Comments on: Work/Life Balance and "Loving Your Work" http://blog.bigbeaks.com/2008/03/10/worklife-balance-and-loving-your-work/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:36:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Cindy http://blog.bigbeaks.com/2008/03/10/worklife-balance-and-loving-your-work/#comment-3560 Cindy Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:10:43 +0000 http://blog.bigbeaks.com/2008/03/10/worklife-balance-and-loving-your-work/#comment-3560 I agree that with technology companies and start-ups, the concept of work being your life is much more understood, partly because of the nature of the business and partly because the staff is younger and more amenable to working crazy hours. In that mentality, work really *IS* your life - that's where you socialize as well. It's no wonder relationships don't work when one person is in that environment - it can only have a chance of working if both people are in that environment. In a previous position, I was working crazy hours - probably 50 to 60 hours a week for weeks at a time. But even with those kinds of hours, I would make the time to take a break for a couple of hours to go to a party or dinner with friends, even if I was exhausted and needed sleep. I really needed the couple hours of having fun with friends to balance all the time I was spending at work. In many cases, I find that the perqs offered to some employees isn't just about being nice to the employee - it's about getting the employee to never leave the company premises if possible. If you bring food and dry cleaning and car wash and doctors and massages and what not, they don't have an "excuse" because they need to go do this or that - it's all available on premises. Sure, it's a convenience to the employee, but it's also helpful to the employer because the employee has more time to work. There have been times in the past where I was very much still tied to work while I was on vacation. That's happening less now. I sometimes will receive the occasional call when it is something really important, but otherwise, my vacation is my vacation. On the other hand, I know someone who has an SO who is literally on call at all times. The SO works almost literally all the time and is someone that the head of the fairly large and well-known company calls at the drop of a hat. When they go on vacation, the SO pretty much spends the majority of the time on the phone or on email with work. The SO makes a fairly huge salary - but at what cost? I agree that with technology companies and start-ups, the concept of work being your life is much more understood, partly because of the nature of the business and partly because the staff is younger and more amenable to working crazy hours. In that mentality, work really *IS* your life - that’s where you socialize as well. It’s no wonder relationships don’t work when one person is in that environment - it can only have a chance of working if both people are in that environment.

In a previous position, I was working crazy hours - probably 50 to 60 hours a week for weeks at a time. But even with those kinds of hours, I would make the time to take a break for a couple of hours to go to a party or dinner with friends, even if I was exhausted and needed sleep. I really needed the couple hours of having fun with friends to balance all the time I was spending at work.

In many cases, I find that the perqs offered to some employees isn’t just about being nice to the employee - it’s about getting the employee to never leave the company premises if possible. If you bring food and dry cleaning and car wash and doctors and massages and what not, they don’t have an “excuse” because they need to go do this or that - it’s all available on premises. Sure, it’s a convenience to the employee, but it’s also helpful to the employer because the employee has more time to work.

There have been times in the past where I was very much still tied to work while I was on vacation. That’s happening less now. I sometimes will receive the occasional call when it is something really important, but otherwise, my vacation is my vacation. On the other hand, I know someone who has an SO who is literally on call at all times. The SO works almost literally all the time and is someone that the head of the fairly large and well-known company calls at the drop of a hat. When they go on vacation, the SO pretty much spends the majority of the time on the phone or on email with work. The SO makes a fairly huge salary - but at what cost?

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