Work Life Balance

There have been a few stories that have came out over the last month or so that talk about - Work Life Balance.

The latest is from Reuters reporting on a study from ACNielsen, which found “Work-life balance tops global New Year wish list.”

Also a story in a recent issue of BusinessWeek talks about how Best Buy is breaking the conventional thinking of the corporate 9 to 5 world – one where people need to put in “face time” and where the person who stays the longest at the office wins. The fact of the matter is that hardly anyone works from just 9 – 5. Technologies like mobile phones, BlackBerries and the wireless Internet have extended the work day well before 9am and way past 5pm. Some people look at these technologies as a bad thing... but we (three-forty) believe used properly... they enable us to be not only more productive but more importantly they free us from the florescent lit, four walls that we sit in.

They give us the ability to avoid rush hour or they let us take a break from work to go for a mountain bike ride during the middle of the day. I am not saying that these mobile technologies give us a the chance to slack off (the article talks about this a bit too) but it allows us to be more available to the client without being tied to the desk. Yes – the office gives a chance to collaborate and focus on work and that’s why we have one but your desk shouldn’t prevent you from having a life. There will be work that needs to be done by 8am or more work to be finished after 8pm but with the right mix of company culture, ethics and mobile technologies – it is possible to stretch more out of life.