day 1406: Work and Family: A Balancing Act

While on a pilgrimage walk on the Camino de Santiago (St. James Way) in Spain, I asked some of the most committed and courageous faith-driven business leaders I know to guest contribute to Purposed worKING.  Enjoy! - Rusty
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“Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted…It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously waiting for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.  Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him.  Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.  How joyful is the man who quiver is full of them!”

Recently, I attended an all-hands-on-deck company meeting, where everyone stopped what they were doing for three days and convened to set expectations and priorities for the business for the next fiscal year.  The proverbial “National Meeting.”

As is typically the case with gatherings such as these, there are informal question-and-answer sessions where mid-level managers are given the opportunity to ask candid questions of senior executives.  These sessions offer rare moments where everyone recognizes humanity in the workplace.  During one such exchange, a question pertaining to work-life balance and flexible work schedule policies was raised.  The senior executive responded by saying that as a rule, the company would not be instituting an official flexible work schedule policy, and that it’s the employee’s responsibility “to know whether you need to be at your child’s recital or not,” and that employees need to figure out arrangements to make room for family commitments, and that the company and your boss would be supportive within reason.

I thought to myself on the one hand that it was a reasonable response; employees need to set boundaries at work and prioritize the time they spend with their families.  But I also chuckled under my breath as I considered how this actually plays out in some working environments.  If the culture of a company, or a department—or the example set by your boss—is such that working long hours and traveling constantly is the tacit expectation, it can be incredibly difficult to leave at 4pm to be home to watch your kid’s ballgame, or skip an important business trip to attend that recital.

It turns out, according to a lot of research in the realm of work-life balance, that there is a large gap between espoused organizational work-life policies and actual practice. This is referred to as the “implementation gap,” and the Boston College Center for Work & Family has done a tremendous amount of research on this gap.  So the issue is not so much that companies are not trying to be responsive to work-life balance issues, it’s that there are missing links between setting up a program and actually making it work.

This is a very important issue to employees, particularly for those who are moms and dads.  Recent Harris Interactive research and surveys of Fortune 500 employees reveal that for men in their 20s and 30s, and women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, the most important job characteristic is having a work schedule that allows them to spend time with their families, and 50% say they wonder if the sacrifices they have made for their careers are worth it.

Certainly, companies can and should be doing more to bridge the “implementation gap” that exists.  And while any company should do far more than leave it to their employees to figure out work-life balance on their own, there is a certain grain of ironic truth to this idea—particularly for those of us who are working Christian mothers and fathers.

Just as our relationship with God and Jesus is a personal walk where we are forced to acknowledge and contend with our own shortcomings, confessing our inadequacies, so too do we need to examine our own responsibilities as working professionals with families at home, and set a course that best keeps our work and home lives in balance.

The Bible teaches us in Ephesians 5:25 and Psalm 127, our spouses and children are gifts from God, and we must be responsible stewards of these gifts.  We’re encouraged by God to be both diligent in our work, while not sacrificing these precious gifts that God gives us.  The apostle Paul wrote in the Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”

And so, we must aspire beyond what culture accepts—moms and dads that miss birthdays, baseball games, and recitals.  We have but 6,570 days to influence our children before they traditionally leave the nest at 18 years old, and God expects nothing less than our best in prioritizing not earthly wealth nor professional achievement, but those treasures which are stored in heaven.  Cherish your families by giving them your time.

Reference: Psalm 127 (NLT)

Tim Owen

Working husband and dad, trying to figure it all out

day 1393: Virtual Reality?

 While I am on a pilgrimage walk on the Camino de Santiago (St. James Way) in Spain, I have asked some of the most committed and courageous faith-driven business leaders I know to guest contribute to Purposed worKING.  Enjoy! - Rusty

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“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.”

It seems like we read about it almost daily—a small tech start-up is purchased for billions of dollars by a tech behemoth.  One recent deal that garnered widespread publicity was the acquisition of Oculus VR by Facebook.  Oculus is the maker of the Oculus “Rift” virtual reality (VR) headset that promises to finally deliver on the promise of VR that has always seemed just out of reach since the dawn of sci-fi movies and Star Trek.  When you consider Oculus’ product and Facebook’s global reach as a social network, you can picture a virtual community on a scale that is hard to fathom.

Oculus’ VR technology is allegedly so advanced that the author of a January 2014 Gizmodo review of the product exclaimed in the article’s headline, “I Wore the New Oculus Rift and I Never Want to Look at Real Life Again”(!) (My emphasis).

Wow.  That’s a bold statement—a technology so powerful that it might tempt humans to replace real life with virtual reality.  But if this is a possibility, perhaps it’s important to ask:  What are the social consequences of replacing real life with virtual reality? What are the consequences to a work culture influenced by virtual tools such as video conference, and eventually—virtual reality?

I’m currently working on a special project team for my employer.  Ordinarily, we do a weekly conference call or video conference to touch base on project milestones and work through outstanding issues.  We’re able to do this because our employer—like every other modern business—has invested in various forms of connected and wireless technology that allows us to communicate no matter where we are. 

Surely, there are certain advantages, including cost savings and efficiency.  That said, have you ever found yourself incredibly frustrated on a conference call, video conference, WebEx, or in an e-mail exchange with colleagues or clients?  The truth is, a lot can be lost in translation, and we’re not often as good at communicating virtually as we are in-person, where we can read body language and build rapport.  Nuance and context are often casualties of these kinds of muted exchanges.  How efficient is it, really, if everyone hangs up the phone feeling as though the others didn’t understand their point of view? 

Recently, I traveled for a day trip to San Francisco for some client meetings for the project team I am on.  In just 5 hours, we did more to build trust and coalesce around the shared goals and vision for our project than we had accomplished in 4 months of weekly 90-minute phone calls.  Even better, we ended our time together with a casual lunch on a sunny patio with gentle breeze that allowed us to soak in the real world around us.  Simply put, we had acknowledged our humanity and innate desire for community, and in doing so, had been incredibly productive in a business sense.  Points were made clearly, differences were bridged, and voices were heard.  We made progress.

It’s tempting to go all-in on technology, as Facebook did, based on the noble promises of new modes of communication.  Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook imagines a VR world where you could be “enjoying a courtside seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world, or consulting a doctor face-to-face—just by putting on your goggles in your home.” 

Surely, technology can be used for good.  But as Christians, we should know better than to go all-in on technology.  As God ordained in Genesis 2, and as Jesus taught us during His earthly ministry, we were meant to be in community.  Real community.  The kind of community where crowds gather to hear, feet are washed, miracles are performed, and trespasses are forgiven. 

So often, we fire off a quick email or text message in the name of efficiency.  It’s worth pondering that while these new tools such as virtual reality carry the promise of improved communication, they can also lose a lot in translation.   It’s also worth considering that in Jesus’ teachings, He intentionally sought out human interaction. His ministry was quite literally, hands-on.  Perhaps He was on to something, and perhaps we’d be well-served to intentionally seek opportunities to build community with our colleagues and clients just as He built community—in the flesh.  And perhaps that’s good for business.

Reference: Hebrews 10: 24-25

Tim Owen

Working husband and dad, trying to figure it all out