The Case Against Work Life Balance
Americans are sad
Multiple national and international studies are conducted every year to gauge levels of human happiness, benchmarking against each other and past happiness study metrics. Overwhelmingly, Americans are less happy than we have been in the past and less happy than people in most other developed economies. This trend is pretty consistent across the board.
Surprisingly, this trend of sadness comes against a backdrop of considerable corporate efforts to “make” our workforce happier in their jobs. Work-life balance is fully a part of our social lexicon, and every good company is expected to make an effort to provide this balance to their employees. Mostly, this has translated to trying to allow people to work fewer hours and, in some cases, work from home. The average full-time worker is putting in about 4% fewer hours today than 30 years ago.
As anyone who has been in the workforce for 20+ years can tell you, we’re not sadder because we’re working more...that’s all I’m saying here.
Where our sadness stems from...at least, my theory!
A quick warning: I’m worried I may have officially reached the point in my life where my thinking qualifies as “old-school.” I’m more worried still about crossing the line between useful old-school and antiquated thinking. I’ll leave you to be the judge as I float my theory about why our people are so sad, which is admittedly an incomplete treatment of the subject, but still important and useful for our readers, I think.
“I want better work-life balance so I can spend more time outside of work on things that really matter.” To me, this sentiment sums up the modern employee’s perspective on work. It's something that doesn’t really matter, and that they’re forced to do to make an income.
You know what really matters to me and the happiest people I know? Their work!
However wrong I may be, I truly feel like my work matters. Always have. I can honestly say I felt the same even back to when I was stocking shingles on roofs, mixing mortar for brick masons, and framing walls in the field. I can’t imagine feeling like I was spending 40+ hours per week doing something I thought didn’t matter.
I believe two of the biggest issues depriving Americans of happiness today are, (1) people fail to see/find meaning in their work and (2) they’re wasting time on way too many things outside of work that actually don’t matter. Too much of their lives has been consumed by non-existent online communities rather than the real communities in which they live. They fail to recognize quality time is not sitting in the same room with loved ones while all staring down at their respective phones and tablets. Freaking talk to each other!
I digress...
Creating meaning for your workforce
The mere act of contributing to the greatest economy on the planet is meaningful. Construction should especially be a deeply rewarding experience of transforming the world around us for the better. You don’t have to do much as an employer, leader, or manager to create meaning for your workforce other than remind them how cool the work is and whose lives you are transforming with every project.
If you want extra credit (and if you are reading this, I know you do) develop and communicate a compelling vision for your company and ensure everyone knows the crucial role they play in driving you there.
Ultimately, though, the individual must want to find the meaning in their work, and that’s not something you can fix. The only thing I know about this for sure is that if you allow people who don’t care about their work to stay, you’ll lose those who do care.
The Spark Notes:
Americans are sad, but working too much is not the culprit.
Choosing to believe your work doesn't matter is both provably wrong and dooming people to 40+ hours/week of wasted potential.
Instead of trying to find ways for people to work less, we ought to be finding ways to help them get more fulfillment from their work.
If people got off their devices and actually enjoyed the company of those around them when they weren't at work, they'd come to work in a better mood in the first place.
Chad is old-school and becoming crotchety.
