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WORK LIFE BALANCE - REFLECTIONS & INTERVENTIONS “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, [build] a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.” Robert Heinlein Introduction This paper was written to accompany Timelenders’ presentation on work-life balance for a company. Later on it was adapted for general readers. I have two audiences in mind:
For Timelenders’ family members I would recommend that you download this document and put it in the folders that we have provided to you in the workshops. A few tips for all of you: I would encourage you to first take a careful look at the quiz. This will help you to focus on some of the potential answers when you read the paper. Once you have read the paper, I would request you to attempt the quiz and then grade yourself. A score of 8 or above indicates that you have understood the concepts well. I pray to Allah (swt) that you find the information in the following useful.
Synopsis Work life balance is a serious issue today as long hours at work are stealing quality hours from the time that we dedicate to our families and our personal pursuits. Globally, the corporate world is waking up to this reality and a myriad of interventions are being proposed and implemented. At Timelenders we have developed and refined a framework based on the Islamic Ideology which we have taught to thousands of individuals over the past seven years as part of our Strategic Visions workshop with wonderful results. Few of the comments are written below. The Islamic perspective of balancing of life is extremely elegant, sophisticated and differs with the dominant intervention paradigms originating in the West. The paper is divided into the following sections:
Crux of the Matter Do you agree with the quote of Robert Heinlein mentioned in the beginning of the paper? Has this mindset not been a critical element of success since time immemorial? This has been true for thousands of years and it stands true today. To accept this is to also accept the fact that such a paradigm will introduce a need to balance between cooking a tasty meal and fighting efficiently; between cooperation and acting alone; between changing a diaper and dying gallantly. Hence, balancing different facets of our life of which work-life balance is a huge subset is a challenge which humanity has been facing and handling for ages. In history as of today, wars had to be fought and long trips had to be taken for trade which kept families apart for months on end; yet life went on. Just as many things are defined more by their antithesis than their own precise definitions, work-life balance is being defined by work-life imbalance. After teaching this subject for over seven years to thousands of individuals, I find that there is a disagreement on how to exactly define work-life balance but there is a general agreement on the consequences of work-life imbalance of which the two main symptoms are:
The moment any or both of these symptoms are detected, the dominant paradigm in the world today is to term it an issue of work-life balance or more precisely the result of work-life imbalance. The corporate world’s interest in work-life balance started from the West which led the world in rapid industrialization leading to massive urbanization of people, dislocation from traditional abodes of living and hence the breakdown of many centuries-old established structures that ensured balance in lives. The saying that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ is true but unfortunately difficult to apply in the current modernized/industrialized landscape. The consequences of work-life imbalance started affecting employees’ performance at work and hence a history of corporate and workplace initiatives and interventions started to take shape. As stated, the issue of having a balance in life is not new: societies throughout history have been addressing this matter and at times, very effectively. Just like all societies, Islam has also addressed this issue and the definition of balance in one’s life and the ideas to achieve balance that Islam presents are highly elegant, sophisticated, and versatile. At Timelenders we have taken these definitions and ideas and converted them into an operational framework which is used for not only understanding the underlying concepts and paradigms but as a tool for restructuring our lives. So instead of dwelling upon the different definitions of work-life balance, its modern (post-industrialization) history and the different interventions and remedies and their evaluation, I would move on to define the concept of balancing one’s life in Islam and the framework for achieving this balance.
