Ross McCray, as much as Nigel Marsh profile is very interesting and inspiring. Both histories show us that we are different. Life is one big pursuit of happiness, personal happiness. That’s very positive to watch this guys, especially in world where everybody looks same, eat same and live same. In my opinion every person have to decide in what way they want to live and Ross with Nigel did this perfectly. Their personalities makes me jealous. I’d like to be as much strong as they. For first sight, Ross looks as very powerful person, very young with head full of ambitious plans for future. I understand his choices, especially with idea of wearing similar clothes everyday. It’s brilliant! By the way, his not first. Marc Zuckerberg has also same wearing style habit. On the other hand Nigiel presents more mature way of thinking, very reasonable. I like his way of thinking. I see very wise man, worldly wisdom man. I know that we, young generation should take care of what older says. I haven’t had so much work experience yet. As long as I’m happy with my past choices I should live same way in closest future. I’d like to find happy medium in my life, some part of Ross’s and some of Nigiel’s. This recipe would be one million dollar idea!
I don't believe that you can tag both of the approaches as work-life balance.
The first approach is clearly missing life part in the balance. The CEO says that he calls it rather work-life integration. The company is inheriting some part of life into everyday work. This kind of approach makes you definitely more efficient, but it's not really taking care of life part of balance. For example ordering food for everybody in the company lets you waste less time on dinning out and the time you have saved is used for doing more work. I think that work-life integration system is suitable for people who are willing to sacrifice huge part of their private life for the company life.
The second approach is focused on real work-life balance. What's more, it's also clarified what the work-life balance means. According to the presentation the balance is not devoting the same amount of time to work and private life. The work-life balance is about knowing when and where you should focus on work and when on the private life. Sometimes you have to do overtime at work or work from home, because your working skills is really needed at this particular time. On the other hand you have to know when it's not necessary and you can devote time outside of working hours 100% to private life.
Thanks for links, especially from YouTube. I really like speeches from TEDx. The topic is not a stranger to me. I try to live productively which is a related topic. Unfortunately, as an IT specialist it is hard do not work after work :) I try not to do that, but we know that it is not easy. Especially if you are working on some new technology you do not know. Then after work I need to learn it (read books, do courses). In addition, as you know, I go to college on weekends. So I do not have time for myself and my family. Recently my girlfriend complains about me. Therefore, I try not to work after work. I know that in the future will be better, because last time I read Getting Things Done book. I recommend it to anyone who has a problem with time ;) It works and thanks to this you have a "mind like water".
Rafał, this book is great. I read it last year. I also work in IT department, but I not take my work to home. My free time in home is only for me (sometimes for my girl ;) ). I often learn new technology, read technical books etc, but It is not directly related with my work (my brain is not concentrated on problems in work). I propose for you make a Code Kata (http://codekata.com/ - it is code excercises pack - great for learn any new programming language - readed it in some book - I do not remember title). This method is good, but I not thinks about my job, and I make 'brain exercises'. This method is good, because in work I have many new ideas.
It's really hard to find the best way to living with good work-life balance. From one side there are often things from work, which we just "must do", from other sometimes we are so tired that it will be faboulous to sleep 2 hours longer, sometimes we need to go to some departments etc. There is so much unexpected things in our lives, that it makes almost impossible to find one way for great work-life balance. People are too volatile and vulnerable on various factors, so everyone should try to find his own way, for every day, to make his life happier and better.
I am at the beginning of my professional path. What matters most to me at the moment is a quick development of my skills. After work I try to gain expert knowledge by reading books, doing tests and watching movies. I spend most of my free time working. I believe that thanks to hard work I will be more competitive on the job market. I will be able to dictate the terms of cooperation in case many employers want to give me a job. I would also like to start my own business, which would comprise of taking orders from around the world. That way I will be the one to decide how much time should be dedicated to work and how much to rest. A lot of people spend most of their time working because they want to earn more money. They decide that for themselves. They don’t notice how their actions influence their families and people surrounding them. Such behaviour is becoming more and more popular in Poland, we can be compared even to the Japanese. Every day I meet people for whom work is not the most important thing. They focus on what they like the most, for example dance, sport. I believe we are capable of balancing our time between work and private matters. I think it is very difficult though and not many people can afford it.
