Work-Life Integration?

Today is “World Mental Health” day. Now, I realize some of you may eye-roll, or have a cute comment about “snowflakes” but, mental health is becoming a prime concern in our over-scheduled, always-on, constantly-connected, busy lives.

Which leads to a discussion about a post I saw on Linked In just the other day. A Co-Founder/CEO stated:

“Work-life balance is BS.”

He then doubled down and stated “If you aren't engaged in your work outside of the office - perhaps you need a career change.”

In life, we’re told to “balance” our budget, eat a “balanced” diet…but when it comes to work, we should say “eff balance!?”

Come on.

His position was that instead of “balance” we should instead focus on “work-life integration.”

Work Life Integration

To be fair, the “concept” of integration isn’t necessarily bad. It goes something like this: “achieving ‘balance’ in both your work and personal life is challenging and puts undue pressure on individuals. People constantly feel like they are unbalanced in one area and thus failing. Work-life integration seeks to say “you have one life, live it. So, if you’re at work and something personal comes up…go deal with it. If you’re at home and something comes up that’s work-related, respond to it. Integrate ‘work’ and personal’ into one ‘life’.”

Again, the concept is fine in principle, but as with most things…the devil is in the details.

How many of you are comfortable dealing with your personal stuff while at work? Or, perhaps a better question…how many of your managers are OK with that?

What tends to happen with “work-life integration” is an expectation that you address work related issues at night, on the weekends and while on vacation; whenever the need arises. Because "integration!"

However, the minute you need to address a personal issue while at work? The application of “integration” drastically changes. And not in your favor.

Who Does It Benefit

It’s a cliché plot in a lot of movies where, in order to find the “bad guys” you just have to follow the money. Cliché or not, it’s a solid strategy. So, let’s follow the money on work-life “integration.”

If you’re salaried, you get $X per year…regardless of if you work 40 hours a week or 100 hours a week.

As a CEO/Co-Founder…and I’m paying an employee for 40 hours of work, but I get 80 or 100 hours in return, who does it benefit? Is it in my (the CEO) best interest for employees to have “balance” or to be integrated/engaged in work outside of the office?

Following the money…this approach of “integration” seems to tip in favor of the company.

But, wait! Employees of startups and early stage companies are often given equity! So, it benefits them too, right? Same with “Employee-Stock-Option-Plans” so, working during my “non-work” hours, clearly benefits me.

Let’s do some math. 15-25 basis points (0.15%-0.25%) is a pretty generous equity offer at many startups with the starting point for most mid-level workers starting at 5 basis points (0.05%).

So, let’s say you work at a startup. You get 5 basis (0.05%) points of equity and bust your ass for the next 10 years working 80+ hour weeks and “integrate/engage in work outside the office.” Your company sells for $50 Million!

Exciting!!

You walk away with…….

$25,000.

Before taxes.

Working 80 hours a week for the last 10 years. Not being balanced. Sacrificing nights, weekends, vacation. Remind me, how much were the CEOs options worth?

Follow the money.

Do What You Love

OK, you think…so maybe it’s not about the money. Maybe you’re super passionate about work and you love it so much that you just cannot STOP working!

That’s great! You should find something you love doing. But, again, let’s do some math.

The average male in the USA will live to be 78.69 years (to make it easy on me, let’s call it 79).

You spend, on average 26 years sleeping. And, another 7 (believe it or not) trying to sleep! You spend close to 5 years eating.

The point of the above is this: you have far less time than you think you do. I get wanting to build something great. I get wanting to leave behind a legacy.

But think about the dream you’re contributing to. Is it your dream? Or someone else’s? Are you building a corporate legacy while leaving behind a family legacy of missed dinners, skipped vacations and work-emails instead of night-time snuggles? What about that novel you wanted to write? The song you wanted to learn? The trip-of-a-lifetime you wanted to take?

Finding work you love or are passionate about shouldn't take precedence above all of the other things you love in life.

Mental Health

From a mental health point of view, “integration” is meant to solve the push-pull we feel between our personal responsibilities and our work responsibilities.

But, managers aren’t machines and algorithms. If you leave at 1 p.m. in the middle of the day to deal with something personal…because your leadership team believes in “integration…” but your manager sees you leaving at 1 p.m, what’s the perception? Do you even have the chutzpah to go deal with that issue?

But let’s say you do go address the issue. Does your manager see you logging back on at 6 p.m. and working until 10 p.m.? Probably not. Again, to them…you left at 1 p.m.

I would love to believe that there are solid, decent and good managers out there that truly do buy into the concept of “as long as the work gets done…” but, they are human. They see you leaving at 1 p.m. They see the rest of your team staying until 5 p.m. or later. It’s human nature that they are going to have a negative response to seeing that.

Work-life balance isn’t perfect. There is inherent friction involved with the push-pull between personal life and work life. But it’s a concept that attempts to free you from the burden of pressure; from the burden of guilt. With “balance” when you’re at home, the concept is saying that you should be fully present at home. Free yourself from the guilt of not responding to an email at 9 p.m. at night.

Same goes for the flip side...as a working parent, I'd love to go to every single school event that I could, but, while at work...having balance means freeing myself from that guilt. If I'm "present" during my home time and giving it my full attention, I can ease my guilt when I'm at work and required to give it 100% of my attention.

Again, it's not a perfect solution. But it's similar to our eating habits. I'd love to eat cake all day, every day. But I can't. If, however, I eat a healthy, balanced diet...I can have a piece of cake from time-to-time, guilt free! That's balance.

Work-life integration, however, is a slippery slope; one that more often than not, favors the employer. One that again, more often than not, forces you to prioritize work over everything else. That 9 p.m. email needs to be responded to because your whole team buys into ‘integration’ and they are responding.

In evaluating the concept for yourself, ask “who benefits from this concept the most” in order to determine if you should buy into it. You have one life. And the question you need to ask is:

Am I living life on my terms or someone else’s?