SWE - Spring 2008 - (Page 64) POINT OF VIEW What Work/Life Balance Means to Me (and SWE) Moving beyond its roots as a mom’s issue, work/life balance applies to everyone. critical, but they are at the core of what may be considered a seismic shift in the way people — women and men, and the companies they work for — are starting to view the relationship between work and the rest of life. The composition of the Society’s work/life balance committee confirms this shift in thinking. Some committee members do have young children and aging parents — in some cases experiencing the demands of both — but there are also young professionals who are either single or part of dualcareer couples with no children, and even students. Clearly, the need to balance work and the rest of life is one that resonates with people across the spectrum of age and life circumstance. will address a range of issues, including but not limited to: • Single parents • Married – dual career • Young kids • Teenagers • Aging parents • Stay-at-home moms • Stay-at-home spouses • Single • Students (undergrad, grad, parttime while working, etc.) • Empty nesters • No kids The mission of our committee is: “To provide work/life balance resources and tools to Society stakeholders.” We intend to serve the immediate SWE community and beyond. Traditionally, it has been more difficult to establish workplace flexibility in industries in which women are the minority. As a result of the division of labor in conventional families, male engineers have often been less than empathetic to female or male colleagues requesting flexible schedules in order to attend to their personal lives. Perhaps through our “gathering place” we can encourage more of our male colleagues to find work/life balance as well. EYEWIRE BY CELESTA WHITE, PH.D., CHAIR, SWE WORK/LIFE BALANCE COMMITTEE T he past decade has seen an evolution in the perception and meaning of work/life balance. Previously, work/life balance issues were generally viewed as a concern of working moms who juggled childcare with ofteninflexible work schedules. These moms frequently drove the discussions and push for changes in companies’ policies, so this perception was understandable, but inaccurate. With demographic changes and an increasingly aging population, notions of work/life balance then expanded to include elder care. However, work/life balance is much broader than either childcare or elder care. These issues are A Work/Life Gathering Place The life spectrum covered by our committee members makes for lively interaction between us, including the opportunity to share valuable information and support. With the upcoming introduction of the Society’s social media and Web 2.0 applications, we have an opportunity to extend the conversation beyond our committee. Utilizing these new Web 2.0 tools, we will offer a virtual “gathering place” to provide support and discuss issues, solutions, and best practices. We are mindful of the fact that most people fit more than one work/life category and therefore Final Thoughts It may come as a shock to hear me say that I don’t believe in the notion of work/life balance. Let me rephrase that. Sometimes the term work/life balance implies that there is an ideal state to be attained and, once realized, kept. Life moves rapidly, so just when you might reach balance, something else comes along to disrupt it. Perhaps a better term is work/life fit, which is a concept I came upon in the book, Work + Life by Cali Williams Yost. The idea behind work/life fit is that there is no single work/life 64 SWE SPRING 2008
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