Being a Dad & Work Life Blend
Today’s blog is not about recruitment process or HR, its about “Work Life Blend”.
After living nearly 9 years in Australia, my wife and I were expecting our 2nd baby and we decided to return to the UK, to outsource it to our parents…. I mean…. have the kids grow up with nanna and grandpa! yeah thats what i meant.
Anyway, I decided that this was the right time to start my own thing. I wasn’t sure what the thing was 100% going to be, but what i was sure on was that I wanted to spend less time commuting and working 12 hour days
in an office and spend more time with my family. I started listening to lots of entrepreneurial podcasts, one of which was called Startup Daddy, which is all about starting a business as a parent. It was great, the whole narrative of the podcast was to build your work life around your family life, not the other way around. 99% of people desperately try to make time for their family and personal life, whether its rushing home to spend 10mins with your kid before they go to bed, or rushing to football training after work without missing half of it, not warming up, and then feeling like your hamstring is going to fall off.
When I set up my 2 businesses I followed this line of thinking; of course I need to make money and be successful, but how successful and “rich” (FYI, nowhere near that yet…. not even close) do i want to be, what is the most important thing to me? Moving your whole life back across to literally the other side of the world is the proverbial “fresh start”, what better opportunity to decide “what do i want to do”? I decided to set up 2 businesses, one experience and career focused, a Recruitment best practice and process consultancy, the other, a bit of fun with my old uni mate (an inflatable pub…dont ask!).
One of the startup daddy episodes made reference to something called “worklife Blend”; one of his guests talked about starting businesses to address this “work life blend” and how he didn’t like the phrase “worklife balance” as it inferred that work and life were polar opposites and not intertwined, we know this isn’t correct. Many of us enjoy work and most of us spend the majority of our life at work, and so life and work have to blend. This phrase really struck a chord with me and I decided that this was how i was going to plan my future career.
I decided that no matter what, I was going to work from home for at least 2 days every week, and I would not apply for contracts or roles that did not offer that flexibility.
In the modern world, work life blend is very accessible, if you just ask for it. Many businesses now encourage working from home as it is great for their EVP, keeps their employees happy-reducing attrition and probably more importantly reduces their business costs (real estate, energy and food…. 33% of buildings at anyone time are empty… people on annual leave, sick, visiting clients, at lunch).
Do you really need 150 desks if you have 150 employees? the answer is no, you need 100-120 desks plus a healthy remote working policy. As i write this, I am in a cafe…. no i’m not a work shy dosser, Im actually being more productive. I don’t have any distractions, no-one asking me if i watched the match last night, if i’m doing anything nice this weekend, if i have 5 mins for a catch up, which i don’t, i have 5 min for an important discussion, but it is rarely important or a pressing topic (ie 30mins where they tell me about Jonny in accounts who snuck off with Sharlene from sales, although gossip is inherently interesting, it is not productive). I may seem like an unsocial, miserable old man (i may not be old, but i am going grey at a rate of knots…. kids do that to you), but i decided that family face time was more important than the “office life” and Im gonna stick it out as long as I can, and hope that “work” allows me to do so.
Remember guys, work life blend…. you could get hit by a bus tomorrow…what is important to you….
now, where is that bacon sandwich!
