There’s been a lot of talk about work/life balance in recent years. I say recent years because there’s no doubt that the issue of work/life balance is a modern phenomenon. I don’t think coal-miners, shipyard workers or dockers discussed the merits of a proper work/life balance and how to to go about achieving it. Yes, they talked about their work, their pay and how it affected their lives but work and life were separate, distinct. Once you knocked off or clocked off, you were off. Your time was ‘life’ time, not ‘work’ time.
I bring this up because I was involved in a Twitter conversation about the work/life balance subject with a couple of people at the Citrix Partner Accelerator 2013 event last week. One of them commended the observation by Kevin Bland, Citrix director for channel and alliances – Northern Europe, that "the key to work life balance is the seamless transition between the two". But what exactly is meant by a "seamless transition"? Does it mean you can easily switch between work and life as and when required? That you can do your e-mails while drinking coffee in a cafe? Or be able to take a business call from an office in a different time zone while you’re sitting at home in the evening or even out socially?
Remote possibilities
The proposition that a seamless transition between work and life is the key to work/life balance sounds reasonable enough on the surface, but is it? My own belief, despite the fact that I spend nearly all of my time working from home, is that the two areas of work and life should be as jarringly distinct as possible.
There’s no question that the technology exists to enable employees to be accessible from work (or for work) at any time and wherever they might be. And it’s getting better. There are many people working in companies today – especially knowledge-based or mobile workers – that benefit from being able to work from home or remotely when required.
It’s no coincidence that a lot of the talk about work/life balance has arisen as IT has become more and more a part of the fabric of many people’s working (and home) lives. It’s a primary enabler for making work independent from the work environment so that employees can essentially access a portable work ‘layer’ sitting on top of their home environment.
On the reverse side of the coin, there’s also a recognition by some employers that it makes sense to allow employees to have (limited and controlled) access at specific times to a home layer in a work environment in terms of Internet access for social interactions or transactions.
But there’s a part of me that can’t help wondering. For instance, when we talk about work/life balance in general are we talking about a work/life balance for people or for technology? The other thing that I question is the use of the word ‘balance’. Shouldn’t it be something like ‘divide’ instead? Balance suggests you need to try and reach a "blend" of the two rather than arrive at a clear distinction between them. And how do you ensure that the balance between the two is even? In other words, who does it suit more, employees or employers?
Of course, there are many people who don’t have a choice. There is no need for them to achieve a seamless work/life balance because they already know which is which. For them, work is work, life is life.
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