“Live to Work” or “Work to Live”

Which of the above motto’s would be yours? Baby boomers have ‘lived to work’ so that we could provide our kids with everything we lacked in our childhood. With both parents working hard to increase opportunities for their children as well as to enjoy the material things in life we boomers have created the following belief, ‘work, work, work and then you die’.

We have raised Generations X and Y who definitely ‘work to live’. They have watched their baby boomer parents kill themselves working and they refust to do the same thing. Just like us we rebelled against our upbringing they too are rebelling against theirs.

The ‘work to live’ motto means more and more employers are creating flexible working options that suit the personal lives of their employees. Some workers want to start at 6:00 am so that they can leave early afternoon or because their partner works a 9 to 5 job. Others want to start later and work later because they have a sport or hobby that they want to participate in at a regular time each day.

Requests for telecommuting has become a standard asked by interviewees to their interviewers when applying for a job. I predict the future of job negotiations will be more focused on the negotiable hours, flexibility and family perks than it will be about money.

We have been ‘talking’ about work-life balance now it’s time to do some ‘doing’ about the talking.

Ref: Vancouver Sun April 28, 2007