In my opinion, if someone wants to improve their skills to be more proffesional on work, he don't separate work from home life a thick line. The real work-life balance in this case doesn't exist, because we must have more extra hours to learning something more. In my opinion is not proffesional, when someone finished work at 6 pm, go out from office and turn off his bussines phone and email and don't care about anything - maybe at 7.pm the boss calling to You about changing plan about tommorrow (for example - bussiness meeting with important clients) and You miss them. If we thinking seriously about our career in current company, we are must try to be the best like we can.
Im very impressed about first presentation - Ross McCray and his approach to life, because he exercise a lot, caring about health and he is so creative om his company and take care about his employees and trust them.
Thank you for links. I think that this topic is really important and on time. In my opinion it depends on the job. What is more if you are passionate about your job what's then? You just love it and spend a lot of time on it. I know many people who do not finish their work after 8 hours because it is not professional for them. In my opinion you have to feel that in selected moment you should get some rest and spend time with friends or work.
The article and video are really interesting, but it is depending on the job. I can not imagine work 100 hours per week- it is impossible. We need to have time for rest, and to spend time with our families or with the people we love. In my opinion a lot of people avoid loneliness in work. I am designer, sometimes when I have an important project, I must stay after hours, and and make an adjustments. Due to I have less ideas, and I am less efficient. In my opinion company should, give to their employees extra vacation or benefits (weekend spa, massages, and wellness)
Some time ago, somewhere I heard that ‘if you want to be successful, you need to make your work your life and your life your work’. This seems to be the motto of Ross McCray. What do I think about it?
It might work for some of the people. Mainly for these who are young, energized, don’t have many responsibilities yet and are willing to exchange part of private life for money and chance to be successful at what they do. For some people with certain priority hierarchy (where relatives, partners or personal development aren’t the most important things) this might be a good solution. But in the end we have to encounter one, unpopular and unpleasant truth. Companies exist to make money. Their main aim is to make a profit. And we – as employees – should enable this, support the business. Each investment company makes in employee has to pay off. And I’m not entirely convinced if working 60 hours per week and having nothing but work and friends at work can be a long term solution. Not for me at least.
I liked a video of Nigel. He shares a lot of thoughts which I agree with, however besides stating facts he’s not giving any clear guidance how to proceed further or how to improve you work-life balance step by step. If I was about to change something in my life having watched this video I would still have no clue what to do.
Therefore I’d like to share my theory how to balance your life. First of all – you have to job which is likeable. I don’t mean it has to be job of your dreams. But you can’t hate it, you can’t regret going there before you even leave your bed. Obviously in every job there are moments when you’re proud of yourself, energized and highly motivated. Also there are moments when you just want to leave. But in general – if you sum up all for & against arguments – balance has to be on plus. Next – lower your expectations. The cost of being perfect at work, perfect at home, being perfect friend is high. Do your best, but not at any cost. We are humans, sometimes we fail and it’s OK. So set your mind for winning, however be ready encounter a failure. The social expectations towards us are getting higher and higher. We’re expected to be better at literally everything, which brings a lot of pressure. That’s why should release as much of it, as it’s possible. High pressure can be a good motivation for short term, but looking at longer horizon – it destroys us inside. Last, but not least – do things you like and fight for having time for them. In the end – if something makes you happy, you need to make sure it’s present in your life :)
Thank you for this video, i think this topic is really on time because nowadays most of the people are in rush and we’re spending a lot of hours at work. But in my opinion it’s not good, we should also have a time for rest and spend time with families, friends. And also if we work so many hours we are less efficient. If we have some deadlines and we have to work a lot of hours, i think it’s good to make some holidays after that.
The pursuit of career fulfillment in life, and workaholism as a psycho-social phenomenon, appeared in the second half of the twentieth century and got worse today. We work hard because we want to make more money, get promoted, but also to develop and build personal competence. When we put the work in the first place, often neglecting personal life, forgetting that both spheres in the sustainable limits of the responsibility for the proper functioning of our lives. Difficulties in one of them significantly reflect on the success of the other.
I work as a graphic designer. I appreciate that the company where I am currently employed in do not devote in to my private life. I don’t have strict work hours, I can come earlier or leave early. I do not have overtime. When I come home I do not think about work and this is the most valuable for me.
Everyday, I get up at 5 in the morning and I do excercise so I identify more with the first approach with regard to these two things. However 60 hours of work per week and more think is wrong approach, and this topic I am trying to keep up appropriate proportions.
