WorkLife Balance; Integration?
by Adam Chan

Work-life balance: This is seriously considered as part of today’s career pursuit. In other words, people will not blindly choose a career and neglect their family life. I see that coming across in your question--that is a healthy move. Like all new career moves, we need to spend an extensive amount of time to familiarize ourselves with the new environment and getting into the details of the job. That will expense a huge amount of time/energy and to some point neglecting of your family. Please ensure your family fully supports this new venture.

For further reading, go to:

http://www.zdnetasia.com/techjobs/career-resources/0,3800009355,62044137,00.htm

To begin with, the questioner viewed switching job as both an attractive vision, nevertheless as a road block too. This forms a paradox. It is no surprise why he has chosen to seek for external advice. The consultant has illuminated the need to challenge his mindset and his notion of what WorkLife Balance is because paradox provides no solution, only confusion.

From the above article, it suggests that Singaporeans wanted a clear distinction between work and life, which is emphasized by the word balance. When we think of the word balance, we think of equilibrium and equality in distribution.

This paradigm of the word balance has a profound influence on how we view the phrase WorkLife Balance all together. We can easily assume that harmony between work and life to come from careful distribution of time. Is it truly possible to achieve harmony when the work needs are driven by external stimuli that we have absolutely no control over? Could the underlying core assumption of WorkLife Balance for most Singaporeans is,

“no working after 1800hrs and weekends?”

It appears like distribution of time.

Paradoxical Paradigms
In the earlier article, it states;

…. they want most is a flexible work/life balance

The word flexible connotes; capable of being changed, adjust readily to different conditions, making or willing to make concessions.

The willingness to make concessions directly contradicts the notion of no working after 1800hrs and weekends. Professional who are passionate and feel the sense of responsibilities towards their careers will find it difficult to reconcile these two polarized paradigms. It is common for exemplary professionals to make progress in their personal growth relating to their career outside of official working hours. Such professionals hardly demand for compensation from the company. They simply want to do it, not has do it. When passion is the fuel, time distribution will never become inhibition.

Moreover, passion is not time dependent, it drives when it suppose to drive. If WorkLife Balance is contingent upon time distribution, wouldn’t the interaction of passion and the notion of WorkLife Balance create greater polarization?

On the macro level, it may not be whether the society has arrived to WorkLife Balance, rather it is when our paradigms can be shifted about it. Otherwise, pursuing for WorkLife Balance would end up like chasing the end of the rainbow.

Passion, Work and Life
Work and Life; both elements are equally demanding on the time we have. In order to create harmony between the two, merely by time distribution may be inadequate. Just like water and oil, they can never be mixed. Forcing the two to mix will only create frustration and helplessness.

By and large, we do things that will make us feel good about ourselves. When we become really proficient in doing something, we tend to enjoy the doing more. A professional violinist will pursue for personal mastery in playing the instrument until he or she feel as one with the instrument. When both fused as one, it is not possible to describe the violinist without including the instrument. Only passion can provide such energy and sustenance for any individual to achieve such personal mastery.

Whatever we do, passion is the renewable energy and fuel that drives us to go on and on. Regardless as parents, couples or professionals, we find the fitting impetus to sustain ourselves in playing the role we chose to play. The impetus can be interpreted in many ways. E.g. monetary gains, social values, career progression, humanitarian aid, etc are common impetus we have. Underlying all these, only passion can provide the needed sustenance to combat the fatigue brought by time and repetition.

With a doubt, passion is the element to integrate the unmixable work and life. Since avoiding work entirely is not possible, why not passionately integrate it into our lives? The next important question is,

What is WorkLife Integration?
No surprise for the right answer. It is simply whatever that works for you. It emphasizes on freedom and choices, diminishing restrictions and fixations. Although this may sound a little lame but nothing can be further than the truth. It lies in the paradigm we hold towards WorkLife Balance to begin with. To make this work, the next critical challenge is the ability to shift the paradigm from WorkLife Balance to WorkLife Integration.

Firstly, what is WorkLife Integration NOT? This requires clarification, otherwise this fresh idea will face the same paradoxical transformation as that of WorkLife Balance.

- It is not working non-stop
- It is not forgetting to rest
- It is not about increasing promotional chances
- It is not to create a workaholic
- It is not about exploiting labor
- It is not a fixation of rules