We talked a lot about how to find a management model that will allow for more work-life balance. However, what if that is not what the employees actually want? How to deal with that?

Andrew Isaacs from Haas challenged me last week on the meaning of work-life balance. And I started thinking if work-life balance is maybe a misnomer? This term tries to oppose work as not being an integral part of our life and suggests that work is something bad.
Should we rather call it work-play balance? And what if the work is actually fun (play) … Is it fine to use more than 8 hours a day doing that? If so, what about the consequences like burnout?

And of course there is a question of how much managers should be aware of these different aspects and not only look at the actual working hours that people spend at work?

It seams that not only me struggles with this question. I found a couple of articles/blogs with different ideas around how to see work-life balance:
– it is not about the work-life balance but an integrated life:
http://www.openforum.com/articles/balance-of-work-and-life-is-a-myth
– it is actually a balance of work-play-sleep that matters:
http://www.worknplay.net/work-play-and-sleep-finding-the-balance/

Leslaw