Rethinking Your Work

Author Will Marré says yes. In his book “Save the World and Still be Home for Dinner,” Marré explains how to work, live, and love in extraordinary ways by finding a work-life harmony rather than living life as a constant balancing act. I think you will enjoy the World Business Academy’s review of “Save the World and Still be Home for Dinner” that follows.

“The model is a tapestry, rather than a scale.” It is a mistake to attack one’s triple bottom line—relationships, lifestyle, and career—sequentially. Marré writes: “Our quest is nothing less than sustainable abundance … an abundance of everything that really matters in life, both material and spiritual.” 

He calls on people “to uncover your greatest gifts of talent, energy, and passion and to start using them so the rest of us can benefit. This is your authentic mission. This is how you were designed to ‘save the world’”. 

To create a life of sustainable abundance, we must begin “with understanding our Drive, Design, and Desires in the here and now.” When we do that, “we feel both deeply content and constantly energized. We are living our Promise.” 

Marré offers practical steps for defining our greatness and delivering it, as well as questions to determine whether we’re headed in the right direction. His book will help us all “integrate being a force for good and living our good life.”

Far too often, we accept that we must be consumed in order to make a contribution. Then we struggle with work-life balance.

I fully agree with Marré s advice to uncover our greatest gifts of talent, energy, and passion and use them so that others can benefit. We are all gifted. We all have something to contribute. And when we are offering our gifts and feeling good about our contribution, we start to experience spirit at work. Then everything changes. We can save the world and be home for dinner.

Are you living your promise?

Start rethinking your work today for a better tomorrow.

Want to learn more? Sign up for our newsletter where we will explore this topic in more detail.

Read the book Rethinking Your Work and learn how to create spirit at work.

Val Kinjerski, PhD, is a leading authority in the field of employee engagement and on the topic of “spirit at work.” A consultant, agent of change and professional speaker, she helps companies and organizations increase employee retention and boost productivity by reigniting employees’ love for their work. Check out her Spirit at Work Program and Inspired Leadership training at www.kaizensolutions.org. Val is the author of Rethinking Your Work and Rethinking Your Work Guidebook. Available now at www.rethinkingyourwork.com.

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) research on how we use our time highlights the fact that more and more of us are caught in a time crunch. The trends suggest that we are increasingly sacrificing satisfying and meaningful relaxation and leisure time in order to attend to the more pressing demands of work, childcare and looking after dependent seniors. There is considerable research demonstrating the strong connection between time use, leisure and culture on the one hand, and wellbeing on the other.

Here are some questions to ponder before you read the research:

1. Are you spending excessive time at work?
2. Do you work standard or non-standard work hours?
3. Do you have permanent or precarious work?
4. How far do you commute to work? And how do you get there?
5. How much do you feel the pressure of time?

Now here are the research findings:

Working in the labour force is strongly and positively associated with individual and family wellbeing. But there is compelling evidence that excessive time spent in paid labour leads to poorer health. The risks are believed to come from having less time to recover from work, longer exposure to workplace hazards, and less time to attend to non-work responsibilities. Long hours have a significantly negative impact on life satisfaction and time-related stress, which in turn, have a negative effect on wellbeing.

Non-standard work hours are associated with lower self-reported health, higher levels of stress, psychological distress, greater depressive symptoms, greater relationship conflict for dual-earner couples, and lower life satisfaction. Evening work is particularly bad for the children of evening workers since the lessened contact reduces the parent’s ability to support the child’s development and to secure childcare.

Workers in precarious employment have poorer health and experience higher levels of stress, mental illness, and substance abuse. Precarious work also tends to have lower pay than permanent work and often does not offer access to training, paid vacations, paid sick leave, employment insurance, pension and other benefits.

Long commuting hours are associated with self and medically reported sickness and absences, sleep problems and elevated risk factors for heart disease. Long commutes also disrupt family life by reducing time together. Car travel is more detrimental to wellbeing than train travel, since in the latter case commuters tend to walk to and from the train station. There is consistent evidence that individuals who use cars more tend to have higher rates of obesity related illnesses, elevated heart rate, and reports of anxiety. Car travel also harms community wellbeing by contributing to air pollution and climate change. By contrast, time spent in active commuting (e.g., walking or biking) is associated with improved mental and physical health outcomes, such as reduced risk of stroke.