From my experience I know that many people, including my friends can talk only about work. I think that sometimes they are living in companies for 5 days a week and after that they come back to their private life and responsibilities. Everyone should try to balance it or divide it, I mean private life from business. It may be a problem when one part influence on other. We should enjoy our lifes more and try to forget about stress. Firstly we should start counting hourst hat wspent at work, hours that we spent with family, hours that we spent on ourselves like time at the gym, cinema etc. Then we will see how much time we spent on that things. Also we should answer the question "is it everything balanced?". If not we should try to fix it i.e. trying to spent more time with family instead sitting at work.
I have very negative statement against what McCray says, ofcourse not everything. First of all he is saying, that he can't stand up a bit later, becouse he doesn't have enough time to do all his duties. Okay live day-by-day is busy, but if I were him I could die or have some kind of hard diesease, becouse of overdose i.eg of doing exercises. Okay yoga classes to clear up ur mind is good solution for start your day, but not in so early hours. Also he says that he's working 100 hours per week. It's very obvious that he's staying long hours in his office. I don't wish anything bad for him, but if he will live in that way longer his body probably will go in bad health condition. In some reasons I agree with him, i.e.g. with clothes. That's true that usually men are bussy and don't have time to wonder "what can I wear today". :) Furthermore I'm glad to hear that his company - VideoAmp take care of employees, serves healthy meals, and get them special game room or pay for yoga classes. The company takes care or some kind of balance in eployees worklife. Even law with unlimited holidays helps them. To sum up it is not easy to connect balance with busy lifestyle, but you can do it, even wery well. (author Monika D)
Nigel Marsh in very funny and interesting way shows how to make work-life-balance possible in life. In my opinion he is saying true that there is a lot of people, who don't know anything about work-life-ballance and they are giving advice others how to do it properly. And he is giving an example of his friend, which seem to be alike to McCray. In that statement I also agree. That u get good condition, but you will soon get tired. All what Nigel says is true and in wht amaizing sense of humour he does it. (author Monika D)
In my opinion this is too much. I can't imagine working in this way. I agree about phisical activity because it gives us energy. Personally I exercise 7-9 times a week so it means more than 2 hours a day but belive me I have more time to work not less. I read about work in Canada. For them it is not important what school you finish. They take everyone and teach them from begining. In this way work is more important not like in Poland where more people want to earn without work.
They say a perfect day is when a man gets to sleep for 8 hours, work for 8 hours and spend 8 hours on what they like to do. However, I've never met a person who's been able to balance it all out perfectly - might be it the fact that finding a work that allows you to do so is extremaly hard, or the fact that said person never tried to find harmony between those elements in the first place.
All of the people are different - workaholic may find Ross' idea of workplace a dream come true, but personally I wouldn't consider myself "a warrior", as he puts it. I am super passionate about my job - designing, drawing and creating is what I'll never get tired of doing, however it's not the only thing that drives me in my life - my family, my hobbies and my friends are as important - not to mention I was the one to choose them in the first place. No matter what the job offers you - coworkers, meals, daily yoga sessions - it still is sort of handed to you - not picked by you.
I tend to stay after hours. While I'm not really upset about it, it still bugs me that I can't use that time to do something else that I'm interested in or maybe try out new things. I am bothered when I know that my dad or mom want to chat when they feel lonely, but I don't have time to talk to them.
Work is imporant - thanks to the work we get money - thanks to the money we get things we need in our life - thanks to those things we get to fulfill our dreams and passion. And if we spend more time working instead of striving for the last point, the whole concept crumbles down. Finding a balance is super important and to be fair - ditching the prestige of being a restless robot aka employee of the month is a good kind of being selfish.
Ross is strongly focused on his ambitious and professional goals. He is early riser, do not loose time of day. He follow an extreme workout routine every morning in order to stay healthy. Every day morning he practice meditation. It helps him focus during day. Everything what he is doing has purpose. He wants to be productive from morning to evening.
But what he is doing is far from work life balance. He is extremely focused on work, on achieving goals, on growth of his company. He is trying to be example to follow by his employees. He organize them physical activities during day. They socialize together in office. He is trying to organize their lives.
Now we should answer question if lack of work life balance is something wrong. In short terms it seems even really interesting. If your job is what you want to do, then for short term it can help you learn, gain experience and focus on your professional career. But in my opinion it is rather for young people to speed up your career, help to make experience in profession you like. I have experienced that many employees of consultant company has such approach, eg. Accenture, McKinsey.
