VeraSage

Ron Baker

Good post, Dan.  I agree this “work-life balance” mantra is the new fad of the month, along with Gen X, Y and Z.

I agree with management thinker Charles Handy, in his new book, “Myself and Other More Important Matters” that the metaphor more appropriate for today’s knowledge workers is that of a “portfolio life.” This is simply a mix of different jobs, clients, skils, and perhaps even careers.

Work and life are not two separate things, but inextricably woven together.  I agree that achieveing a “balance” in this area is probably not feasible, nor am I sure it would be desirbable.  I think it’s the work balance that matters, enjoying what you do, having passion, constantly stretching yourself (and others) to achieve something larger than any one life.

I can’t wait for this work-life balance fad to pass, and now I’ll go get my tires rotated.

Robin Jerauld

“Don’t confuse your career with your life.” - Dave Barry

Was the original post meant as a satire?  I understand what you’re saying if you’re talking about Apple, Google, or some company/industry that makes a significant difference in the world, but public accounting?

I was born at the tail-end of the Gen Xers, so discount what I’m saying accordingly, but regarding the statement, “it is just fine to set impossible deadlines,” in the real-world accounting firms I’ve worked at, the consequence of setting impossible (or even unreasonable) deadlines for employees is that they (stars included) leave the firm for greener pastures, especially the younger ones.

Congrats if it’s different at your firm, but where I’ve worked the Gen X and Yers feel very little loyalty towards the firm.  Most of us view accounting firms as commodities, so setting unreasonable deadlines doesn’t fly in a free (and tight) labor market where we can walk down the street to your nearest competitor, negotiate a better deal, get our signing bonus, and start working less hours with less hassle for the same or greater pay.

Maybe work-life balance is a fad, but I would submit to you that demographics are not, and what the demographics say is that the accounting profession is aging, and there aren’t enough of us Gen X and Yers graduating with accounting degrees to fill your shoes. 

Supply and demand.

Currently and for the foreseeable future, we’ve got the better bargaining position.  Casual dress, flexible hours, work-life-balance, better coffee, home from work, etc.  Get used to it.  As one of my twenty-something accounting buddies recently joked, “You can’t fire me, you’re understaffed.”

“Work hard and play hard” is a cliche.  Why would most young accountants want to spend 60-80 hours per week having their “acumen, creativity, stamina, and quest for excellence tested” as a “star” or “up and comer?” At some point, marginal tax rates and burnout set in, and most people realize that it isn’t worth it to sacrifice their youth building someone else’s book of business when it is just as easy to start their own firm and work however hard they want for significantly more money. 

“Work less and play more” is a far healthier way to view life.  Maybe I’m a slacker for believing that life is more important than work (and I generally prefer non-extreme sports to extreme sports), but so be it. 

“Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” -Ferris Bueller

Daniel Morris

Robin,

Thanks for writing.  Your post presents an important viewpoint and requires a thoughtful response.

Never having been an avid David Barry fan, I reserve the privilege of disagreeing with him – in as much as my life and my career are too intertwined separate.  Although his statement would make a fun post sometime.

My post certainly included an amount of satire.  But not about the importance of the main theme.  And although Apple, Google, Boeing, Fed-X, Nordstrom, Ritz Carlton, LEXUS, and any number of non-CPA companies all create a positive influence, I am troubled by your inference that public accounting doe not provide a similar public benefit.

Public accounting provides a tremendous benefit for those that are passionate about delivering superior results and recognize the importance of proper customer selection/fit, firm leadership, understand what they are selling (results and not efforts) and when the important values and goals of the team are aligned with the wants and desires of both the firm and its customers, I do not know of a more enjoyable profession.  An optimistic attitude and belief that the services provided are both valued and valuable creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that what we do matters.

Although we have met a couple of times, I am a couple of years older (circa 1960), however I won’t discount your commentary.  In the arena of ideas, even conclusions I disagree with (and personally, the different opinions are in fact more important then concurring ones) I whole-heartedly encourage to be expressed.  How else do we collectively move forward? 

Regarding my comments about setting unreasonable deadlines, allow me to explain a little.  I certainly do not suggest that leaders, because of their ineptness, spinelessness, overall crappy scheduling, recruiting, retaining, and motivating their human capital, be provided any form of free pass to force their HC to be enslaved.  The days of the CPA firm caste system are over.  Like you (or any really motivated (non slacker types)), today’s HC should never work for or with draconian leaders.  Their days are numbered and funeral by funeral they will leave our profession (note there may be a simple reason that over 50% of our practice units are sole props and ½ of them are solo-solo’s.  They may simply understand, without really understanding, that they are toxic leaders and simply do not have the DNA to play well with others).

