We recently watched the meltdown governments in Europe and the crisis created by both poor leadership and management. Over recent years, we watched the erosion of the American economy and unemployment rise to near double the average over the past five decades. This is not going to be popular, but then a spoonful of castor oil was never popular either, but your Mother said it was good for you (whether you thought so or not.) Therefore, this is my spoonful of castor oil for the work life balance mentality often pushed on business owners as the cure-all for America’s economy.
As Larry Winget might say in his book “They Call It Work for a Reason,” this is not about “fun,” or “leisure time.” You generate those items, in your time with the time you have. Now that I have your interest piqued, let us review some models and then we can really discuss your responsibilities.
Before families with special needs whips out their machetes after me, let me just say those families and circumstances are, or should be, considered by law. We are talking about the impact on workers deciding someone owes them time for having a family, hobby, or part-time habit.
When I lived in Greece back in the 70s, workers essentially received a day off for a day worked. The U.S. Navy hired cooks to support our galley (mess hall, whatever the name for your dining facility.) Before arriving in Greece, I spent a week at a Navy base in Sicily and the Navy hired cooks from the local workforce as well. Back in Greece, at some point all the cooks decided to vacation at the same time. Suddenly we had two military members to feed the base of nearly a hundred Sailors, 3 meals a day, and seven days a week. While the Navy tried to resolve this issue with Greek cooks and their contractor, those two cooks worked the time required to feed our Sailors.
I am sure some would say, “Tough, they signed on.” That is a perfectly acceptable response. After nearly three weeks, the Navy resolved the contract issue and our Greek friends returned to work. The issue of work vs. time off never changed. The Navy contracting offices managed to gain assurances we would not experience another mass exodus from Greek contractors.
So, fast forward and here we are today with a Greek economy on their heels and other models in Europe following. Greece all but nailed their economic doors shut and now protesting only helped some neighborhoods collapse.
England recently experienced a similar issue with their economy. Why is this important to American workers? It might not be important at all, but businesses will soon realize work life balancing is imbalancing their books. Business and industry in America is taking another direction but at the end of the day, Europe is guiding the way.
Work life balance implores owners and stakeholders to make room in production and processes to include the employee’s family, like it or not. From what I read, newer generations are whining about this issue and demanding “compensation” in time off and benefits for their services. I cannot believe this issue is still dangling from their necks like “bling” while watching other parts of the world dissolve in economic woes. Is there a connection missing? When the younger generation looks in the mirror, are they looking at a very different breed of human? Because they are American are they feeling “SPESHUL?”
Look around at our economy and workforce today. How odd it feels to me when I see employers hiring personnel from Europe to perform work while Americans are unemployed. I visit my doctor and the majority of his nurses speak broken English because they are “imported” from Europe or Asia. Today’s employees degrade positions at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and other businesses yet more and more employees find their way into the workforce and speak enough “American” to function.
Discussions in nearly every walk of American life, denigrates Central and South American workers for “taking American jobs.” We follow the same dialogue with Asian workers. All the while, we are nursing one of the worst employment patterns in decades. All this in our world today and we scream about a “balance?” We obviously are just watching our nation slide down the same slope while blaming others for our “imbalance.” Careful what you ask for…you just might find yourself with all the time in the world sans the word “work.”
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