I had a chat with a another mate last night. We talked about a whole heap of things but the one thing that struck me was the amount of divorce that is taking place. I mean there are heaps of people that I know that have just recently gotten divorced and probably a whole heap more that are in the process. My thinking was really how much of a role does a company play in employees getting to this point in their personal lives. I don’t mean that companies set out to ensure that their staff separate but rather create an environment where it is most difficult for a couple to work at their marriage. By example I am talking about the long nights, time spent away, office politics, frustrated ambitions, huge pressure, very little give back to the employee, etc. Some may argue that this is the stuff employees are paid to deal with. Yes, this is true in a way. We are paid to deliver outputs. All the stuff I mentioned above is stuff that is going to come with every job out there and the higher up you are the worse this is going to be. Surely companies should be doing more to encourage happiness in the rest of their employees lives. We talk a lot about work / life balance but I am not sure that we have it right at all. I am really writing about doing things very differently in the workplace and rewarding employees (that want it) with something more important than just money.

Here are some ludicrous suggestions to take you out of the box. How about if your company instituted a rule that any employee that got divorced would be dismissed or demoted? I realize that divorce cannot be simplified to this extent and I apologise to all who may offended by this crude example. I am sure that nobody would need a divorce and a dismissal in their lives, there could be no worse support from your company! The hypothetical question is that if this was a rule in your business, what extra steps would you take to ensure that you are putting in as much effort on the home front as you are at work? Why is this not a rule in your life anyway?

If your company gave you a goal that you had to watch 95% of your kid’s soccer games as part of your work goals – how would you then restructure your life? What is stopping you from negotiating this now?

Another question that occurs to me as I write this is – are we as employees just pathetic? Is there not a whole bunch of excellent reasons to stand up and say to our managers that this is not good enough – we want more? There are plenty of people out there who are after money at all costs – this stuff does not apply to you. For the rest of us out there trying to live a balanced life, we need to be asking for the things that are important to us. The great tragedy in life is that we often don’t realize how important they are until they are taken from us!