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Research, Technology, and Teamwork blog by Susie Wee

Blogging on the beach: Work-life balance

Published 13 April 2007, 01:39 AM

I'm in Hawaii right now, catching a few days of sun between my trip to Japan earlier this week and my conference in Hawaii that starts on Monday. I have a deep dark confession... I want to blog on the beach! (Confession #1)

I know this is nerdy, but I'm a nerd. (Confession #2)

When you're laying on the beach in the sun, it's a good time to sit back, relax, and reflect. Your mind wanders to different topics, and to me that is the perfect time to blog, since blogging is about capturing and distilling your thoughts.

Sure, there's a work-life balance point that might argue against blogging on the beach. But everyone who knows me knows that I don't exactly have work-life balance. (Confession #3) But they know that I do have fun!

Back to the point: If I don't capture my thoughts while I'm in the moment, then I'll actually be creating more work for myself because I'll have to find time later on to pull out my computer and try to recall and write up my thoughts.  So, I could argue that blogging on the beach supports work-life balance.

Question: Is blogging on the beach a violation of Work-Life balance?

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Comments

If (work=thinking and life=no-thinking) you have already violated work-life balance by thinking on the beach. So the damage is done even before you begin blogging. if(work=having fun at office and life=having fun outside office) and you are having fun at the beach, then there is no violation of work-life (= fun-fun) balance
# Friday, April 13, 2007 01:19 PM by Krishnan Ramanathan
Susie,

Blogging on the beach? I'm envious!

The fact of the matter is that work-life balance is whatever you define it to be.

Where we get into trouble is when we try to live someone else's ideal of life balance. We are constantly being bombarded with the notion that work-life balance is crucial to leading a happy life. Self-help authors and the mainstream media and popular culture share with us their precise points of view as to what our lives should look like. We’re warned that there’s a perfectly balanced state that we can achieve if only we work more intensely, are superior at managing our time, are more efficient at every task we undertake, have each of our “spaces” organized, and/or are more adept at saying “NO” and standing for it.

Unfortunately, these well-meaning providers of opinion leave us with feelings of frustration and inadequacy, for we‘ve now indirectly been given a new standard by which to measure our own lives. Their suggestions of how to “take control” of our lives seldom bear any resemblance to what our lives currently look like. Upon examination and reflection, we find that, when compared to the model of stability presented to us, we see that we simply don’t make the grade. It’s now been made abundantly clear to us that our lives are unbalanced and totally out of control. In addition, we now feel incompetent, guilty, and hopeless because we’ve added one more idyllic aspiration that we can never attain and that we’ll beat ourselves up about over and over again, adding more traumas to our already stressed-out existence.

What’s wrong here is not that we want to live balanced lives, it’s that we’ve swallowed hook, line, and sinker someone else’s concept of what balance is. We’ve let somebody who knows nothing about us tell us how we should define our lives.

Is it wrong to want to achieve a balanced life? Of course not! We simply need to make certain that we understand and define what balance means to us and what our hopes, dreams, and aspirations are. We cannot allow someone else to tell us what life balance should mean to us, nor can we fall into the trap of trying to mirror someone else’s version of the perfectly balanced life. What we can do is create our own definitions of balanced lives and live them!

I truly believe that not only does each of us have the ability to create the lives that we truly desire; everything we need to live that life is already inherent within each of us.

There’s no magic for success in life. No book or column or self-help author or advice columnist can analyze your life, nor discover what you hope it to be. Only you can.

And that's exactly what you're doing on that beach in Hawaii! You've defined what balnce means to you and you're creating that balance by taking action to achieve and maintain it in your life. I congratulate you for that.

David B. Bohl

http://reflectionscoaching.typepad.com

# Friday, April 13, 2007 02:05 PM by davidbohl@reflectionscoachingl...
rkrish67: Good points. Yes, the damage is done. And, Yes, there is a lot of fun-fun to be had! Thanks for clearing me of the violation!
# Friday, April 13, 2007 02:34 PM by Susie Wee
David: Very nice insights on what work-life balance means, and in particular for pointing out that the meaning is different for each person. I've never been able to fit into a traditional mold, so the personalized definition hits home with me.

Thanks for sharing your insights and your URL. I see you are a work-life professional, and I love the "father's group" that you are forming for working dads!

# Friday, April 13, 2007 04:31 PM by Susie Wee
You are definitely NOT violating work-life balance principles. If we all took CultureRx's (www.culturerx.com) philosophy of "people are free to do whatever they want, whenever they want as long as the work gets done" then work-life balance is ALL about CONTROL. Meaning that each person has the control to decide what to do, when to do it, and where to do it as long as the work gets done. If you don't want to blog on the beach, then don't. But if you do, that's great! David, above, definitely has the right idea. It's not that the number or types of demands that exist in life change (work, personal, community, etc). It's that most employers don't give employees the control to manage the demands in a efficient and productive manner.
# Monday, April 30, 2007 06:25 PM by arizona03
arizona03: Interesting perspective that work-life balance is all about control! Thanks for including the link to CultureRx. I took a quick look at their web page and blog. It seems like their philosophy is that companies should provide flexibility so that employees can have control in their lives-- This is very interesting! When people are looking for jobs that provide flexibility, I think there are two issues at play- 1) whether a company supports the idea and 2) whether an individual manager supports the idea. Both have to be aligned to make the vision into a reality. Once a person does manage to find such an environment, then it is up to the employee to make the most of it by being very effective in it. Thanks for the comment, arizona03!
# Monday, April 30, 2007 06:58 PM by Susie Wee

Hi @ll...

When it comes to work life balance, I plan to work from abroad, hopefully with my feet in the water... Living somewere close to the sea and work remote for half a year or so still is my dream. I work at HP and I got it approved...

Now question is, are there any HP locations close to the beach? Nice to live, calm place, and were I could rent a place for me and my wife to stay? Tips are more than welcome, please send them to s.mehtala@gmail.com

Cheers and regards,

Sam

# Wednesday, August 13, 2008 07:20 AM by Samuel

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