In the old days this expression did not exist. The closest thing I could relate to was being told by my old boss that people either “work to live or live to work”.

Work / life balance is a little different because it is now forced onto most of us mainly due to technology. We are now contactable 24/7 through mobile phones, email, Skype, twitter, Facebook the list goes on and on …

When I was in Boracay, Philippines I noted the number of people opening their laptops after dinner, maybe that’s not so bad but this was before desert! I also noted three english ladies relaxing and enjoying their drinks, then one’s phone went off and as soon as she  answered her body language completely changed and neck and shoulder went rigid, possibly a problem at the office?

When I was working at Accenture before taking vacation we would have to outline our itinerary to the leadership teams highlighting our availability during the vacation period and what meetings we would be dialling into. This was a great example of peer pressure, where each one tried to outdo the other until the last ones stated they would be contributing 60 hours of their vacation time for their week off.

One Accenture senior manager explained to me that it was not the amount of time of that mattered it was the quality of that time off. I never quite grasped that one, like would two hours in a five star luxury resort be better than a day at the beach? Or watching half a 3D movies at the cinema be better than watching the feature length on a standard screen? My old boss brought a 3D TV but never had the time to watch any programs in a single sitting.

It is not only technology which is resulting in this change, countries economies can have a major factor as well. For example I have spent the last several weeks in Japan and have noticed that people are working longer and harder, mainly due to companies struggling to employ enough staff therefore the remainder have to take up the slack causing them to work much longer hours. This has been the case for many of our friends, working past year end, starting work on the Sunday before start of New Year and often coming home in the early hours of the morning to leave for work a few hours later. These are just some examples of my friends work styles.

In the old days Margret Thatcher had a reputation of working with just four hours sleep, that would be luxury for many Japanese workers, but they aren’t running countries, just standard jobs for standard companies.

I don’t know if there is a solution to this new lifestyle. But there are a few pointers that may help, such as 

• First establish your priorities, it may be that work is at the top of your list, if so fine you have a clear understanding of your work / life balance. It’s important you know how much commitment you are willing to give to the company and the choices you may need to make when a conflict occurs.
• If you are required to work from home, setup a separate room as the office, think of it as your work embassy, you can only do your work from this room. This will help to switch off when you leave the room.
• Turning off the phone more often, pretend your social times are like being at the movies.
• Use a work approach for your personal time, by this I mean put the same effort into planning your personal activities as you would your work.
• Develop and maintain friendships outside of work.
• Join social and sports clubs which offer regular events.
• Take vacations in remote locations with no internet or cellular coverage. I did this in the Scottish highlands and successfully missed several meetings that were scheduled while I was on vacation.

Clearly we are living in a different time from our ancestors and work is now being integrated into our life style. Our descendants in the future will probably view our era as the “stupid ones” who spent their entire time working without understanding how to take and enjoy the pleasures in life.