Working that way longer can approach mental issues, professional burnout. You can loose your job and stay with nothing.
As stated this is rather for short time, but after couple years it is better stop, to find friends outside company, to start activities besides your professional company, etc.
And this is related to model presented by Nigel. Personally I prefer this way. You are focusing on many aspects of life: work, family, friends, hobbies.
You are successful life if you reach your goals in many aspects, not only job.
Thanks for this links. I love this subject, for the few years my hobby is topic of self-development. My favourite saying is "work smarter not harder". I admire people like McCray, they change this world. They show that you don't have to work to die. That people can live with passion, "live full time", whole breast. It's wonderful that each human has 24 hour in the day and a large part of us in these 24 hours can literally change the world while the rest just complain that the world is unjust doing nothing, wasting time on couch at home. I admire even more people who after many years can change something in this life like Nigel Marsh.
In these times there are not too many jobs, that give us easy way to achieve work-life balance. In my opinion the biggest impact on this have cell phones and Internet. Nowadays you can be available everywhere and every time a day and night. You have to be very good at what you do or be prepared for changing job often if you want to maintain work-life balance. It's not that easy to resist your boss or coworkers pressure. I work in a company with 8 hours working day with fixed start and end time, but this is just a theory - in fact I often work at home. Ok - this is not the same as sitting in open space office, but you can't call it work-life balance. And now about Mr. McCray and Mr. Marsh: I think, that Ross McCray would be unbearable boss for me. Presentation about him is not very trustworthy, and his employees don't participate in yoga excercises because they want to but because that's what you are supposed to do. Changing workplace into second home is a trap for worker, I totally agree with Nigel on that. To tell the truth, I agree with Nigel in most of what he said in video. I can see one, major difference between those two gentlemen, and it's not about approach to work. Mr. Nigel Marsh has children, an Mr. Ross hasn't. For me having children changes a lot!
Ross McCray, as much as Nigel Marsh profile is very interesting and inspiring. Both histories show us that we are different. Life is one big pursuit of happiness, personal happiness. That’s very positive to watch this guys, especially in world where everybody looks same, eat same and live same. In my opinion every person have to decide in what way they want to live and Ross with Nigel did this perfectly. Their personalities makes me jealous. I’d like to be as much strong as they. For first sight, Ross looks as very powerful person, very young with head full of ambitious plans for future. I understand his choices, especially with idea of wearing similar clothes everyday. It’s brilliant! By the way, his not first. Marc Zuckerberg has also same wearing style habit. On the other hand Nigiel presents more mature way of thinking, very reasonable. I like his way of thinking. I see very wise man, worldly wisdom man. I know that we, young generation should take care of what older says. I haven’t had so much work experience yet. As long as I’m happy with my past choices I should live same way in closest future. I’d like to find happy medium in my life, some part of Ross’s and some of Nigiel’s. This recipe would be one million dollar idea!
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that you can tag both of the approaches as work-life balance.
ReplyDeleteThe first approach is clearly missing life part in the balance. The CEO says that he calls it rather work-life integration. The company is inheriting some part of life into everyday work. This kind of approach makes you definitely more efficient, but it's not really taking care of life part of balance. For example ordering food for everybody in the company lets you waste less time on dinning out and the time you have saved is used for doing more work. I think that work-life integration system is suitable for people who are willing to sacrifice huge part of their private life for the company life.
The second approach is focused on real work-life balance. What's more, it's also clarified what the work-life balance means. According to the presentation the balance is not devoting the same amount of time to work and private life. The work-life balance is about knowing when and where you should focus on work and when on the private life. Sometimes you have to do overtime at work or work from home, because your working skills is really needed at this particular time. On the other hand you have to know when it's not necessary and you can devote time outside of working hours 100% to private life.
Thanks for links, especially from YouTube. I really like speeches from TEDx. The topic is not a stranger to me. I try to live productively which is a related topic. Unfortunately, as an IT specialist it is hard do not work after work :) I try not to do that, but we know that it is not easy. Especially if you are working on some new technology you do not know. Then after work I need to learn it (read books, do courses). In addition, as you know, I go to college on weekends. So I do not have time for myself and my family. Recently my girlfriend complains about me. Therefore, I try not to work after work.