Returning to my thoughts though, I do think that when great opportunities present themselves (and they do frequently), it is a forward thinking leader’s obligation to provide a growth/maturity moment of truth for leading team members.  Consider the scene from Apollo 13 where the project team leader grabs an armload of items that reside in the spacecraft and explains that they have a very short time to make a round air scrubber out of a square one. 

Although we never have people’s direct lives in the balance like NASA did, we frequently have their financial livelihood under our direct influence.  Whether it is help them sell/purchase a business, resolve a tricky estate issue, keep the feds from impounding their assets, or any number of highly stressful events, we are integral to our customer’s success and they know it or they wouldn’t hire us or listen to our opinions.  When these moments arrive, a leader should harvest the opportunity.  And these moments can’t be scheduled into an 8-5 M-F time frame.  They occur when they occur and frequently the results necessary are due now.  Impossible deadlines?  You bet.  Pricing opportunities?  Yes.  Learning opportunities?  Yes.  Growth opportunities?  Yes.  Time to look to the slacking clock-watching all about me team member?  No Way.  It is time to go for the hungry, aggressive, demanding, I want to be in the heat, team member. 

This is the time where leadership triumphs.  And where weenies fail.  Maybe this isn’t for you.  Maybe you haven’t had the chance to feel the euphoria of reaching deep within yourself and creating an unbelievable result that is personally, emotionally, and financially rewarding.

You are correct that firms have a marketing challenge regarding their HC.  And, when all a firm discusses is hours and money – both become hygiene factors and easily substituted elsewhere.  Accounting firms are not commodities – although bonehead leadership may ignore this reality.  If leaders dump on their HC – they should walk.  What I am saying is don’t couch the terms in this work life balance concept – but in seeking opportunities to stretch and relax.  To work hard and play hard (even reading hard if that is what you prefer) is still an improvement over the work life balance mantra.  What I see as a real opportunity is for leaders to customize the career offerings of their firms.  Thereby taking away that hours/money mode of thinking and replacing it with items important to both the investors (the HC) and the investees (the firm).  This provides the opportunity for success.

An aging population doesn’t simply mean that it is just a one-way negotiation when it comes to HC.  Competitive innovation will provide opportunities to limit the challenges of a shrinking voluntary labor pool.  And, those twenty somethings should never be so cocky to believe that they are shark proof from firings.  The value proposition of when to terminate the relationship may have changed, but the concept hasn’t.  Leaders will adjust and will continue to adjust. 

You are correct, when you suggest that young stars won’t stand for building someone else’s book of business and being robbed of their youth.  That is a problem of our profession’s partnership model and lack of innovation.  When you align the opportunities with the rewards you paint a different picture.

Work and life are intertwined.  People must recharge mentally and physically.  They also need to be challenged or you end up with a lackluster effort leading to mediocrity.  I am seeking the rewards (for all and this isn’t just about money or ego) that come from risking to do it different, and hopefully, better.

Thanks again.

Fred Mischler

Can’t say I agree that the concept is so easily understood and dismissed.  Work-life balance can also mean a direct affront to the kind of “cash-is-king, your way or highway, let others define my life and my values” kind of thinking that this post represents.  Don’t get me wrong, most can understand the idea of the invisible hand of the market and that over the long run, there needs to be more income than expense for any enterprise to continue in existence. 

But does that mean that I too have to work 60 hours a week only to satisfy others’ ideas of what it means to be productive.  Measures of success are and should be as wide ranging as our individual outlooks on life.  The idea that dollars defines success can be the general consensus of business owners or managers.  But for any particular individual it may only mean those owners and managers simply won’t employ that individual because they don’t fit into the corporate culture.  The individual can and will find that place where the work and personal life feel more balanced.

It is also interesting that our terms seemed to be getting mashed together.  Slacker is a fairly recent term (perhaps popularized in the 1991 movie of that name, but as I recall also used in 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High to describe Sean Penn’s character by a decidedly old-fogey-ish Ray Walston as Mr. Hand).

However, we should note that the present “powers that be” in world control (I am being facetious here, hopefully, you see the humor) are the Boomers who started their lives with free-love and “tuning in, turning on and dropping out.” They had their fun, but now being the paternalistic narcissists they are, don’t want anyone else to express any alternative ideas.  It’s also interesting that younger generations now have to work harder with many 2 income homes to achieve the same level of satisfaction that our parents had in their young family years.

So slacker or hippie or boheme, the question of the level of one’s focus on business to the expense of personal life, or vice versa will continue.

