I am usually a calm and collected individual. I don’t get worked up that easily. But whenever I hear silly expressions like “work-life balance” I can get worked up to unhealthy levels!
It might not seem that obvious why I have a skeleton – not just a bone! – to pick with this expression, but once you realize the grave offense we’re taking so lightly in using this expression, you will join me in hating it as well.
But Hate Is Such A Strong Word
Not really…
In fact, you can look “hate” up in a thesaurus and use all the synonyms you find combined! That’s how I feel about this dumb expression. And what gets me worked up even more is when I start using it myself!
That’s when I feel the sudden urge to chew a bar of soap.
Why The “Work-Life Balance” Expression Deserves to Be Hated
When you try to balance two things, it means that they are either different or opposites of each other. You can balance the time you spend reading with the time you spend writing. You can balance the time you spend with family and the time you spend with your friends. You can balance the time you spend between two (or more) projects.
What you can’t do is balance something with itself or its subcategory!
Did that sentence make any sense?
Of course! If it made you raise three eye-brows (OK, that doesn’t make much sense), it means you have been fooled by this deceptive “work-life balance” expression!
Put simply, work is a part of your life. You shouldn’t treat it as something separate from life.
It’s like saying: “I really have to balance my health and my nutrition. I don’t want my nutrition to get in the way of my health!”
Sounds silly? You bet!
But that’s exactly what we’re saying whenever we try to balance work and life.
The fact is, it’s not work and life that we should be balancing. Work is a part of life. We can balance recreational time with work, but we can’t balance between work and life.
This may seem like a slight, silly mistake in the expression, but if you consider the impression of work (and life) it reinforces, you will realize how serious this “mistake” really is!
Our View of Work and Life
When we don’t consider work to be an essential part of our lives, we see it as a joyless chore we have to get done. It’s a necessary evil that we try to tame so we can get a chance to live.
But does work have to be this way?
The more we talk about balancing work and life, the more we ingrain this idea in our heads and the more we exclude the thought (and, therefore, the possibility) of finding and experiencing work that we truly enjoy and find enriching.
If we consider life to be anything except work, then we will dread any productive pursuit, because we will label it as “work” instead of an activity that we can enjoy and a means of expressing our creativity and refining our skills (which is what work should be).
If you feel that work is dragging you away from what you enjoy doing, then you know the thought-seed behind such feelings: the idea that work is separate from life. And you can have the “work-life balance” expression to thank for robbing you of the joy you can experience at work!
In the Personal Growth Map, I consider work to be one of 7 Life Areas that make up our lives. We need to give each life area our attention, and be able to advance in all life areas in order to lead a balanced, fulfilling life.
4 replies on “Why I Hate the “Work-Life Balance” Expression”
One: No Golden nuggets
Two: I was confused and thought you’re having a bad day at begin of this post, but I see and agree to what you mean. If you have a bad job, you consider it as something eating up ur life and making it shorter, not really accounted for. Which is why I love to seek an interesting job.
One: Sorry for lack of Golden Nuggets in my latest posts… will try to add them in the near future… 🙂
Two: I’m glad your confusion has been resolved. And if I have a bad day, then it’s probably because I’d heard the “work-life balance” expression 😛
Thanks for correcting this symantic mistake, but I think with “life” the expression is reffering to simply things other than work. In the past they used to call it “Work-family balance” but I guess even that is not correct, because we presumably work to make a living for the family. The bottom-line is, don’t waste all your energy at work. 🙂
Dear Molaw,
Thank you for your input.
The two main problems I have with the expression are:
1) It makes work sound like a chore that distracts us from “life”
2) It assumes there are only 2 things we need to balance
When we’re aware of all the areas of our lives and accept work as one of those rewarding and enriching areas, we’ll be able to better balance these areas without feeling guilty when we work.
I definitely agree with your bottom line 😉