Poet WH Davies wrote the poem ‘Leisure’ during a time (1820s) when the Industrial Revolution hadfairly transformedEngland’s aristocracy into a society bustling with energetic work, so much so that it begins with the line “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare”. A plea for what the HR professionals call ‘Work-Life Balance’ butcan’timplement.Some now say, there’s no work or life to balance !
Those like us, who started working in 1970s, would recall certain jobs (like banking) had undefined stretchable working hours for officers but were lucrativeto the award staff who’d get extra hours incentivised by substantial ‘overtime’ payouts based on agreements worked out with the managements. Those were facilities of the past, later compensated somewhat by thewage revisions and pay hikes across the board, while organisations tried cleverlyto prune increasing staff& costs to save dwindling profits.
Cut to the last two decades and with the looming cost of living crisis and energy bills playing on everyone’s minds, all realise importance of earning enough to make a fair living.We’re growing increasingly more connected through newer technology and social media. WFH (working from home) has become the new normal. It’s becoming more and more difficult to separate work from personal lives& find ‘Family’ time. It’s commonplace to check emails at all hours, take business calls at the dinner table and work on laptops on weekends. Old folks look with sadness at a ‘strained’ millennial.
Employers and Bosses expect more from the employees, which leads to them feeling more pressure to achieve greater results. Wheneverthe top leaders recommend longer work hours there’s resentment but when recently a Corporate Honcho suggested 90 hr workweek, his exhortation had pressures reach a breaking point from all quarters. More so, his innocuous remark about one aimlessly‘staring at the spouse’ rather than working on Sundays, has been met by wild memes & jeers & no cheers fromanyone !
If this Gent had read the Davies poemat hisleisure any time in life, he wouldn’t use the word ‘stare’ loosely. The poet meant ‘gaze’ and gentle reflection. But all married people (barring newly-weds) know ‘staring’ at your spouse (&definitelyatother’s! ) is quite fraught with big risks. Normally the home-makers react tersely ‘Why are you staring, is my new hairdo soawful ?’ or ‘Stop staring and get busy, there’s lots to be done !’. When the Mrs stares at her better-half, it often means ‘This explanation had better be a good one !’. Yet ‘loyalty is the best policy’& Mr.Anand Mahindra gallantly says ‘I love staring at my Wife’. Others express words meaning leave ‘Sunday’ alone !
Maintaining a proper work-life balance is not only important for health, well-being & relationships, but it can also improve an employee’s productivityand ultimately his performance and life in general. Put simply, if our people don’t view work as a chore, then they will work harder, make fewer mistakes and will be there to spend more time with the family and for leisure, even stare lovingly at the spouse (in extreme cases ) !
Working on Living 