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Engaged Employees Love Their Work, but Love Their Lives Even More

It’s been a loooonnng day…

I’ve spent 9+ hours working on the computer for my work job and here it is.. nearing 1AM and I’m still on the computer but now writing a blog post. My eyes are going cross-eyed and my finger tips are raw from tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard. I did take a break today, shuttling my kids around and going to dinner at Golden Corral (yes, I know), but, of course, I still checked my e-mail messages, Twitter and Facebook accounts on my TWO phones while talking school and shoveling buffet goodness into my mouth. To top it all off, I’m still wearing my kick @ss 5-inch heels. And there’s a reason why I’m doing all of this. I LOVE what I do.  Aside from the shoes, does this sound familiar?

With the dawn of social technologies, “ease of use,” and overall mobility, it’s easy to get lost in the endless cycle of work-life-work-life-work-work-work. I should know, I admit that I fall victim to mismanaging my work and personal life all the time — easy to do, especially when snippets of your personal life (e.g., blogging and speaking) are in addition to what you do at work.

Well, thank my ever-loving Fatty Catty (I really do have a cat who I call Fatty), my 5-inch heels must come off at some point otherwise my feet would never recover. And that’s my indicator that my work has ended and my LIFE has begun.

As the new year begins, I’d like to remind everyone the importance of doing the same: like your work, but love your life — OR love your work, but love your life even more. In the past two decades, the US economy has experienced a 60 percent growth in productivity. But, at what cost? Don’t become All Work and No Play (The Overworked American, Good.is)

Work / Life balance is essential to not only you but for your organization as well

Organizations that create cultures that value balance, and assist employees to achieve life balance will be rewarded with highly engaged employees. Work-life balance does not mean  that employees are not loyal, nor committed to their organizations, it means that employees want to lead whole lives, not lives solely centered on work. (Driving Employee Engagement, The Banff Centre)

We tend to define our lives first by our work and then by all the other facets of our day. We justify working for a living to attain what we want. In the process, are we keeping our lives in balance? (Working for a Living, Good.is).

So go ahead… kick those heels off… or your shoes… end your work day and begin living your life! Be an employee who loves her (or his) work, but loves her life even more!

Cheers,

Elizabeth :)

 

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        91 thoughts on “Engaged Employees Love Their Work, but Love Their Lives Even More”

        38. Mary Alice

          Great points! Isn’t it much easier to love your life when you love your job? It’s so much easier to feel content when kicking off those awesome heels when you’re proud of the type of work you’ve been doing, or what you’re working toward. Thanks for the reminder!

          Mary Alice
          YouCanDoWhatYouLove.com

        76. Rachel Happe

          I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how we try to incent behavior by measuring the outcome we want but really it’s often better, in complex environments, to measure an indirect thing to get the outcome we ultimately want. For example, we measure work productivity but I’m wondering if organizations shouldn’t primarily be tracking peoples LIFE goals in professional development to get them to be more productive at work. If employees really thought the organization wanted to ensure their overall life satisfaction, I’m betting their work product would improve and the organization would better match them with tasks on which they were motivated. Interesting to think of having a performance review that was primarily focused on family, exercise, intellectual growth, etc rather than on work output.

        79. CV Harquail

          This is SO TRUE!!!

          Employees who are truly engaged in work are those who can step away from work and go off to enjoy their lives, their families, their avocations, their quiet time. We tend to think of ‘engagement’ as a work thing that extracts much from us, and sadly often forgets that too much engagement / extraction at work ends up depleting us.

          We struggle in our culture between the concept of ‘working to live’ and ‘living to work’. We employee engagement advocates have to keep in mind that our goal is not a completely invested employee, but an employee who enjoys her life and has a healthy strong commitment to her work. Employees like these are employees who help us create and sustain healthy, flourishing, sane organizations.

          cvh

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