Work/Life Balance

Find a healthy balance point

Sometimes we need to put in extra time at work.

But that should be rare, not the norm. Too often, bosses ask their people to put in the extra effort to get a project out the door, and then assume that they can keep that more intense work pace up indefinitely. Or a few key people leave, and the rest of the team has to do extra to make up for the missing people, and management does not fill those positions promptly (or at all).

As leaders, we should not push our people to exhaustion. We especially should not normalize it. Eventually, team members will choose to leave, or they will burn out, or they will develop stress-related health problems.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We should not always push people to keep working at sprint-pace.

(image source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=261924923433525&set=a.104194315873254)