The Framework We all have different roles in our life; we are fathers, sons, breadwinners, husbands, wives, mothers, CEOs, bosses and members of social clubs. If we look at ourselves from the paradigm of playing different roles in our life then the first sign that we understand of imbalance are situations similar to having someone who is a good businessman but a poor father or someone who is a good engineer but a poor wife. Every society is built upon an ideology. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ideology as ‘the basic beliefs and guiding principles of a person or group.’ This underlying ideology defines the basic paradigms of thought in the society. For example how we define success, failure, happiness, contentment, how the universe has come about and its functions are all driven by the underlying ideology of the society. Ideologies are of two types: Defined Ideology: Any ideology which has been clearly articulated and written is a defined ideology for example Communism, Hinduism, Social liberalism, Capitalism, Christianity, etc. According to this broad definition, Islam is also an ideology. Personal Ideology: The ideology which a person carries. Another articulation would be ‘installed ideology’. This ideology could be identical to a defined ideology or could be combination of some defined ideologies and unique personal beliefs and assertions. In all societies roles are of two types: Mandated roles: Those roles in life which your ideology doesn’t permit you to drop directly under any conditions. For example the roles of father, mother, son, brother, etc. would be mandated roles in Islam. Elective roles: Those roles in life which your ideology permits you to drop directly under certain conditions. For example the roles of employee, friend, boss, colleague, student, etc. would be elective roles in Islam. All societies define ‘minimum performance levels’ in all roles that are present in the society and these ‘minimum performance levels (MPLs)’ are dictated by the dominant ideology on which the society is build. The MPLs then give rise to the legal system of the society which further defines what is allowed and what is prohibited. Since different societies are built upon different ideologies, it is natural that MPLs in different societies would differ. Also, since most societies’ dominant ideologies are a mix of many defined ideologies and since with the passage of time not only does this mix fluctuate but also ideologies get redefined, it is but natural that MPLs are in a flux. A case in example is how the West has moved from ostracizing gays and lesbians in their societies to the current widespread acceptance of these individuals and the norms they represent. The least flux we see is in societies which are based on religious ideologies. Islam is the only exception as due to the preservation of Quran and Sunnah, the main sources of knowledge are preserved and are not in flux. This is one of the most important cornerstones of the ‘balance-in-life framework’ that we have developed. The beauty of Islam is that it has given very precise MPLs for all possible roles in life. Not only are these MPLs defined, they are also not in a flux. So the MPLs which were put forward fourteen hundred years ago stand true and valid today. With this backdrop, let me articulate the definition of balance in Islam: “Our performance in any one of our roles, Mandated or Elective, must not fall below the ‘minimum performance levels’ dictated by Islam.” To understand this, please refer to the following diagram:
The Y-axis shows performance in different roles whereas the X-axis shows the different roles. The purpose of the bar graphs is to highlight that there are different standards of performance operating in each of the roles and are being applied consistently to the three individuals. In each of the roles there is a red line that shows the minimum performance level (MPL) in that role. For example the MPL in the role of a neighbor in Islam is that it is unacceptable that we sleep with our stomachs full while our neighbor goes hungry . Now if we look at the definition of balance presented above, you would see that persons A and B are balanced while person C has an imbalance in his roles since he is below the minimum performance level in his role as a boss. So the conclusion is that as long as a person is above the red line in all of his roles, he is fine. Looking carefully at this we can immediately see the sophistication and versatility of the concept: this model can apply to anyone as people’s situations are different and it can cater to all situations. For example, when a family has infants or toddlers, their demands on time are high. In this case they can bring down the performance in other roles and increase their performance here. There are two types of resources: Transferable resources: These are resources that can be transferred across different roles like money, time etc. So person ‘C’ needs to improve his performance in his role of a boss by doing the following:
There are two important pitfalls that need to be avoided while attempting to create a balance. The first is to clearly define the MPLs from the Islamic Ideology and not on personal whims and wishes or sometimes incredulous expectations from the society. Many norms in our society are considered as MPLs and the whole life becomes imbalanced when people try to meet those. The case that could be presented here are the norms which are operative in the society regarding marriage. The second pitfall that has to be avoided is that to increase our performance in one role, we transfer resources from the other roles and call this sacrifice and rightly so. But sometimes an extreme is witnessed where we continue to drop performance to a point where we go below the minimum performance level and instead of understanding that this is wrong we continue to call it sacrifice. This is not sacrifice but a case of stupidity that in order to create a balance or aim for accomplishment in one role we have created an imbalance in our life. The most common example is how many people try to perform in their role of an employee or business owner at the cost of their health which comes under the role of self. There could be multiple ways of distributing resources within roles and still have a balance. The question of how to create the most optimum distribution of resources can be answered by having clear long term visions in each of the roles that we have.
A step by step intervention for creating a balance in our life In this section of this paper, let me highlight a step-by-step intervention for creating balance in our lives:
The above three steps will ensure that a balance is achieved in our lives. Lastly, to ensure that the distribution of resources is optimum, we would need to develop clear long term visions in all roles and let these visions dictate as to how the resources are allocated. Comments “I am sure that today I will benefit from it [workshop] in improving my life, work and family.” “I feel immense pleasure to mention here that through my years of experience I thought what ever I am thinking to plan ahead in my personal or professional is going perfectly alright and it is in line with my thoughts of what I have planned but to my great surprise I have re-discovered my inner self that I have to re-align my entire commitment/vision both in this life and the life hereafter. Definitely Timelenders is doing a great job. It has changed the perspective of my life and true meaning of my life.”
A Sample List of different roles in life
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