of work. Say that the other two people are not in demand and in reality have little to nothing to do.

Wouldn't it be better to learn why those two people were not in demand? Wouldn't it be best to put the best people on the projects that they're best suited (and in demand) for? I think so.

I've been guilty of trying to balance out the workload, but that's too much like pain medication--it masks the symptom: we have a couple of people that are not busy.

If we get off the medication--balance--and face the situation, we may find out why and do something about it. The two people that are not busy may be great performers, but their speciality is not needed at the moment (not their fault) or it could be that one or both of them are difficult to work with or simply don't perform as well as the others in the department (definitely something they have a hand in).

I'm off the "business pain meds" (balance), feeling the pain and doing something about it.

Barry LaBov
CEO, LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com