Work Life Balance

Life on the Road. Life at work. Life at Home.
By Jerome Greer Chandler for OAG's Frequent Flyer Magazine

One of the critical balances to be struck in life is that between work and personal life. Get it right and both career and personal life blossom.

Screw it up and there's a price to pay.

Life/Work/Travel Frequent Flyer recently polled readers on how they cope with the complexities of life on the road, balancing them with the need to stay human. We heard from 638 respondents. And what we heard was fascinating.

Fifty-two percent indicated that balancing work and personal life takes about the same amount of effort as always (39 percent) or is actually easier (13 percent) than before. A significant 48 percent think it's harder.

Necessary Evil

Whatever it takes to strike the balance, frequent fliers don't enjoy business travel all that much. Only 24 percent of them like it. Sixty-three percent deem it a necessary evil and 13 percent of them downright dread the experience.

A significant finding: females enjoy business travel more than their male counterparts -- by a 29 percent to 22 percent margin.

If business travel is indeed a necessary evil, here's why. Over two-thirds of the respondents to our poll indicated what they gained most by being on the road was "much needed face time with customers." Never underestimate the benefit of being there, looking a person in the eye and having them pull out a picture of the spouse and kids. It's the ultimate way to take the measure of another human being.

There's another interesting difference here between the responses of male and female fliers. Seventy-five percent of male respondents say face time with customers is the prime driver, while the figure drops to 54 percent among females responding to the poll. Women mentioned a chance to break away from the routine as the prime gain from being on the road. Only 47 percent of men did.

Tough Times

The main reason we're all out on the road, of course, is money. In these tough economic times, it drives us mightily -- and exacts a significant toll. Sixty-four percent of the poll's respondents indicated their life/work balance is being disrupted these days. Thirty-six percent say they're not having problems maintaining equilibrium.

The prime disrupter in our personal time/space continuum: the economy (23 percent). Company-wide reorganization (17 percent) and homeland security issues (12 percent) followed.

What these numbers say about the work force at large we don't pretend to know. What they say about frequent fliers, however, is significant. Twenty-six percent of the respondents say the current economic climate has, "not affected me or my family at all." Sixty-two percent say it's made them "tighten their belt straps, but still maintain a good quality of life."

Twelve percent of those responding were hard-hit by what's happened in recent years to the economy. Five percent of them indicate circumstances have "made me pretty broke." The remaining 7 percent say it’s "turned my life upside down and I'm struggling to maintain the status quo."

Perhaps that's one of the reasons 25 percent of the poll's respondents say budget constraints mean they're traveling less.

Some fliers may be traveling less, but it doesn't mean they aren't working harder. To the contrary. Sixty-five percent of the poll's respondents say, "I have always worked a lot, and continue to do so."

Other reasons for pushing harder have to do with hard times. Thirty-three percent say, "I have more work to do because the company has downsized, and I have absorbed more responsibility." Twenty percent of those polled believe, "My company is struggling and needs more of my time to get over this financial hump." Then there's the fear factor. Seventeen percent say simply, "I don't want to lose my job."

And in a changing economic landscape, that can happen in a New York minute. Eighty-seven percent of respondents say the corporate landscape has changed, and 33 percent say it’s more competitive.

Crunch!

Handling It

Whatever their economic fortunes, whatever their intestinal fortitude, frequent fliers battle road stress daily. One of the reasons may be that 55 percent of poll respondents say they’re spending more time at airports these days. Despite airport clubs, chair massages, meditation rooms and wireless high-speed Internet, airports remain inherently stressful places.

The top two stress-relievers are exercise (59 percent) and reading (54 percent). The next tier of stress-fighters are spending time with family and friends (46 percent), watching TV (44 percent) and -- bottom's up -- quaffing wine. Thirty-nine percent of respondents turn to the fruit of the vine for relaxation.

There are a number of interesting ways human beings try to carve out a bit of sanity in the day. Twenty-eight percent of respondents eat comfort foods, while a surprising 22 percent "get a massage." Twenty percent resort to the simple expediency of working less, and 19 percent turn to the bathroom as a haven. They take a bath. Sixteen percent "play sports" to work off stress. Fifteen percent meditate. Eleven percent appear to shut the world out somewhat by "cutting back on social activities."

As before, there's a dichotomy in the demographics here. Men tend to exercise more and read less than women in an attempt to combat stress. Females, on the other hand, turn to comforts foods and massages to try to restore needed balance.

Balance. A beautiful thing. At its best, it can help people create personal sanctuaries, places where the forces that run our lives can be transformed in such a way that they don't ruin our lives.

May you make the forces you encounter work for you.

Copyright (c)2004, Frequent Flyer(R) is a registered trademark of OAG Worldwide Limited. All trademarks used under license from OAG Worldwide Limited.