We often talk about “work-life” balance as if it empowers employees to create boundaries between work and other priorities. Increasingly, though, I’m skeptical of who this idea actually serves. Article by Steve Dry, Innovation Expert – PA Consulting Group.

With the myth of work-life balance secure, businesses can aggressively pursue bottom-line, profit-driven strategies, while the onus is on employees to find meaning and purpose in that realm called ‘life.’ Employers are not responsible for providing fulfilment at work because, in the immortal words of Don Draper, “that’s what the money’s for”.

The Downside to the Myth
However, as business changes and workforce demographics shift, work-life balance may cost companies more than it saves. In a growing knowledge market, companies risk losing their greatest asset—their people—due to the impact of this false dichotomy.

By 2020, millennials and baby boomers will make up a majority of the workforce. The 2008 recession impacted both generations significantly, with millennials settling for non-ideal jobs to pay off student debt^[1] and baby boomers extending their careers to compensate for lost retirement funds.^[2]

As the economy improves, both generations are leaving current employers to seek greater professional and personal alignment. Their departure comes at significant cost to corporations that invest heavily in the training of millennials and rely on experienced employees for institutional knowledge and leadership.

To appeal to more values-driven employees, companies have developed piecemeal solutions that reinforce the work-life binary. Corporate responsibility programs are often found in peripheral departments within an organization rather than part of the fabric of an organization and integrated into an employee’s role;^[3] volunteer opportunities take place outside of the daily work of an employee.

Yet, Ante Glavas, a business professor at the University of Vermont, found that corporate responsibility programs had the greatest impact on employee engagement when these programs contribute to an employee’s ability to “show their whole selves at work” and were not seen as an “extra-role.”^[4] Employees want their daily work to have meaning and contribute to self-realisation. For companies interested in retaining talent and optimising the return on their investment, we need to move beyond the promises for work-life balance and into a work-life integration.

Finding your authentic purpose
To truly appeal to both millennials and baby boomers, companies first need to authentically identify, integrate, and communicate their purpose and values to their employees. Paying lip service to these things will no longer suffice; they need to be modelled in every decision, across every department, and within every email.

Take, for example, Patagonia, a popular outdoor clothing and gear store, whose mission is to “build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” They wrote this purpose into their internal policies (like encouraging outdoor activity during work hours), sales and marketing (encouraging customers to repair rather than replace old Patagonia jackets), and advocacy (they run a bi-annual grassroots organizing conference and regularly advocate on behalf of the environment). By moving from bottom-line to purpose-driven, top leadership can re-engage their employees at the nexus of their passion and their gifts.

Move from a career ladder to a career cycle
With people inclined to stay at a company longer, we also need an alternative to the career ladder for gauging success. The career ladder teaches employees to gauge progress based on a linear, upward model: greater experience and knowledge results in greater responsibility and financial incentives. This ladder of work culminates in the ultimate prize: retirement (or should we say life). From a knowledge transfer perspective, this stratifies knowledge. The youngest employees with the least experience often sit on the lowest rungs of the career ladder, while the older, more experienced workers are often at the highest levels. The knowledge of more seasoned professionals becomes inaccessible and out of reach.

Instead, what if we replaced this up-or-out trajectory with a cyclical model.  As a cycle, executives at the highest level would slowly relinquish their executive responsibilities, while taking on roles in advising senior leadership, coaching emerging leaders, and sharing their knowledge. This would improve corporate knowledge transfer and satiate the millennial hunger for professional development opportunities.^[5] These “emeritus executives” would have an outlet for sharing their knowledge through mentorship, driving change through coaching, and maintaining meaningful engagement with the organisation (think Robert DiNiro’s character in The Intern). Mentorship and coaching offer opportunities for companies to pave the way for new leadership while simultaneously giving purpose and direction to ageing executives.

It may seem inconceivable for such an executive to forego retirement for continued work, but we already see many of these individuals leaving corporate positions for “encore careers” at mission-driven organisations. What if, instead, people were so inspired by their work and had a path to remain with their company long after their bodies had tired from the draining work of executive leadership?

What if we abandoned the dichotomy of work-life balance and brought meaning and purpose back into work? For, as Annie Dillard reminds us, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”^[6].

[1] Brack, Jessica, and Kip Kelly. Maximizing Millenials in the Workplace, UNC Keenan-Flagler Business School, 2012, http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/executive-development/custom-programs//~/media/files/documents/executive-development/maximizing-millennials-in-the-workplace.pdf. 8.

[2] Rosengrant, Susan. “The New Retirement: No Retirement?” Institute of Social Research, University of Michigan, 14 Mar. 2013, home.isr.umich.edu/sampler/the-new-retirement/. Accessed 05 Feb. 2016.

[3] Glavas A (2016) Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement: Enabling Employees to Employ More of Their Whole Selves at Work. Front. Psychol. 7:796. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00796. page 7

[4] Glavas A (2016) Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement: Enabling Employees to Employ More of Their Whole Selves at Work. Front. Psychol. 7:796. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00796

[5] Brack, Jessica, and Kip Kelly. Maximizing Millenials in the Workplace, UNC Keenan-Flagler Business School, 2012, http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/executive-development/custom-programs//~/media/files/documents/executive-development/maximizing-millennials-in-the-workplace.pdf. 11.

[6] Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. Harper Perennial, 2013.