Work life balance

These days whenever i open LinkedIn, its usually filled with posts about Zomato and startup news. I’ve always found LinkedIn cringe but I open it here and there to see what people I work with or worked with are up to. But the rise of the influencer has led my feed to not really be about people i know.

One of the recent topics that gained traction was around work life balance. There were two sides to the debate. I find both equally right. It all really comes down to your self interest. The more equity you hold, the more engaged you are at work, the less work life balance matters.

That comfort in the discomfort of pushing one self is not felt by those who don’t want it because they see no benefit. The closest analogy is working out. Some don’t see the point but the more skin you have in the game, the more the incentives are aligned to maximise your own interest and goal, thats when the fuel kicks in and the sides get divided. That’s typically why owners of businesses, senior management are more likely to not care about work life balance while those at Junior levels do. For the seniors that care about work life balance, they have no real benefit or incentive in pushing further. The upside is low. While the juniors who claim to not care about work life balance, see a future vision where their self interest is fulfilled or rewarded. The upside is high.

Having the right incentives changes values and those who claim to be for or against a position can simply change their views by getting more or less equity (and perhaps autonomy)