Work – Life Balance Imbalance
Yours ends where mine starts
Recently, I had a bank transaction that required an in-person meeting at my local branch. I checked the bank's website for teller hours of operations and found that they were Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM. Also posted on the website was a proud announcement that the hours of operation are part of my bank's efforts to support their employees’ work - life balance. How nice I thought as I sat in the parking lot for fifteen minutes waiting for the doors to open.
My days begin at 5:00 AM. The first time slot for taking a business meeting is 7:00 AM. The office I manage operates from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM but half of the staff flex times in earlier than 9:00 AM. As my management philosophy has always been to measure productive output over "punching at time clock," we have developed an office culture that both respects individual's life necessities and supports productive use of their time. That day I was required to wait until 9:00 AM for the branch to open so that I could feed into my banking institution's employee work - life balance scheme, but at a cost to my own.
My bank, in their goal of promoting their own workers' life balance, did so by dipping into my, their customer's, work life balance. By waiting an extra two hours for my bank to open that fateful day, I had to push off staff appointments to later time slots in the morning. Delaying the start of my day also meant an extension of hours further into the evening to complete my work. Productivity suffered that day as my normal routine was altered to accommodate another company's work - life balance priority.
Banks are not the only businesses that shortened their hours post Covid. My dry cleaners, once open 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM, now are 9-5. Hardware and grocery stores have also not returned to pre-Covid hours of operation. The dentist's office is even worse as it now takes nearly six months to book an appointment during his hours of operations which are Monday through Wednesday, 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Thursday 8:00 PM to Noon and Fridays closed. It occurred to me that there is no such thing as true work - life balance. Because one person's balance always comes at the expense of another's work - life imbalance.
We have Newton to thank for understanding the work - life balance fallacy. For as it turns out, work - life balance formulas follow Newton's second law of thermodynamics. For every work - life balance action, there is an equal work - life balance reaction in the opposite direction. Thus, work - life balance policies are merely another redistribution program - in this case, redistributing production. My bank's scheduled production shutdown was paid for by my loss of productivity that day.
This also happens within the workplace that touts work - life balance policies. If work production has not decreased with work - life balance policies, look to the imbalanced employees that have picked up more work so that others can achieve balance. Business leaders never talk about the hit to productivity that is inherent in policies designed to limit workers’ hours. C-suite executives that acquiesce to the trendy new ESG inspired language will say that the "balanced" worker is more productive, but I have yet to read a study that proves it. Let’s face it, from a pure mathematical point of view, such a study would have to prove that workers that have a "balanced" work week of 35 hours somehow achieve a productivity output more than another employee working 40 hours. If such an accurate study did exist, companies across this land would be jumping on the work - life balance "less equals more" bandwagon without hesitation.
Sadly, there is no magical force that returns greater worker productivity with reduced labor hours. If a company is achieving increased productivity in this scenario, it is because they either changed how they work, or more than likely, some workers are laboring harder so that others may claim their "balance." Generationally speaking, the productivity shortfall from the balance seekers is being picked up by Gen X. For that Generation accepts work as a necessity of life and have been long conditioned to sacrifice their personal time for the company dime. Whereas the millennials look at work to serve a purpose and Gen Z look at work to serve them, Gen X'ers still simply look at work as work. And because of different generational attitudes towards their work, the post baby boomer generation, now ages 43 to 58, are the ones absorbing the work - life balance imbalance.
The father of the quote, “Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins,” was most likely coined by prohibitionist, John B. Finch. Many others used some version of this quote to describe the concept of the harm principle, which boils down to, people should be free to act however they wish unless their actions cause harm to somebody else. In setting work - life balance policies within a company environment, the harm principle should also be applied. Meaning, that one employee’s work - life balance ends when it affects the work - life balance of another. Setting work - life balance policies in conjunction with adhering to the harm principle is infinitely more difficult than simply allowing the redistribution of productivity from one worker that looks at work - life balance as sacrosanct to another who does not.
The United States is currently in the 8th spot for most productive countries. Less than 25 years ago, the US ranked number one in productivity. I have long posited that productivity is tied to standard of living. The United States has long enjoyed a high standard of living because of high productivity output. US companies, perhaps unknowingly, are further reducing productivity to accommodate nebulous work - life balance policies. That, in conjunction with horrendous inflationary fiscal policies, will continue to drive the United States down the productivity scale.
Top 10 Most Productive Countries in the World (GDP per Hour Worked, USD)
Ireland — 119.1
Luxembourg — 110.8
Denmark — 87.7
Belgium — 86.8
Norway — 85.6
Switzerland — 81.4
France — 79.7
United States — 79.6
Austria — 79.4
Sweden — 79.1
The work - life balance trend does not bode well for Western countries nor for the companies adopting them. Because, if my theory is correct, that work-life balance is merely a redistribution of productivity from younger generations to older ones, what will happen down the road as Gen-X exits the workforce? I can see no way reduced productivity brought on by planned work - life balance imbalances will improve our companies or our future happiness. I encourage business leaders to look within the productivity structures and access workloads of the various generations employed within their organization before issuing work - life balance proclamations. For if those policies merely shift the load to other employees, or as in the case with my bank, to their customers, the initiatives over time will weaken the organization.