Posts Tagged 'Work/Life balance'

How to Manage Working from Home in the Age of Corona

Posted on April 7th, 2020 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Organizational Solutions

The Corona virus is holding the world hostage at the time I write this, and is probably feeling pretty pleased with itself. For my part, I won’t speculate about when this mess will be over, but I retain my optimism that we humans will overcome it… after all, remember the smallpox virus: it had killed millions of us well into the 20th century, but we’ve finally wiped it right off the face of our planet. Now we’re gunning for Coronavirus… I’d be less smug if I was in its place. Meanwhile we’re all stuck at home and have time for.. Read more

Banning Email Use After Hours: an Update

Posted on June 29th, 2017 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Organizational Solutions

Five and a half years ago I blogged about how Volkswagen decided to turn off its Blackberry servers outside of work hours, thereby affording employees some quality time with their families and their lives. It was a pioneering move and a courageous one, and I added my hope that other companies would take note. It took a while, but now companies and legislators are not merely taking note – they’re taking action. In fact some of them are not only enabling, but also enforcing a barrier between Work and Life that email may not penetrate. There is much more to.. Read more

The Problem with Work-Life Balance

Posted on February 24th, 2017 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

Guest post by Toby Ruckert (Twitter / LinkedIn) Originally published on my blog. I’ve been self-employed essentially my whole life, and this year marks the 25th anniversary since starting my entrepreneurial journey in 1992. Being an entrepreneur naturally comes with a lifestyle that makes it hard to draw the line between work and life. Discussions about work-life balance simply aren’t very productive when your business is (such a big part of) your life, especially when you’re the one who started it. And while many told me that we should separate life from work to be happy, I don’t believe in.. Read more

When Hobby and Work Come Together: Wayda Go!

Posted on June 15th, 2015 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

An auspicious convergence Most people have hobbies and interests of various kinds – as well they should: this makes them happier, better-rounded persons. Used to be that you’d do your work at work during the day, and your hobbies at home evenings and weekends. This model is disappearing fast as work and home become inextricably mixed up. Instead, one must resort to practicing one’s hobby as part of one’s job. In this post I want to make the following point: that it is quite valuable when people’s hobbies and their work come together, with the blessing of their employer; and.. Read more

Mixed Blessings of Technology: Insights From a Family Physician

Posted on February 17th, 2015 · Posted in Impact and Symptoms

Given my focus on mitigating Information Overload, I often discuss it with people I meet in other contexts; many interesting insights usually result. Especially interesting are discussions with those people who are responsible for executing literally life-saving jobs under extreme pressure: medical practitioners. I was visiting a family doctor and raised the subject. This doctor had a computer on her desk, where she was required by the HMO she works for to type in details of everything she did, from patients’ complaints to diagnoses to prescriptions. What’s more, this was a progressive HMO and it allowed patients to communicate with.. Read more

When Cultures Clash: Mission Orientation vs. Overwork

Posted on December 28th, 2014 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

As I wrote before, the causes of Information Overload are always tightly intertwined with organizational culture, which leads to interesting conflicts and forces critical tradeoffs. Well-meaning legislative efforts I was at a conference dedicated to the interdisciplinary examination of the rampant problem of destructive Overwork. Some of the speakers were academics who presented their research findings about the severe impact of overwork – say, working 60 or more hours a week – on employees’ health and well-being. Others were jurists, legislators and reformers who discussed present and proposed efforts to modify the laws of the land to reduce overwork by.. Read more

Responses to Common Objections to Telecommuting

Posted on March 21st, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

I’ve already posted my thoughts about Marissa Mayer’s announcement banning telecommuting at Yahoo. Since then I’ve noticed how – after the initial indignation had abated – writers across the blogosphere and media started raising arguments taking Ms. Mayer’s side. Some of them make sense, but many confuse problems with telecommuting with problems in company culture and management competence. Having battled many similar objections when I was championing this cause at Intel years ago, I can’t resist weighing in on the side of reason… and so should you when considering allowing your employees to work from home. Here goes, then: Objection.. Read more

What Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer May Be Missing About Telecommuting

Posted on March 13th, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

Last month there was a big hoopla  when Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, issued a ban on Work from Home by the company’s employees. Like troops retreating into the castle, Yahoos have been recalled to the office. All over the planet the media and blogosphere are abuzz with criticism and counter-criticism about what was seen as a regression from the reigning paradigm of workplace flexibility and Work/Life balance. Even the irrelevant fact that Mayer is a woman and a mother was used by some who painted her as a traitor to her gender. As a veteran driver of Telecommuting, let me.. Read more

How Information Overload and Hyperactivity Destroy Leadership

Posted on January 21st, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

Guest Post by Ian Price The recent temporary departure of Antonio Horta-Osorio from his role at Lloyds Banking Group was unusual in the candid use of the ‘S’-word – “stress” – in the bank’s announcement. For any number of reasons, leaders, their boards and investors are keen to avoid the word as part of the narrative in a leader’s exit. However, there have, in the last year or so, been a number of sudden, unplanned chief executive resignations that the press has attributed – at least in part – to stress. These include Masataka Shimizu of Tokyo Electric Power, Jeff.. Read more

How YOU Can Achieve Work/Life Balance in the Face of Information Overload

Posted on December 18th, 2012 · Posted in Individual Solutions, Organizational Solutions

Work/Life Balance and Email: an irreconcilable contradiction? We all know the facts (if you don’t, check out my articles). Your typical knowledge worker receives 50 – 300 email messages daily of which 30% are useless, and spends some 20 hours a week dealing with them (The Israel Internet Association passed out a survey before my lecture there the other day, and the results affirm these facts once again). These numbers mean that people are trying to overcome their overflowing Inbox around the clock, including evenings, nights, weekends and vacations. Any pretense at Work/Life Balance has disappeared with the arrival of.. Read more