Work/Life balance - I hate the phrase!!

Why am I fed up with "work/life" balance?

I am fed up with this phrase "work/life balance" for one key reason and it has nothing to do with "balance". It is because "work" is put in opposition to "life". Believe me, I yearn and strive for a balanced life. But work is an important component of this life, not in opposition to it.

The phrase denigrates work and the place it has in our lives. This article explores four reasons that work is vital to life and then proposes an alternative to the hated phrase - "work/life balance".

Work provides us with a wide selection of benefits and we should never forget it. Here are four that are important to me:

Four major benefits of work

1. Work provides us with money - we take it for granted but work gives us long term access to a multitude of rewards ranging from pay and associated benefits through to bonuses and pension. Many millions of people owe their incomes purely to work. They have no other source of money and security.

2. Work gives opportunities for social friendships - human beings thrive on relationships and many are forged in the work environment. Taking on major projects, working in busy outlets or factories all enable us to meet people and spend many hours building friendships that are vital to our very lives. In times of need many people turn to friends made in the workplace and would be lost without them.

3. Work develops skills and abilities - in the course of the many years spent at work we gradually accumulate transferable skills and competences. Spending 2000 hours a year in a job gives us training, coaching and development that will make us able to lead at schools, charities and sports clubs outside of the work environment. Practical skills like plumbing, electrics and welding are all useful at weekends and after work.

4. Work builds our character - finally, we spend thousands of hours facing challenges, dealing with awkward customers and managing people at work and these experiences build character. Nowhere else do we develop patience, perseverance, humour and integrity like we do at work. We become the people we are through the refining fire of work.

Okay revivor - what's the new phrase?

Work is so beneficial for us we must not balance it with life, as if it were not life but some other activity that we must do in order to get to "life".

The phrase should be "LIfe balance". We should aim to balance all aspects of life, including work, including home, hobbies, family and friends. We should learn from them all, contribute to them all and have a life in balance.

How is your life balance?