work life whatnow?
posted Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I found this kind of quirky youtube video, depicting somewhat the work life balance (WLB) problem – the Adam Sandler snippet shows, I guess, that this issue has really become mainstream in America. I think it is becoming more mainstream here too, with our X prime minister calling WLB ‘bar-b-que stopper’ conversation…but perhapsthe bar-b-que didn’t stop long enough. Maybe all the good SNAGS got burnt before they were able to change the menu, or simply just rolled off the bar-b-que…
What are your thoughts on this clip? Are working parents, mums and dads, finding it hard to stand up to the intense pressure to work more?
Working conventional hours in an office, for better or worse, has become a shared experience for so many people. As bad as it can be, it’s easy to find people to commiserate with. This is evident in how Hollywoood likes to make comedy movies about how bad it is (for example, “9 to 5″, “Clockwatchers”, and “Office Space” (a cult classic that is used in the video).
There are a lot of movies about working at home; perhaps, as this becomes more of the norm, we’ll start to see comedies about that.
binnaburra said this on July 21st, 2008 at 10:50 pm
In the ‘quirky’ and thought provoking video, the work life balance concept seemed to be applied to people who didn’t like their work. The analogy of scales essentially dichotomises work and life into separate parts which can potentially outweigh each other. However, people who love their work we need a different analogy because their work and other life activities can energise and contribute to each other.
Perhaps this says something about the importance of people finding meaningful work or at least finding meaning in their work? Then work becomes part of life itself like self-raising flour in a cake, making it rise rather than being flat.
Sol said this on July 25th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Great point Sol. Enjoyable quality work does make a big difference to the whole work life debate. For some people work is thier passion, in effect thier life. And I take your point on the dichotomy not really being useful when work and life boundaries often overlap and blur. Bring into the equation children, or new parenthood, and what happens to the cake recipe then?
aztec-rose said this on July 25th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I wonder about the woman who loves her work and wants to devote time to it and be successful at it, but who also wants to have a family. How does the cake recipe work for her? I loved the video clips, but I noticed that they focused on men having to sacrifice time at home with their families for work. In the Adam Sandler clip in particular, he had a wife who I assumed was an at-home wife. Therein lies the rub, in my view anyway!
womenswork said this on July 29th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Good point womenswork, movies, the media, and like often perpetuate the image of ‘male as breadwinner’, with visible or implied ‘wife’ at home, and as in the Adam Sandler clip, all sympathetic, long suffering, supportive, and understanding…not real. But it seems that in making work-life-family balance a ‘women’s issue’ it is on one hand devalued, and by showing it as a ‘male breadwinner’s issue’ but not to be seriously challenged for fear of losing the job, or face, brings up the question: Can we real tackle work life issues without both genders equally on board?
aztec-rose said this on July 29th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I agree and I don’t think it is possible to tackle work life issues without changes for both genders. As long as we continue to label or even just perceive issues around work and family as belonging to women (or belonging to men, for that matter), there will be no work-life balance. The scales can only be balanced when there are equal amounts on both sides.
womenswork said this on July 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Part of the problem seems to be women have higher expectations in the home (demands) placed on them by others and themselves and equal expectations at work, thus creating more demands overall on working women, especially those with children. I think renegotiating expectations is also a matter of women accepting more equal roles in the home without guilt as getting hubby to do more at home (as well as men accepting more equal roles at home without feeling less manly). But the roles can be negotiated within a family in any combination that best meets the needs and aspirations of individuals within familys (e.g., housewife, househusband, part-time and full-time work options etc.). So perhaps making the cake rise is about successfully negotiating roles within families. However, if women accept the role of ’supermum’, then I think their cake will inevitability go flat.
Sol said this on September 3rd, 2008 at 1:52 pm