I don’t think this is a discussion of “to balance work-life or not”.  Everyone has issues of such balance.  The discussion is the place at which that balance is struck.  If the continuum is total work - total freedom, it seems that our society has edged more toward the work side of the line and other societies are not willing to make that same balance.  When I worked in Poland, and was getting stressed out by how much work we had to do and that our competition may have been getting the better of us, my CFO said, “the cemetary is full of indispensible people.” Meaning that I needed to stop the stress and deal with the issues we faced but recognizing that working to death did no one any favors.

John Taylor

Interesting post - and thought provoking.  I guess it always gets difficult when a principle or idea becomes a mantra.  In my view, “work life balance” has been ruined by 2 things.  First, special pleading by slackers.  Dan has canvassed that enough, but also by those businesses that use it as a slogan.  They promote themselves as being an employer of choice because they were family friendly, and gave ‘work life balance’.  In reality, they are nothing of the sort.  In one job my loyalty was questioned when I noted with some concern that the hours I was working meant I went a week or so without seeing my 6 month old son.  And those hours were not a product of extra work being on.  These were an expectation.  The tipping point was being phoned in the office at 7:30 on a Saturday morning by the boss who was checking to see if I was there. That I objected earmarked me as a slacker - and yet I was actually the most productive of the Senior Associates, as I had learned how to work smarter, not harder.

But let me turn something on its head.  When I read Dan’s post, one thing leaps out “Search instead for opportunities to excel in both business and in life”.  Errm, excuse me, but that is what work life balance is all about.  And you don’t have to kill yourself doing it

Ross

Interesting post. I think it is good to challenge individuals to do their best, but threatoning to brand them with a negative label like “slacker” is a bullying technique that has very little use in a professional context. The use of labels tends to distort reality, and in this case it appears that you can either be a high power, self-destructive, workoholic with no regard for family and darned little self esteem, or you can be a slacker. You don’t ever have to use the term “work-life balance”, but it only makes sense to try to figure out what people will and will not do for a living. Pretty sexy talk for the Jaguar crowd though. If I were to make a point here it would be that working to the point that you feel sorry for yourself is not smart. I don’t want to work with people who are not smart. I definately don’t want to hand of my good work to someone who is not smart. I don’t want to hear excuses or apologies from people who do things that are not smart. And I don’t want to feel sorry for those who choose to self destruct that way.

Daniel Morris

Dear Ross,

Thanks for writing, however I think you may have misinterpreted my comments.  I have no desire nor would I support any method of “branding” people.  I am not branding people as slackers - nor am I suggesting that there are only two types of people (the workaholic or slackers).  The gist of my comments were directed to the consultants to the profession(s) and the current lack of any significant leadership in most HC or knowledge based professional service firms.

I ( and my fellow colleagues at VeraSage) participate in hundreds of conferences annually.  In almost each and every one of them, some mouthpiece will lead a session on motivating, retaining, and recruiting people.  And during these sessions, the preseter will discuss “work-life balance” as the driving force in today’s successful businesses.  These consultants lable Gen X and Gen Y as the generation that refuses to work hard and under the conditions that the boomers thought were required.  They continue to tell firm leaders and conference participants that what these “young” people demand is “work-life balance” and they repeat that mantra like its a relegion.

I agree with you that I only want to work with and for smart people.  I don’t want to be around people who operate like slaves or blindly destroying their lives for work. 

My comments were directed for leaders to consider that the truth is that it isn’t just about work-life balance as defined by the “leader” but that balance defined by the individual involved. And I beleive that the leading members of knowledge firms really are driven by extremes and not by mediocrity.  As my good friend Ron Baker likes to point out “just show me any business book that is titled “Success through Mediocrity”.  You can’t - it would exist as middle of the road is the home of road kill.  Mediocrity is for slackers and not for real knowledge workers.  And if you agree with this - leaders of knowledge workers need to recognize that motivation is individual and self-defined.  Effectively, balance for you isnt’ balance to me. 

Our responsibility as leaders is to recognize what it takes to lead knowledge workers and to recognize as Peter Drucker explained that to effectively lead knowledge workers one must treat them like volunteers.  And, volunteers that contribute their time and money to organizations are some of the hardest working people I have ever had the pleasure of spending time with.

Work should be not only fun and enjoyable, it should be transforming.  For consultants and firm leaders to believe that providing merely more vacation time or less stringent working hours will resolve the challenges associated with motivating and leading knowledge workers is not only misleading - it is naive and simplistic.

Leading a firm is difficult and extremely challenging.  Leaders shouldn’t be duped by populist conslant speak.

Again, thanks for your commments.

Dan