Good Fences-Key to work/life balance

By Joe Hungler on February 23rd, 2008

Michael Gilbert at the Authentic Organization has an interesting post, Good Fences. It addresses boundaries and work/life balance. This is a great way of thinking of work life balance. Some boundaries that jump to my mind are:

v Being home for dinner with the family-I’m single, but I know this is a struggle for many. In our organization, we are open until 9:00 p.m., so it is not an option for most. For myself, I need to create a boundary around skipping meals.

v Phone calls at home-This is a matter of training staff on when it is appropriate to call and when they should send an e-mail so I have it on my desk in the morning. I tell staff (aside from obvious safety and major building issues) to make sure I don’t get blindsided by a phone call from a parent/board member/community partner. Most other issues can wait for my inbox the next day. I have probably made it too easy for people to call me at home. Unfortunately, it is harder to reprogram people than it is to train them right the first time.

v Checking e-mail at home-I have gotten away from this. My laptop slowing down had a lot to do with it (thanks Neil for teaching me to speed it back up!), but I don’t really miss it. Part of that is that I’ve learned some tricks on keeping my inbox empty. If it does get backed up, I may empty it out while watching ESPN. That way it doesn’t really feel like work. I also have started to use Outlook to send messages the following morning. That way people don’t expect me to check my e-mail at all hours anymore.

v Bringing work home-This was also a victim of my laptop. It has been good for me to leave work at work. I think that bringing work home can help with work life balance too though. If bringing it home and working on it after everyone else is in bed allows you to be home in time for dinner and still make your deadline it may be in your best interest. I have gotten away from feeling like I have to bring everything home, extending my workday.

v Working on weekends-This is how the The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey starts-with the manager working on a beautiful Saturday with his staff out playing golf. I’m more likely to go in on Saturday see staff running a swim meet, doing a community service project and running basketball practice. For me, working on the weekends needs to be about doing something on my terms. Obviously there are occasional special events and conferences that are the exception. I don’t mind going in on a weekend to do a fun project or at least one of my choice. I hate going in if I am just trying to meet a deadline.

v Vacation-I took today off and ended up having 4 phone calls from work before 9:00 a.m. Part of this is how I have trained people. It is my responsibility to make the decision on closing the Club due to weather during vacation weeks. I didn’t tell them what to do if I wasn’t in to make the call. I probably didn’t do a good enough job communicating that I was on vacation to everyone either. Some just assumed I was working. I think that the most important thing to having a peaceful vacation is to make sure you have completed what needs doing before you leave and communicating when other things will be completed so people aren’t looking for them while you are gone.

What do are your biggest work/life boundary issues? How do you address them?

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