I came across a post today stating that employees will be more effective if managers are respecters of time – they ensure employees make time for rest, recovery and have fun in their day.

I couldn’t help thinking that focusing on ‘rest and recovery’ might encourage managers to treat the symptoms rather than the cause…?
Putting fun in your day sounds much more in the zone though.

In a CIPD Podcast on Talent Management (2007), Adrian Moorhouse, former Olympic swimming champion and now Managing Director of lane 4 comments on the work/life balance, and suggests we focus on making work feel like part of life(!):

“Matching the motivations, dreams and goals of an individual with the motivations, dreams and goals of an organisation – when you get those closely aligned then, I think, you’ve got a very motivated group of people because it’s not work, it’s life.”
http://www.cipd.co.uk/podcasts/_articles/article4.htm?view=transcript

If the whole of work is therefore also life, then the work/life balance for someone who works 40 hours a week is:
40/168 to 168, which equates to approx 1:4 (four times more life than work)

If work is not life and someone works 40 hours a week, then work/life balance is:
40:128, equating to approx 1:3 (three times more life than work).

So someone who can treat work as life, has approx 133% more life than someone who doesn’t, and throughout a 45 year career this equates to 15 years of extra life!!!

OK – So maths can’t really be applied in this context, but it’s an interesting thought… 😉