Personal life and work balance question

[Martinus]

Personally I've never understood that attitude. Then again i'm not a workaholic sociopath.

Good luck with that economy of yours. Poland's, on the other hand (it being a country of workaholic sociopaths), has grown consistently in each of the last 20 years.

[Martinus]

Another vote for 1.5. It should be tolerated and should not affect the person's career prospects so long as it's within reason and does not affect the person's ability to deliver his required work to deadline and specified quality, and does not dump any incomplete work on his hapless colleagues.

The last part is kinda key, isn't it? Hence I was curious about your perspective - have you ever been required to stay late/work over weekend because the extra work went to you as your colleagues could not take it due to personal life commitments, such as children?

[Martinus]

Missing deadlines is obviously not acceptable, but then the deadline should be set in a way that the employee can actually make it considering his/her work-life balance. That's what should be expected from a modern company.

Well, in my previous job you had to hit the deadline, no matter what (at least in our region). If the deadline was a public holiday: tough noogies. If it meant you having to stay late or come in on weekends: so be it. If you missed any deadlines: prepare to be bitchslapped. And I'm talking about the "normal" employees there.

That's the attitude at a big law firm. It pays very well but it's a price you pay for that. So people who agree to such set-up but then insist on using they "get out of jail" card are imo gaming the system and are dishonest to their bosses and colleagues.

[Martinus]

Incidentally, to people who "voted 1.5" - I think your choice is really 2 - the opening post states that such personal life issue should create work disruptions/performance drops that are "statistically significant". If they don't then there is no issue to talk about.

[Valmy]

The last part is kinda key, isn't it? Hence I was curious about your perspective - have you ever been required to stay late/work over weekend because the extra work went to you as your colleagues could not take it due to personal life commitments, such as children?

I guess this is why I have not yet responded to the poll.  It really depends on the specific circumstances.  It is not like everybody with personal commitments is going to dump work on everybody else or not be able to reach deadlines.  If they are coming late to work yet do it in a responsible way, within the policy of the office or company, and get their work done then no big deal.  My wife does miss some work about once a week but guess what?  She is always way ahead of her deadlines and does it within company policy.

[Barrister]

Another vote for 1.5. It should be tolerated and should not affect the person's career prospects so long as it's within reason and does not affect the person's ability to deliver his required work to deadline and specified quality, and does not dump any incomplete work on his hapless colleagues.

The last part is kinda key, isn't it? Hence I was curious about your perspective - have you ever been required to stay late/work over weekend because the extra work went to you as your colleagues could not take it due to personal life commitments, such as children?

Yes, I have.

As long as it's not abused I have no problem with it.  I don't want to work for an organization who expects it's employees to be robots with no outside interests save the practice of law.

[Brazen]

The last part is kinda key, isn't it? Hence I was curious about your perspective - have you ever been required to stay late/work over weekend because the extra work went to you as your colleagues could not take it due to personal life commitments, such as children?

No, my colleagues are all under 25

[crazy canuck]

Well, I am not saying that people should not be allowed to work from home. I'm talking about people missing deadlines and so on because they refuse to hire a nanny and use their children as an excuse not to work. And I'm talking about guys here.

I see even you realized that your first post was idoitic and so you decided to change the rules.  Either that or you are a complete idiot and you equate people being flexible about their work with missing deadlines.  In my experience people who are otherwise mature and treated well will meet deadlines and their family obligations if given the freedom to do so.  Something that may well be outside your experience.

[Brazen]

Incidentally, to people who "voted 1.5" - I think your choice is really 2 - the opening post states that such personal life issue should create work disruptions/performance drops that are "statistically significant". If they don't then there is no issue to talk about.

No, because option two specifically states "It should be tolerated/accomodated, but should be taken into account for the purpose of pay or promotion" and I don't think it should in any way affect their pay or promotion. They just need to organise any time away so it minimally inconveniences their colleagues, as we all should do when arranging time off, even work trips. Give and take.

[crazy canuck]

Incidentally, to people who "voted 1.5" - I think your choice is really 2 - the opening post states that such personal life issue should create work disruptions/performance drops that are "statistically significant". If they don't then there is no issue to talk about.

No, because option two specifically states "It should be tolerated/accomodated, but should be taken into account for the purpose of pay or promotion" and I don't think it should in any way affect their pay or promotion. They just need to organise any time away so it minimally inconveniences their colleagues, as we all should do when arranging time off, even work trips. Give and take.

[Barrister]

In the last few months I have:

-left work (when I was in the office) to take my pregnant wife to the hospital.  once I brought her back I stayed late to finish my prep for the next day's court
-took work home when my dayhome lady needed to go to the doctor, so I had to pick up little Tim
-have given my employer lots of notice about baby's due date so they don't schedule me into anything contested in the couple weeks leading up to that day

So far, nobody else in my office has been inconvenienced by my family issues, and I've worked late or from home to make up for it.  Some day that may not be the case - I will try my best to not affect my co-workers, but if it happens, it happens.  They will cover for me, the same as I cover for them.

As for "we pay you enough - hire a nanny"... we may some day hire a nanny.  The numbers make sense when you have two kids.  But A: I want to be the one raising my kid, not some stranger, and B: I'm not crazy about having some stranegr live in our house.

[The Larch]

Personally I've never understood that attitude. Then again i'm not a workaholic sociopath.

Good luck with that economy of yours. Poland's, on the other hand (it being a country of workaholic sociopaths), has grown consistently in each of the last 20 years.

People already work gajillions of unpaid overtime over here, thankyouverymuchnowfuckyouwitharustyspoon.

And newsflash, there's a world besides big shot law firms, not that you know anything at all about it.

[Richard Hakluyt]

For some reason this thread has reminded me of H. H. Asquith, Liberal Prime Minister of the UK 1908-1916, back in the days when Britain counted for something in the world, yet he appeared to have masses of free time to get up to all sorts of activities. This book review from The Spectator illustrates the point well :

http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/7763798/life-and-letters-a-pms-summer-reading.thtml

Cameron should take a leaf out of his book, pro rata to Britain's diminished importance I would imagine 3 or 4 hours a week would be the appropriate workload.

[DGuller]

Personally I've never understood that attitude. Then again i'm not a workaholic sociopath.

Good luck with that economy of yours. Poland's, on the other hand (it being a country of workaholic sociopaths), has grown consistently in each of the last 20 years.

Here again is a confusion between growth of the economy and its strength.  If Poland's average income rose from 2 chicken bones per month to 6 chicken bones per month over the last 20 years, adjusted for inflation, that's impressive growth.  However, that doesn't make its economy stronger than that of a civilized country.

[Valmy]

Cameron should take a leaf out of his book, pro rata to Britain's diminished importance I would imagine 3 or 4 hours a week would be the appropriate workload.

It is a mystery how exactly it works.  I reading a story speculating about how Roosevelt and the Pentagon could wage a war with an military about 12 times the size of our current one on opposite ends of the earth with a tiny percentage of their current staffs.