One Perspective: Achieving work-life balance is a smart choice

By Dan Bobinski The Daily Record Newswire A healthy work/life balance is more about what you do for yourself, not what your employer or the government mandates. I recently watched a video on Bnet.com entitled Take Back Your Time, with the guest advocating a law that U.S. employers must provide mandatory two weeks paid leave after one year of employment. The guest on Bnet's The Live One vidcast was Joe Robinson, author of Don't Miss Your Life: Find More Joy and Fulfillment Now and also Work to Live. Robinson was a driving force behind the Paid Vacation Act of 2009 (which failed to make it to the floor of Congress). Robinson talked about his own youth when his dad packed up the family for two weeks of annual vacation, but then as an adult Robinson found he wasn't taking that time off like his dad had done. Robinson then cited various studies that show the health benefits of taking two weeks off each year. I looked up some research and it validated his claims. Men who don't vacation regularly are 32 percent more likely to die of a heart attack. It's worse for women -- failing to take a two-week annual vacation means dying of a heart attack is 50 percent more likely for them. There's also research that shows people get better sleep when they take regular vacations, and their reaction time (how quickly they respond to a situation) is also better. All of this is excellent information and backs up the need for people to get away from their work for a while. But as I watched the vidcast, I questioned whether a federal law stating that employers must provide and enforce mandatory paid vacations was the best way to help people live more balanced lives. Thankfully, Lindsay Blakely, a senior editor at Bnet.com, asked that very question. Robinson responded by pointing to successful CEO's who felt totally worthless two days after they retired. He stated that people need time to get more balanced in their life and not just let their work define who they are. I agree that it's not good to be work-centered. A quick read of Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" will tell you that. The problem is Robinson never answered the editor's question. Instead of yet another federal law that places yet another burden on employers, I prefer to educate people and let them take responsibilities for their own lives. Robinson's push for a new federal law turns the government into a nanny over employers, who must then become nannies over their employees. To look into this further, I went to worklifebalance.com where I found a paper published by the Georgia Institute of Technology, titled "Work-Life Balance: A Case of Social Responsibility or Competitive Advantage?" Comparing the European models where work-life balance programs are mandatory (and companies are fined for not providing enough) and U.S. practices where providing work-life balance programs is seen as a competitive advantage, the writers concluded that "the EU is behind the U.S. in recognizing the personal responsibility of the individual." Personal responsibility is a key point in all of this. Without it, we remain like little children, needing someone to tell us when to go to bed, when to eat, what to eat, and what to wear. For good work-life balance, we need to consider all aspects of our lives -- such as faith, finances, family, friends, fitness, and forte (our careers) -- and ensure things that need to be addressed are getting enough attention. To quote again from the Georgia Institute of Technology paper: "For true work-life balance to occur, employees need to be responsible for adopting certain behaviors which help them balance work and the other parts of their life." All that said, companies should know they gain a competitive advantage by educating employees and providing work-life balance programs -- or by starting such a program if they don't already have one. It doesn't matter the motivation; benefits abound. For example, if you're motivated by money, consider that the stock market results for companies seen as "best places to work" with good work-life programs do between 50 and 100 percent better than the S&P 500 average. If you're motivated by productivity, qualitative surveys find that people in work-life programs are 20 percent more productive on average. I could go on, but the bottom line is Robinson is right -- we need time off! We should be taking his advice to live a balanced life. And, if you're an employer, you will reap huge benefits by educating people through work-life programs. But do we need yet another federal regulation over the heads of our employers? I don't think so. Let's get better balance through learning about the benefits and making wise choices. Employers and employees can all benefit from work-life balance simply because it's the smart thing to do. ---------- Dan Bobinski is a certified behavior analyst, best-selling author and director at the Center for Workplace Excellence. He makes his home in Boise. Reach Dan at (208) 375-7606 or dan@workplace-excellence.com. Published: Thu, Aug 25, 2011