People experiencing time pressure have lower levels of satisfaction, higher levels of stress, lower self-reported physical and emotional wellbeing, and greater insomnia. Work-life conflict can lead to higher levels of anxiety and depression; sleep disturbances; infectious disease and suppressed immune functioning; poor dietary habits, a lack of physical exercise and obesity; increased dependence on cigarettes, alcohol, medications and drugs; hypertension, high cholesterol, coronary, musculoskeletal and digestive problems; allergies and migraine headaches; burnout; and increased costs for medical consultations and prescription drugs.

It is difficult to experience spirit at work when we feel caught in a time crunch. What are some things that you might do to reduce the pressing demands of time and refill your cup?

Want to learn more? Sign up for our newsletter where we will explore this topic in more detail. Read the book Rethinking Your Work and learn how to create spirit at work.

Val Kinjerski, PhD, is a leading authority in the field of employee engagement and on the topic of “spirit at work.” A consultant, agent of change and professional speaker, she helps companies and organizations increase employee retention and boost productivity by reigniting employees’ love for their work. Check out her Spirit at Work Program and Inspired Leadership training at www.kaizensolutions.org. Val is the author of Rethinking Your Work and Rethinking Your Work Guidebook. Available now at www.rethinkingyourwork.com.

For the longest time we were counselled to keep work and home separate. Leave work at work and home at home. We thought that we could just shut down parts of ourselves as we moved back and forth between the two.

Research is showing us that it doesn’t work that way. A study by Marshall and Kelly Goldsmith has shown an “incredibly high correlation between people’s happiness and meaning at work (something I call spirit at work) and happiness and meaning at home.”

Because work and home are such different environments, the researchers concluded that whether we experience happiness and meaning tends to depend more on who we are than where we are. So they suggest that if we are going through a negative work life experience, that we ought to be looking within rather than blaming others, our jobs or our communities.

In my own research, I have found that it is not so much what we do, but how we do it and how we view it that leads to spirit at work. This is where the “rethinking” part comes into play. As we start to think about whom we are serving and how our work makes a difference in the lives of others, our experience of work and how we feel about ourselves changes. The more we contribute, the deeper meaning and fulfillment we experience and that leads to an increased sense of wellbeing.

Somewhat different from the Goldsmiths, I have found that people who experience spirit at work see its creation as a shared responsibility. Shared between the employee and the employer. Tapping into their personal power, they take responsibility for creating a positive work experience. At the same time, they hold the organization accountable to create the conditions that foster spirit at work.

The Goldsmith’s research had another finding worthy of report. “Overall satisfaction at work increased only if both the amount of happiness and meaning experienced by employees simultaneously increased.”  They needed to experience meaning and fun – both at home and at work – to feel satisfied.

At first glance, I was surprised by this finding. Until I thought about people in the helping professions like nurses, teachers, and social workers; employees exposed to difficult situations (e.g. police, medical emergency teams); others with great decision making responsibility (e.g., CEOs, Deputy Ministers, emergency doctors) or advocates. It became so clear that while their work was meaningful and had potential for long-term benefit, they needed opportunities to lighten up. To have fun. To enjoy short-term satisfaction. To re-energize.

Similarly, employees who are in jobs that appear meaningless need an opportunity to see how they are making a contribution. The focus on high short-term satisfaction quickly loses its lustre. That is why in my work, I help employees, regardless of position, uncover the deeper meaning of their work.

I am not surprised about the high correlation between our experience at work and home. We are only fooling ourselves if we believe that we can separate work and home or community. It takes an extraordinary amount of energy to keep them separate and even more so if we are experiencing difficulties.

What can we apply from this research to the workplace?

1. Uncover the meaning in your work and in your life. Seek alignment between the two.
2. Manage your energy. Refill your cup.
3. Have fun. Celebrate successes.
4. See your work as an act of service. Who are you serving and how is it contributing?
5. Develop a sense of community at work. Encourage teams. Promote purpose and fun.
6. Get interested in your colleagues. Take time to know them.
7. As an employee, take responsibility for your own wellbeing and spirit at work.
8. As an employer, create the conditions for employee well being and to foster spirit at work.
9. Accept that work impacts home and vice versa and do what you can to support both.
10. As an organization, be clear about the deeper purpose of the organization.
11. Rethink your work. Get to the heart of what matters about your work.

 Val Kinjerski, PhD, is a leading authority in the field of employee engagement and on the topic of “spirit at work.” A consultant, agent of change and inspirational speaker, she helps companies and organizations increase employee retention and boost productivity by reigniting employees’ love for their work. Check out her Spirit at Work Program and Inspired Leadership training at www.kaizensolutions.org. Val is the author of Rethinking Your Work and Rethinking Your Work Guidebook. Available now at www.rethinkingyourwork.com. 