ReplyDeleteI know that in the future will be better, because last time I read Getting Things Done book. I recommend it to anyone who has a problem with time ;)
It works and thanks to this you have a "mind like water".
Rafał, this book is great. I read it last year.
DeleteI also work in IT department, but I not take my work to home. My free time in home is only for me (sometimes for my girl ;) ). I often learn new technology, read technical books etc, but It is not directly related with my work (my brain is not concentrated on problems in work). I propose for you make a Code Kata (http://codekata.com/ - it is code excercises pack - great for learn any new programming language - readed it in some book - I do not remember title). This method is good, but I not thinks about my job, and I make 'brain exercises'. This method is good, because in work I have many new ideas.
It's really hard to find the best way to living with good work-life balance.
ReplyDeleteFrom one side there are often things from work, which we just "must do", from other sometimes we are so tired that it will be faboulous to sleep 2 hours longer, sometimes we need to go to some departments etc. There is so much unexpected things in our lives, that it makes almost impossible to find one way for great work-life balance.
People are too volatile and vulnerable on various factors, so everyone should try to find his own way, for every day, to make his life happier and better.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI am at the beginning of my professional path. What matters most to me at the moment is a quick development of my skills. After work I try to gain expert knowledge by reading books, doing tests and watching movies. I spend most of my free time working. I believe that thanks to hard work I will be more competitive on the job market. I will be able to dictate the terms of cooperation in case many employers want to give me a job. I would also like to start my own business, which would comprise of taking orders from around the world. That way I will be the one to decide how much time should be dedicated to work and how much to rest. A lot of people spend most of their time working because they want to earn more money. They decide that for themselves. They don’t notice how their actions influence their families and people surrounding them. Such behaviour is becoming more and more popular in Poland, we can be compared even to the Japanese. Every day I meet people for whom work is not the most important thing. They focus on what they like the most, for example dance, sport. I believe we are capable of balancing our time between work and private matters. I think it is very difficult though and not many people can afford it.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, if someone wants to improve their skills to be more
ReplyDeleteproffesional on work, he don't separate work from home life a thick line.
The real work-life balance in this case doesn't exist,
because we must have more extra hours to learning something more.
In my opinion is not proffesional, when someone finished work at
6 pm, go out from office and turn off his bussines
phone and email and don't care about anything - maybe at 7.pm the boss calling to You about
changing plan about tommorrow (for example - bussiness meeting with important clients)
and You miss them. If we thinking seriously about our career
in current company, we are must try to be the best like we can.
Im very impressed about first presentation - Ross McCray and his approach to life, because he exercise a lot,
caring about health and he is so creative om his company and take care about his employees and trust them.
Thank you for links. I think that this topic is really important and on time. In my opinion it depends on the job. What is more if you are passionate about your job what's then? You just love it and spend a lot of time on it. I know many people who do not finish their work after 8 hours because it is not professional for them. In my opinion you have to feel that in selected moment you should get some rest and spend time with friends or work.
ReplyDeleteThe article and video are really interesting, but it is depending on the job. I can not imagine work 100 hours per week- it is impossible. We need to have time for rest, and to spend time with our families or with the people we love. In my opinion a lot of people avoid loneliness in work. I am designer, sometimes when I have an important project, I must stay after hours, and and make an adjustments. Due to I have less ideas, and I am less efficient. In my opinion company should, give to their employees extra vacation or benefits (weekend spa, massages, and wellness)
ReplyDeleteSome time ago, somewhere I heard that ‘if you want to be successful, you need to make your work your life and your life your work’. This seems to be the motto of Ross McCray. What do I think about it?
ReplyDeleteIt might work for some of the people. Mainly for these who are young, energized, don’t have many responsibilities yet and are willing to exchange part of private life for money and chance to be successful at what they do. For some people with certain priority hierarchy (where relatives, partners or personal development aren’t the most important things) this might be a good solution. But in the end we have to encounter one, unpopular and unpleasant truth. Companies exist to make money. Their main aim is to make a profit. And we – as employees – should enable this, support the business. Each investment company makes in employee has to pay off. And I’m not entirely convinced if working 60 hours per week and having nothing but work and friends at work can be a long term solution. Not for me at least.
I liked a video of Nigel. He shares a lot of thoughts which I agree with, however besides stating facts he’s not giving any clear guidance how to proceed further or how to improve you work-life balance step by step. If I was about to change something in my life having watched this video I would still have no clue what to do.
