From: S Ketharaman
Sent: April 06, 2012
To: editet@timesgroup.com
Subject: Work Life Balance
Dear Editor of The Economic Times:
In the past, whenever I’ve come across articles on restoring work-life balance in the media, I’ve found their suggestions to be highly impractical in today’s world and have never managed to get past their first or second paragraphs.
That is, until I saw “Work On Bringing Balance To Your Life” by Priya Kumar in a recent edition of The Economic Times.
So far, the sum and essence of what I’ve heard about work-life balance can be reduced to one sentence: “Spend equal time on work and family”. For the first time, I read a very different viewpoint in Kumar’s article viz. work-life balance doesn’t mean giving the same priority to all facets of life. This perspective makes a lot of sense and resonates very well with the zeitgeist of modern times. Ms. Kumar describes several signals – or red flags – that are strongly indicative of work-life imbalance in a person. This list is especially useful since many signals in it can be spotted not just by the said person but also by others around him or her. By giving a set of remedial actions against type of red flag, the article stakes a credible claim to be a practical guide to restoring work-life imbalances. Counter-intuitive as it might seem at first glance, the author’s advice to spend less – not more – time with family makes a lot of sense when a person displays the attitude signal.
Props to Priya Kumar for an excellent article. I’m now personally sold on the need to maintain proper work-life balance and convinced that it can be done even when subject to the pressures of today’s world.
Thanks and Regards.
Ketharaman Swaminathan