Hybrid hypes of ‘Work in Life’ and ‘Life in Work’

Hybrid work has its own prospects as well as problems. As we discussed last week, it can offer higher flexibility for employees with proper checks and balances from the employer’s end. What will be the implications to the so called “work-life balance” in such a context? Today’s column attempts to answer, with due emphasis on Sri Lankan context. 

Overview

As Economic Times reported, “We are in the middle of a remote working revolution.” In the UK, though remote working was slowly growing before the pandemic, in 2020 the number of people working from home doubled. While this rapid rise can be explained by COVID lockdowns, a recent survey conducted by Kings College, London with 2,000 workers found that six in ten employees still regularly work from home despite restrictions no longer being in place. Interestingly, they appear to keep the practice as it is. 

What will be the relevance of work vs. non-work in such a context? The traditional concept of “work-life balance” is widely defined as “achieving satisfying experiences in all life domains.” It is also described as being “about adjusting working patterns regardless of age, race or gender, (so) everyone can find a rhythm to help them combing work with their other responsibilities or aspirations.” Here, the concept is based on the notion that paid work and personal life should be seen less as competing priorities than as complementary elements of a full life. 

The issue here is the holistic nature of the concept called life. The typical dictionary meaning of life is the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death. Also, it denotes the existence of an individual human being or animal. In contrast, work is defined as activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result. Obviously, work is a set of activities within the broad spectrum of life. Then, it is not work vs. life but work in life. In other words, work is a subset of life. 

From balance to harmony

Balance requires equal attention to different elements. Is this really possible? Stephen Covey in his bestseller, “Seven habits of highly effective people” advocated managers to “begin with the end in mind.” It boils down to one’s fundamental purpose of existence. How much emphasis one would place on to a particular role in professional or personal front of life should depend on this raison d’être. I have seen career women who opted for a challenging managerial career leaving aside a marriage. I have also seen female managers opting to step down in order to take charge of their family front better. It is the emphasis you put into each role.

Harmony, in contrast, is all about the accord, being the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole. It is a pleasing arrangement of parts with congruity. A busy manager dropping off his son to school and coming to work, continue till late evening, whilst being in touch with the family, and enjoying a refreshing Sunday with them could be one such example. 

I would suggest that there are two facets of harmony, inner and outer. Inner harmony deals with mind, body, and spirit. Outer harmony deals with work, family, and society. Eastern wisdom is abundant with refreshing resources with regard to inner harmony. Zen has paved way, with practices such as meditation, yoga to sustain such an inner harmony. Loehr and Schwartz in their seminal HBR article titled “Making of a Corporate Athlete,” describe vividly the importance of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual “capacities.” This essentially points to inner harmony. The spillover effect of it will facilitate the challenge to achieve outer harmony. Figure 1 depicts such combination of inner and outer harmony. 

Harmonising work, family and society does not necessarily mean perfection. There will be events that you need to prioritise more on office front. Launching a new telecom product or establishing a new bank branch can be such examples. The deprivation of the family front in such cases should be recovered by paying more emphasis on a priority basis, without interrupting the office front. The situation can be more difficult for a manager following an MBA with demanding academic work. There can be simultaneous peaks occurring such as an upcoming exam, looming project timeline and a sick child at home. It requires understanding between the manager and his/her superiors on one side, and between the loved ones on the other side. That is where institutional support becomes useful, even though not always possible. 

Work in Life 

This essentially refers to locate work meaningfully in the broad sphere in life. In this respect, the twin terms, Niskam Karma (NK) and Sakam Karma (SK) offer valued insights. As reported by Chakraborty and Chakraborty (2006), Nishkam Karma (NK) is a term derived from the revered Hindu text, Bhagawad Gita. It literally means detached involvement. Performing work, accepted on the basis of agreed remuneration, with little calculation or comparison with others, or concern for additional personal recognition, gain or reward during or completion of the work. 

A verse in Bhagavad Gita enunciates the principle of NK as:

“Thou hast a right to action, but only to action, never to its fruits; let not the fruits of thy works be thy motive, neither let there be in thee any attachment in inactivity.”

The opposite of NK is termed as Sakam Karma (SK) meaning attached involvement. As Chakraborty and Chakraborty (2006) elaborate, it means performing work, accepted on the basis of agreed remuneration, with anxious comparative calculation vis-à-vis others, for additional personal recognition, gain or reward during or on completion of the work. 

It by no way means one has to leave the worldly affairs in becoming an ascetic. As Sri Aurobindo aptly pointed out, “action done with NK is not only the highest, but the wisest, the most potent and efficient even for the affairs of the world.” A desirable scenario would be to see the engaged employees becoming detached, yet continuing to be involved. A simple example could be, a bank manager devoting himself/herself for the achievement of the given objectives, in a whole-hearted manner, without thinking of what one would get in return. The opposite of this will be another manager working hard on a personal agenda, aspiring to get the next promotion early. 

The acid test here is the ability to “detached” yet getting involved, particularly in the professional front of life. The much published statement by former US president John F Kennedy, “ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do to the country.” Such an approach is very much relevant to a wide variety of institutions, in order to build employees who are ethical and effective. 

Life in Work 

What I mean here is the liveliness that is required at work. In other words, it is about showing interest and enthusiasm at work. The closest resemblance I found to this is the term, employee engagement. It has become a buzz word in management circles, mainly due to its attractiveness as a tool in getting work done. 

What do we mean by employee engagement? Interestingly, it means different things to different people. The meaning of employee engagement is ambiguous among both academic researchers and among practitioners. It captures the essence of employees’ head, hands, and heart involvement in work. It refers to employee’s psychological state (e.g., one’s identification with the organisation), his/her disposition (e.g., one’s positive feeling towards the organisation) and performance (e.g., one’s level of discretionary effort). In brief, it captures affective (feeling), cognitive (thinking) and behavioural (acting) dimensions of an employee. 

As reported by Economic Times, despite the positives, younger employees, with comparatively limited experience and networks, may face disproportionately negative outcomes from hybrid working in terms of recognition, development, and networking opportunities. Setting one’s own goals can keep motivation and performance high. Meanwhile, proactively communicating your challenges and achievements to senior and recognition. It’s a good idea to plan to spend some time in the office to coordinate with team members or managers. At the same time, it’s useful to try to schedule office visits on different days of the week. This can help maintain key relationships but also help build networks through bumping into colleagues you don’t necessarily work as closely with.

In the case of Sri Lanka, many such examples can be found where focused effort towards engaging employees had yielded results. Despite the scarcity of documented evidence, efforts are being made in this front, with vision and vigour. One common characteristic among the leading organisations hailed as “great places to work” was the sustained focus on employee engagement. However, the scope is vast, and the continuous improvement path remains widely open. 

Way forward

Gary W. Keller, an American author shares an interesting perspective which is equally relevant to hybrid work. “Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls – family, health, friends, integrity – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.” 

Amidst the hybrid hypes, the much needed inner and outer harmony required for sustained success should be ensured. We require both “work in life” as well as “life in work.” Manifest reality of an unmet “illusive” balance should be replaced by a meaningful managerial response towards insightful harmony which will pave way for sustainable results in multiple fronts. We Sri Lankans need to much more in this front. 

(The writer is the immediate past Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Management, and can be reached through [email protected], [email protected] or www.ajanthadharmasiri.info.)