Therefore I’d like to share my theory how to balance your life. First of all – you have to job which is likeable. I don’t mean it has to be job of your dreams. But you can’t hate it, you can’t regret going there before you even leave your bed. Obviously in every job there are moments when you’re proud of yourself, energized and highly motivated. Also there are moments when you just want to leave. But in general – if you sum up all for & against arguments – balance has to be on plus. Next – lower your expectations. The cost of being perfect at work, perfect at home, being perfect friend is high. Do your best, but not at any cost. We are humans, sometimes we fail and it’s OK. So set your mind for winning, however be ready encounter a failure. The social expectations towards us are getting higher and higher. We’re expected to be better at literally everything, which brings a lot of pressure. That’s why should release as much of it, as it’s possible. High pressure can be a good motivation for short term, but looking at longer horizon – it destroys us inside. Last, but not least – do things you like and fight for having time for them. In the end – if something makes you happy, you need to make sure it’s present in your life :)
Thank you for this video, i think this topic is really on time because nowadays most of the people are in rush and we’re spending a lot of hours at work. But in my opinion it’s not good, we should also have a time for rest and spend time with families, friends. And also if we work so many hours we are less efficient. If we have some deadlines and we have to work a lot of hours, i think it’s good to make some holidays after that.
ReplyDeleteThe pursuit of career fulfillment in life, and workaholism as a psycho-social phenomenon, appeared in the second half of the twentieth century and got worse today. We work hard because we want to make more money, get promoted, but also to develop and build personal competence. When we put the work in the first place, often neglecting personal life, forgetting that both spheres in the sustainable limits of the responsibility for the proper functioning of our lives. Difficulties in one of them significantly reflect on the success of the other.
ReplyDeleteI work as a graphic designer. I appreciate that the company where I am currently employed in do not devote in to my private life. I don’t have strict work hours, I can come earlier or leave early. I do not have overtime. When I come home I do not think about work and this is the most valuable for me.
Everyday, I get up at 5 in the morning and I do excercise so I identify more with the first approach with regard to these two things. However 60 hours of work per week and more think is wrong approach, and this topic I am trying to keep up appropriate proportions.
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience I know that many people, including my friends can talk only about work. I think that sometimes they are living in companies for 5 days a week and after that they come back to their private life and responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteEveryone should try to balance it or divide it, I mean private life from business. It may be a problem when one part influence on other. We should enjoy our lifes more and try to forget about stress.
Firstly we should start counting hourst hat wspent at work, hours that we spent with family, hours that we spent on ourselves like time at the gym, cinema etc. Then we will see how much time we spent on that things. Also we should answer the question "is it everything balanced?". If not we should try to fix it i.e. trying to spent more time with family instead sitting at work.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have very negative statement against what McCray says, ofcourse not everything. First of all he is saying, that he can't stand up a bit later, becouse he doesn't have enough time to do all his duties. Okay live day-by-day is busy, but if I were him I could die or have some kind of hard diesease, becouse of overdose i.eg of doing exercises. Okay yoga classes to clear up ur mind is good solution for start your day, but not in so early hours. Also he says that he's working 100 hours per week. It's very obvious that he's staying long hours in his office. I don't wish anything bad for him, but if he will live in that way longer his body probably will go in bad health condition.
ReplyDeleteIn some reasons I agree with him, i.e.g. with clothes. That's true that usually men are bussy and don't have time to wonder "what can I wear today". :)
Furthermore I'm glad to hear that his company - VideoAmp take care of employees, serves healthy meals, and get them special game room or pay for yoga classes. The company takes care or some kind of balance in eployees worklife. Even law with unlimited holidays helps them.
To sum up it is not easy to connect balance with busy lifestyle, but you can do it, even wery well. (author Monika D)
Nigel Marsh in very funny and interesting way shows how to make work-life-balance possible in life. In my opinion he is saying true that there is a lot of people, who don't know anything about work-life-ballance and they are giving advice others how to do it properly. And he is giving an example of his friend, which seem to be alike to McCray. In that statement I also agree. That u get good condition, but you will soon get tired.
ReplyDeleteAll what Nigel says is true and in wht amaizing sense of humour he does it. (author Monika D)
In my opinion this is too much. I can't imagine working in this way. I agree about phisical activity because it gives us energy. Personally I exercise 7-9 times a week so it means more than 2 hours a day but belive me I have more time to work not less. I read about work in Canada. For them it is not important what school you finish. They take everyone and teach them from begining. In this way work is more important not like in Poland where more people want to earn without work.
