Work Life Balance: We Need a New Conversation

The kid lost her cell phone. Last we can tell, she had it a week ago Sunday at 10:24 am when she sent me a smiley face text.

A few days into the next week, no phone found. "Ok, no new phone for 2 years." Oh so the drama, right? My frustration was not with her or even that the phone was missing. I was frustrated that I couldn't piece together what I had done yesterday, let alone a week ago on the day the phone was last seen. 

Work. Life. Balance. The "there's no balance about it" conversation plays out with a common voice of struggle that sways between wondering how we can get it all done, accepting we can't and back to honoring the choices we make.

All in all, it's rather disempowering to me.

Form follows function, actions follow words yet the conversation is 50 shades of the same. I want something different; I want something more than a working mother's manifesto.

Is it about taking the moments of our lives and separating them from this conversation? What if the moments of our lives were actually the answer - and not the question?

I am caught in a loop of my own and it'll take nothing less than a complete change in the conversation <and some action> for me to break free. So, I have a question for you:

When it comes to work life balance, who is talking or writing about this in an empowering and completely different kind of way?

We need a new conversation. There is a Samsung Intensity metallic blue cell phone replacement (and my psyche) on the line.

Human Resources, Charmed Memories and Making a Connection: A Day in the Life Sunday

Charm braceletes did not really call to me. When asked what I wanted for my birthday, Mother's Day, or our anniversary, a charm bracelet wasn't ever at the top of my list.

Now, I wear a charm bracelet almost every day. The things we do for our kids. With the dad's financial resources, the kid bought me a charm bracelet. She saw a commercial for Charmed Memories and decided that I had to have one for Christmas.

I wouldn't trade it for the world. Not because of the beads themselves but because the kid picked them out and asigned each bead a meaning for us as a family.

As we were looking at 2 new beads to add, somehow, in this HR-warped brain of mine, I started thinking about supervisors, leaders, and staff.

Short of buying a charm bracelet for each of your employees, staff, mentees, etc. what if you offer them a bead the next time you speak with them? What if you were to make it a point to make a connection with each person.

Think of a colleague. If you were to connect with them tomorrow, not a way that's important to or easy for you, but in a way that has meaning to them, what would you say or do differently?

The strand is unfinished and you have to know that I am fighting the demon inside of me that can't leave things unfinished to finish this sucker off right now. 

I am looking at both Charmed Memories and Pandora and I don't see any "I heart HR" beads. Darn.