We have all experienced the negative impact of the recession, but what about the positive? A recent survey shows that the recession has made significant numbers of Canadians re-evaluate what’s important to them. And, less than 10% say making more money and career success are their top priorities.

Canadians are saying that the recession had caused them to rethink what is important in their lives. They are making time for themselves and creating their own personal vision of meaning and fulfillment. In fact, 77% of Canadians said that they were more focused on their personal lives than their careers. So they are doing charity work, embarking on a second career, pursing a holiday, spending more time with family, or going on adventure travel trips in order to bring more meaning and fulfillment to their lives.

The upside is that employees are re-evaluating their priorities. They are choosing to focus on that which matters. The study also indicates that they are taking time to refill their cups – an important factor in creating and maintaining spirit at work.

The downside is that respondents weren’t looking at work as an avenue for meaning and fulfillment. Yet that is where we spend most of our waking hours. And if work isn’t fulfilling, it is depleting.

Employers are in a key position to help employees rethink work by making the link between work and meaning and fulfillment. One way is to create the conditions for employee engagement and spirit at work. We have found that spirit at work can be increased and when it does, employee satisfaction goes up, commitment to their work and organization increases, retention increases and productivity improves. Simply by rethinking work! Learn more about the strategies in Rethinking Your Work: Getting to the Heart of What Matters.

Val Kinjerski, PhD, is a leading authority in the field of employee engagement and on the topic of “spirit at work.” An inspirational speaker, consultant and writer, she helps companies and organizations increase employee retention and boost productivity by reigniting employees’ love for their work. She is the author of Rethinking Your Work and Rethinking Your Work Guidebook. Available now.

On July 11, 2009, Eric Lam of the Financial Post asked, “Whatever happened to touted work-life balance?” I say that it doesn’t exist, probably never did. I prefer that we aim for work-life integration. Work-life balance presumes a clear separation between work and the rest of our lives, which is impossible. Creating rigid boundaries often increases stress and a sense of being fragmented.

Work-life integration removes these boundaries. When we are integrated, we see how everything we do, including our work, is related to our deeper purpose. Everything is connected. It is not fixed. There is give and take. We accommodate. We integrate. So when we are called at work by the daycare to pick up a sick child, we pause our work and pick up our child or make alternative plans without guilt. We are clear that caring for our child is part of our deeper purpose. Similarly, when we need to bring some work home or stay late to finish a project, we expect to do so, because that too is part of our purpose. When we are integrated, there is an ebb and flow so that all priorities are accommodated. This is important because there needs to be room for all our priorities. If we focus all our energy and attention on one priority, we begin to cut ourselves off from the things that matter to us and we begin to lead a fragmented life.

This is not to say that we give equal attention to all priorities in our life all the time. That is the concern I have with the notion of living a balanced life. It assumes that everything is equal. When I think about balance, I think about trying to balance a teeter-totter. It is very difficult to get the exact balance where both sides of the teeter-totter are at the same height from the ground. One side is always higher than the other. And the energy expended in trying to make them equal can be enormous. Not to mention the frustration that goes along with “not being in balance” or the guilt about “not living a balanced life.” Not everything is in balance. Not all priorities carry equal weight. There are times in our life when we are called to give more attention to particular areas, be that raising children, helping elderly parents, developing our career, pursuing secondary education, living our passion or regaining health.

Practicing integration is different than striving for balance. People view family, work and personal interests, for example, as part of a larger and connected whole, rather than as separate and competing parts. Moreover, each of these life tasks provides an opportunity to fulfill our deeper purpose. Rather than attempting to maintain an equal balance, we need to give varying emphasis to each responsibility as need and priority dictates over time.

To the employee. Is your life fragmented or integrated? Is your work and the rest of your life separated or connected? Give yourself permission to let go of the need for a balanced life and live your life in line with what you have identified as your priorities. Honor what you know is important to you.

To the employer. During the economic recession, many employees are happy just to have a job. In these situations, they often put aside other priorities and focus solely on work. Some tolerate working conditions and expectations that are less than ideal. While this is understandable, it can and will take a toll – on both the employee and the company. The recession cannot be used as an excuse to take advantage of or ill-treat employees. Instead, companies need to find ways to support work-life integration. To show employees that they care. The number one driver of engagement is a sense that senior management is sincerely interested in employee wellbeing. It is time for employers to rethink work in spite of the economic situation. For more ideas about how to rethink work, order Rethinking Your Work: Getting to the Heart of What Matters.