ReplyDeleteThey say a perfect day is when a man gets to sleep for 8 hours, work for 8 hours and spend 8 hours on what they like to do. However, I've never met a person who's been able to balance it all out perfectly - might be it the fact that finding a work that allows you to do so is extremaly hard, or the fact that said person never tried to find harmony between those elements in the first place.
ReplyDeleteAll of the people are different - workaholic may find Ross'
idea of workplace a dream come true, but personally I wouldn't consider myself "a warrior", as he puts it. I am super passionate about my job - designing, drawing and creating is what I'll never get tired of doing, however it's not the only thing that drives me in my life - my family, my hobbies and my friends are as important - not to mention I was the one to choose them in the first place. No matter what the job offers you - coworkers, meals, daily yoga sessions - it still is sort of handed to you - not picked by you.
I tend to stay after hours. While I'm not really upset about it, it still bugs me that I can't use that time to do something else that I'm interested in or maybe try out new things. I am bothered when I know that my dad or mom want to chat when they feel lonely, but I don't have time to talk to them.
Work is imporant - thanks to the work we get money - thanks to the money we get things we need in our life - thanks to those things we get to fulfill our dreams and passion. And if we spend more time working instead of striving for the last point, the whole concept crumbles down. Finding a balance is super important and to be fair - ditching the prestige of being a restless robot aka employee of the month is a good kind of being selfish.
It was interesting to watch both approaches.
ReplyDeleteRoss is strongly focused on his ambitious and professional goals.
He is early riser, do not loose time of day. He follow an extreme workout routine every morning in order to stay healthy.
Every day morning he practice meditation. It helps him focus during day.
Everything what he is doing has purpose. He wants to be productive from morning to evening.
But what he is doing is far from work life balance. He is extremely focused on work, on achieving goals, on growth of his company. He is trying to be example to follow by his employees. He organize them physical activities during day. They socialize together in office. He is trying to organize their lives.
Now we should answer question if lack of work life balance is something wrong. In short terms it seems even really interesting. If your job is what you want to do, then for short term it can help you learn, gain experience and focus on your professional career.
But in my opinion it is rather for young people to speed up your career, help to make experience in profession you like.
I have experienced that many employees of consultant company has such approach, eg. Accenture, McKinsey.
Working that way longer can approach mental issues, professional burnout. You can loose your job and stay with nothing.
As stated this is rather for short time, but after couple years it is better stop, to find friends outside company, to start activities besides your professional company, etc.
And this is related to model presented by Nigel. Personally I prefer this way.
You are focusing on many aspects of life: work, family, friends, hobbies.
You are successful life if you reach your goals in many aspects, not only job.
Thanks for this links. I love this subject, for the few years my hobby is topic of self-development. My favourite saying is "work smarter not harder". I admire people like McCray, they change this world. They show that you don't have to work to die. That people can live with passion, "live full time", whole breast. It's wonderful that each human has 24 hour in the day and a large part of us in these 24 hours can literally change the world while the rest just complain that the world is unjust doing nothing, wasting time on couch at home. I admire even more people who after many years can change something in this life like Nigel Marsh.
ReplyDeleteIn these times there are not too many jobs, that give us easy way to achieve work-life balance. In my opinion the biggest impact on this have cell phones and Internet. Nowadays you can be available everywhere and every time a day and night. You have to be very good at what you do or be prepared for changing job often if you want to maintain work-life balance. It's not that easy to resist your boss or coworkers pressure.
ReplyDeleteI work in a company with 8 hours working day with fixed start and end time, but this is just a theory - in fact I often work at home. Ok - this is not the same as sitting in open space office, but you can't call it work-life balance.
And now about Mr. McCray and Mr. Marsh: I think, that Ross McCray would be unbearable boss for me. Presentation about him is not very trustworthy, and his employees don't participate in yoga excercises because they want to but because that's what you are supposed to do. Changing workplace into second home is a trap for worker, I totally agree with Nigel on that. To tell the truth, I agree with Nigel in most of what he said in video.
I can see one, major difference between those two gentlemen, and it's not about approach to work. Mr. Nigel Marsh has children, an Mr. Ross hasn't. For me having children changes a lot!