The Bogusness of ‘Work/Life Balance’: One Person’s Opinion

I’ve always hated this whole concept. It asserts that ‘your work’ is separate from ‘your life’. It also clearly implies that ‘life’ is good (family, leisure, pastimes) and certainly needs to be balanced off against ‘work’ (stress, toil) which is bad; that is, your life starts once you knock off work.

If that concept appeals to you – whether you are a tradesperson, an executive or a small business person – I suggest you need to start looking for another career.

We all spend a terrific amount of time at work (especially in the construction industry). It’s a huge and enjoyable part of our lives and key to our individual self identity. So, of course, are our families - but apparently that’s obvious. When you are at work, it’s crucial that you love what you are doing (mostly), who you are doing it with, and that you’re fully engaged. Precisely the same holds true when you are with your family and, ideally, everything else that you do.

(And besides, who wants to be ‘balanced’? Sounds like mediocrity to me. Here’s a suggestion: Be a maniac at work. Be a maniac away from work. You owe it to the other people spending their time with you to not be boring.)

Plus, you will live longer. Got ten short minutes? Google ‘Roseto Mystery book extract’, from Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. It makes clear “that the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are (and how long we live)”. That applies to your career, your family, your hobbies, your community work, everything. Because there is no separation: That’s your life. (And you only get one.)

The Obvious Answer: Because by the time the various Board Members, Committee Members and Stakeholders have all hashed it out and wordsmithed it to death, and ensured that we haven’t overreached, or under-reached, blah, blah, the company is left with a bland, ‘lowest common denominator’ statement that offends no-one, adds nothing to what everyone already knows, and wouldn’t inspire the keenest employee to bother getting out of bed in the morning. Be honest: Of all the various Mission and Vision Statements you have ever read, was there even one that really moved you? Can you even remember any of them? If the answer is no, if the Mission Statement isn’t raising the company up, then it’s bringing the company down.

The Less Obvious Answer: Five years ago, my wife and I went to the Toronto Home Show, which was about five thousand different booths, and we tried to see every one (bored out of my mind, I was). We came across one that sold underfloor radiant water heating, which we were thinking of installing. My wife wanted to be sure that the pipes could never burst and flood the house. The saleslady tried everything, from references, to insurance, to parent company guarantees. Why wife pushed: ‘Well, how do I know your company is even going to be around?’ Salesperson (a bit impatiently): ‘This company has been around for 200 years, so that is one thing you don’t need to worry about.’

Suddenly, I am not at all bored. It went like this:

Geoff: Huh? What did you just say?
Salesperson: We are a Dutch company that has been around since the early 1800’s.
Geoff: Well, for sure you weren’t selling underfloor radiant water heating systems in the early 1800’s, right? (being a pretty astute fellow.)
Salesperson: That’s right, we got into business originally by selling cannonballs.

So, think about that, please, just for a minute. Because when I do, it makes my head spin. I am always looking for a competitive edge for EllisDon, and I have known now for five years precisely what I want. I want what that company has. Problem is, I don’t know what it is.

But back to the original point: If that company had a Mission Statement (I am sure it didn’t), I am guessing it would have been something like: ‘To be the most proficient and lowest cost cannonball manufacturer supplying the European market.’

And for sure, that Mission Statement would have condemned it to death.

And that is why I believe Mission Statements are lethally dangerous.

Here’s what I believe: Values are forever, absolutely everything else can change at a moment’s notice.

Conventional Wisdom Be Damned: Part 2

I have struggled for a long time with the notion of wide, free, open collaboration. Sure, it’s certain that any competitive advantage is temporary at best, but that brief period of time can be very lucrative, can’t it? And that time period may not be so brief if your competitors happen to be distracted. (Plus, I have likely read ‘The Art Of War’ a few too many times.)

But I have realized that if you want to take everything in, you need to give everything away. If you want to benefit from the global construction community, one revelation at a time, you have to be willing to help others as much as you can, openly, freely. If we all get better, and all are better, only good things can happen.

We are now taking every step we can to open up our website, to open up our experts and databanks, to make everything we have accessible to everyone, to invite everyone to come talk to us by offering to tell them everything we know.

It’s so obvious to me now, I can’t believe I was so stupid for so long.

Give us a call. Talk to us. Let’s have some fun. Let’s learn everything we can from each other. What say you?

Challenging Conventional Wisdom: Part 1

Transform

Design

Operate

Advise

Equip

Manage

Construct

Finance

Digitize