We Replaced Work-Life Balance with Something Better
Problems With Work-Life Balance
More than ever before, we are hearing a rallying cry for work-life balance. But, is that what we really need? According to Deloitte’s 2021 Women @Work: A Global Outlook, the top reason for women leaving the workforce is a lack of work-life balance.
As a society, we’ve navigated a global pandemic, social unrest, racial injustice, climate catastrophes, and political chaos all in a span of three years. It is no wonder we are all reevaluating our priorities and women (at twice the rate of men) lead the Great Resignation because balancing a career with their life is not easily achievable.
Ironically, the pursuit of work-life balance has always been inherently one-sided, and therefore inherently flawed. The responsibility of achieving it is placed solely on the shoulders of individuals, not employers. That doesn’t seem very balanced, does it? It took the pause from the pandemic for women to realize that we’ve been carrying the burden of unrealistic expectations for so long, that we thought we were failing when it was the system all along that was failing us.
The other flaw in the Work-Life Balance paradigm is that “Balance” implies that our life and our work should achieve a happy equilibrium. In other words, your work should hold an equal amount of importance in your life as your family, friends, domestic responsibilities, health, caregiving, volunteering, hobbies, sleep, exercise, mental health, and self-care combined.
We are scrabbling for an ideal that is as mythical as a calorie-free cookie that you actually want to eat.
A Better Idea: Work-Life Integration
What we actually need instead is Work-Life Integration. It is a much different cultural approach because Work-Life Integration is a collaborative responsibility between employees and employers to create an environment where our work complements our life rather than competes with it. It is a more dynamic ideal that understands that instead of balance, we’d rather have agency in how we weave work into our lives, and experience more meaning in the work we choose to do.
Employers who adopt policies to support a Work-Life Integration culture will be at the bleeding edge of attracting talent in the modern workforce. Companies that stick with the fading work-first mentality will struggle to hire and retain top talent. Employers are no longer just competing with better job offers from competitors, they are also competing with entrepreneurship. In 2020, the numbers of people starting a business surged to the highest rate in twenty five years.
It is not just about not going back to the office, it is about not going backwards, and it means a seismic shift in the future of work.
What Does Work-Life Integration Look Like?
It can look a number of ways and that is the beauty of it. It begins by dismantling the corporate status quo, and ends with a trust culture between employers and employees that is earned through an implementation of work freedoms, gender equality, inclusive representation, core values, ethical pay, and corporate integrity.
In a Work-Life Integration culture, employees work less and are paid more for their time because their contributions, productivity, and outcomes are valued more than hours on the clock or butts in seats.
Decoupling salaries from the 40-hour work week will be something we start to see in Work-Life Integration.
For remote workers, salaries will not be tied to geographical location.
Communication boundaries are clearly defined and respected and asynchronous communication is the norm, not the exception.
Parental-style leadership and oversight will fade away as employees expect to be treated like adults.
Remote employees will be able to do the bulk of their work at any time as long as deadlines are met.
Death to the 40-hour work week. Four-day, 30-Hour work weeks will become standard.
Employees will find more meaning in their work and companies will experience happier and more productive employees.
Does This Seem Radical?
There are plenty of studies that prove productivity increases when workers work less than 40 hours a week. Productivity also increases when workers are happy. In both scenarios, workers also take less sick days and experience less stress. Six hour days seem to be a sweet spot for improving family’s lives. A successful Work-Life integration will require employees to work less hours, but without a detriment to the companies they work for who will benefit from a happier, healthier, more productive team. It’s a win-win.