“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
Albert Einstein
Perceptions of stress at work are quite high with several studies and our own research with our stress/health assessment StressScan suggesting that 20% to 65% of all employees rate their jobs as being very or extremely challenging ((Nowack, K. (2006). Optimising Employee Resilience. Coaching to Help Individuals Modify Lifestyle. Stress News, International Journal of Stress Management, Volume 18, 9-12)).
A 2002 survey by TrueCareers found that 70 percent of employees do not think there is a healthy balance between their work and their personal life. Of the 1,626 respondents, slightly more than half (51 percent), reported that they were considering looking for a new job as a result of difficulties juggling both their personal and professional responsibilities.
Of the individuals who report a negative balance between their work and personal life, 43% reported working too many hours as the major contributor. Over 36% also reported that worrying about work when not on the job added to work-life imbalance.
It seems pretty obvious that involvement in non-work roles and responsibilities (the “balanced worker”) would have less time to devote to work increasing the likelihood of promotions to those who are work and not family focused.
In a new study using self-ratings, manager and peer ratings of 9,627 leaders in 33 countries found that managers who were rated higher in work-life balance were rated higher in career advancement potential than were workaholics ((Lyness, K. & Judiesch, M. (2008). Can a manager have a life and a career? International and Multisource Perspectives on Work-Life Balance and Career Advancement Potential. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 789-805)). This trend was particularly pronounced in women in high egalitarian cultures (men are not expected to be the sole breadwinner and women are not expected to be the sole caregiver of children). This study did not answer the question of whether more balanced managers who were perceived more likely to advance actually did (this would require a longitudinal study).
What makes this study so interesting is the size and number of countries included. The most consistent finding of this study is surprising in light of the common impression that a single focus on work above family, hobbies and outside activities would seem to be a good predictor for potential advancement. This study certainly challenges the prevailing viewpoint on work-life balance and is the one of the most comprehensive studies to suggest that balance might actually be related to positive career outcomes for men and women leaders.
Hey, none of us has enough time but it’s weird to remember that all of us has all that exists….Be well…..
Ken Nowack
Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and President & Chief Research Officer/Co-Founder of Envisia Learning, is a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ken also serves as the Associate Editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. His recent book Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It is available for free for a limited time by signing up for free blog updates (Learn more at our website)
It is a funny thing. I have a friend who is always searching to have fun. Because he works so hard, he allocates “fun” into his schedule. So committed to having fun – he seldom finds it. I work for a very large private University. Because part of operation is in health care, the tensions are usually very high. The days go by fast and it would appear on the surface that few even can fathom a life/work balance. To these ends, the leadership has moved the organization’s EAP department to create and deliver an ongoing series of balance-type seminars. What is most interesting is the fact that the array of offerings encompass a number of topics. To fully understand how to achieve life/work balance you must first understand that any level of balance can only take place when a person can divorce his or her wife when the person arrives to work and visa-a-versa. On the work side this was accomplished when the EAP sponsored seminars that targeted the baggage people can’t leave at hope. Items such as property tax assessments, credit scores, and other items that bogs a person’s mind down while they are at work. Full balance can be reached only when knowledge is provided from people who have real answers to real problems. When people maintain an unbalanced life, they do in fact consider changing jobs when in reality, the job may be the only true constant in their lives.
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