I think it was college -
when this all started. When I started to realize that there was not enough of
me to get good grades in school, work a part time job, spend time with my
friends, keep in touch with my family, attend terpAMA meetings, participate in
my sorority’s philanthropy… When I started to feel the pressure of time, and
the fear of not having enough of it.
The quest for work-life
balance has become an ever-increasing hardship for me. Maybe it’s a part of
growing up. Maybe it’s what helps us mature.
I don't know. But I do
know that this semester has shone a light on the issue for me. Devoting four
months to the study of work-life balance has provoked new ways of looking at
it; and to be honest, I don’t know if it’s gotten easier, or if it’s gotten
even harder.
After an entire
semester of researching “work-life-balance” concepts and ideas, I continue to
ask myself how it can really be achieved.
Yes, everything I’ve
written and everything I’ve felt and believed work-life balance should be
sounds nice in theory. But what happens when my kids need money for college,
when my mortgage bills ring the doorbell at the end of the month, when the car
breaks down and needs to be replaced? How do you focus so passionately on the
things you want to do in life, when
there are so many things that you need
to do? And how do you differentiate between a want and a need?
Well, I’m still trying to
figure that out for myself. But I’m not the only one. In fact, the issue has
become so prevalent in America that President Obama and First Lady Michelle
spoke passionately about their own struggles with work-life balance just a few
months ago. They discussed a need for “action on the issue of workplace
flexibility.”
So what is the future for
work-life balance in America?
Large corporations are
beginning to answer this question.
SAS, a business analytics
and software company, is proclaimed one of the top ten “Best Companies to Work
For” by CNN Money. The reason for this being the company’s amazing job benefits
and perks. As an SAS employee, there’s no more need to worry about child day
care – just bring your kid to work! The company offers high-quality, low cost
child care, on top of a free medical center if you ever get sick, a free
fitness and massage center if you’re feeling stressed, and of course, a country
club complete with golf courses, tennis courts, and swimming pools, just in case you simply need a break at
work.
Or how about S.C. Johnson?
Working at this cleaning product giant comes with discounted services that
include, but are not limited to, mailing packages, sending flowers, picking up
or delivering groceries, researching car insurance deals, changing the oil in
your car, and even standing in line for concert tickets.
If that isn’t enough, you
could give Google a try. As number one best company to work for, Google offers
its employees the opportunity to bring their dogs to work, do their laundry at
the free laundry machines, use one of the four gyms, get an unsubsidized
massage, eat at one of the sixteen gourmet cafes for free, and the list goes on
and on.
These are just three
examples of companies that have begun to pioneer the movement of workplace
flexibility. However, for these firms, the solution to helping employees
overcome the struggle of balancing their work lives with their home lives, has
simply been to offer services that bring some of the tasks typically done at
home, right into the workplace itself.
I am not by any means
saying that walking my dog beside my co-workers through the halls at Google is
a hard life.
But I can’t help but
wonder what is next. If we are now able to bring our pets and our children to
work, when will it be our mattresses and our pillows…?
