By Guest Author Erika Kauffman
Work-life balance is a dichotomy that career women have been discussing for as long as women have been in the workplace. But in today’s day and age, given all the advancements in technology and the growing notion that one must always be “dialed in”, this balancing act has shifted.
Today, a more appropriate label for this concept might be work-life integration: blending together the personal and professional, as opposed to positioning one vs. the other.
This new binary concept is something I have embraced over the course of my career; as a result, I find that I am more apt to accomplish everything I want, both professionally and personally.
My work doesn’t stop when I decide to leave the office at the end of the day, and it would be fair to say that the majority of women today don’t unplug when the clock strikes COB. My clients’ and agency’s needs are 24/7, every day of the week; something dozens of professions outside of Public Relations can relate to.
But likewise, my life outside of work does not disappear for the hours spent within these corporate four walls (again, preaching to the choir, I know). In my own experience, I’ve found that being able to identify exactly when I am able to best perform is key, which often changes depending on the day/week etc.
If I know when I am going to be at the top of my game, I focus on my work regardless of the time or location. I have also come to terms with the fact that minor personal activities/necessities do not have to be solely restricted to nights and weekends. If they help to break up your day, and allow you to be more productive when you are in fact dialed-in, that’s a win-win in my opinion.
Integrating professional and personal together might sound foreign (perhaps more so to boomers, and less so to millennials/Gen Y) but has ultimately become a new kind of normal, and will become more and more common for how career women manage their personal and professional lives each year.
About the Author: Erika Kauffman is Executive Vice President & Group Director at 5W Public Relations http://www.5wpr.com Facebook.com/5WPublicRelations | Twitter.com/5W_PR
For more on Work/Life Integration, check out these career women self-coaching guides:
When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women (eBook)