A lot changed in 2020 because of COVID-19, especially for those lucky enough to work from home. This piece looks at a first-world problem—more about counting blessings than complaining about work.
Zoom and fast home internet have reshaped the collaborative office culture. For now, the image of teams clustered around whiteboards building the next big thing is on hold. Working from home has been great for many of us. We can get work done and communicate well enough thanks to webcams. Between meetings we can switch laundry, take a quick walk, or jump on the Peloton.
So what’s the downside? We’re more likely to stay plugged into work when, before the pandemic, we’d have been stuck in traffic, heading to happy hour, or otherwise distracted. Keeping work-life balance during a pandemic is tough. Time to make a plan.
For this work-life balance experiment to work, I have to keep performing—at least convincingly—so my reviews don’t suffer. I can’t just chase personal stuff and hope for the best. If I still get a top review this year, I’ll know that spending time on little distractions isn’t worth the energy. This isn’t about how to slack off at work.
After my promotion, I fell into the trap of feeling like I had to be “on” all the time. I forgot the approach that got me promoted in the first place. Repeat after me: Sustainability. Sustainability. Sustainability. Time to go back to basics and work smarter, not harder. Let’s make cubicle life at least tolerable.
8/8/22 Sidebar: I’m now borderline slack at work. I didn’t expect it, but 2020–2021 took more out of me than I thought. Pandemic lockdowns, boss changes, and losing my dad to pancreatic cancer all added up. They led to burnout.
The Great Resignation has millions leaving their jobs this year. Many find new positions, but a good number are simply stepping away. I don’t know how much burnout drives those choices, but it’s surely a big part.
As you work longer and mature, the job gets easier in some ways. But “playing the game” well often costs years spent in a cubicle or office. I’ve done both. The only real perk of an office? You can fart and hope nobody notices—until a coworker drops by.
If you’ve learned to handle difficult people and avoid the really bad ones, most jobs become tolerable. Sometimes the work is even satisfying—you may design things, lead teams, and see a project through. That can feel worth it.
That’s the “medium stress” box: you know the game and play it well. You get promoted sometimes, find good bosses, and have decent work friends. Happy hours build camaraderie. But you still feel boxed in. There’s never enough time for family, the outdoors, or Call of Duty 13. What’s a corporate person to do?
I’m lucky. My company gives nearly a month of PTO a year. If you don’t need the days for sickness or emergencies, that’s a lot of vacation. Out of college, I had only two weeks of vacation for nine years. That crushed me. It was the worst.
A small upside of two weeks off was spending less on travel—I took three overseas trips in those nine years and appreciated each one. With almost a month off now, I can’t complain. Still, I wonder if a bit more PTO would hit a sweet spot for career longevity. In 2022 I finally bought an extra week of PTO during open enrollment.
I did it. This summer was great: two weeks in Europe, and another week booked at an Airbnb in Northern Michigan, plus our usual Spring Break week. With that extra week I’m at 33 days of PTO. Who needs to retire?
Then there’s technology. It keeps us connected to work, but it’s also freeing. How many of you have worked from home while sick? A couple of times a year I’ll do a half-hearted workday from the couch—join a few calls and answer key emails while nursing chicken noodle soup.
Those are PTO days I can save for vacation thanks to VPN and fast internet. And yes, I sometimes check in while on vacation. (See this post for a great example of a company that thinks ahead on work-life balance. Cheers!)