Work life merge – yes there’s now a “term” called work life merge. If you’re not interested in anything to do with this, I won’t be offended if you leave now. But if you are someone who juggles between work life and home life, read on :))
I read a really interesting article on the Guardian yesterday, about the “merging” of work and home lives. It gave me another added dimension to my thinking about how I’m putting myself on my own to do list. But rather than just spout off on one about it, I figured it would be a good idea to ask some other people I know to comment on it as well.
The basic tenet of the article comes from “Facebook executive Emily White who describe’s “work life merge” as a life in which work and free time are no longer neatly compartmentalised but seamlessly jumbled up together. It’s a world in which it’s no big deal to take two hours out of the working day for something personal, but also routine to spend the same time answering emails on a Sunday” (that’s the writer’s take on it in the Guardian…).
So I asked some terribly smart women (if you know them, I promise I’m not being sarky – they’re all smart because they know me, for a start…) to write me a paragraph on how their life is blurred, whether they are happy with it, and if not, what they are doing to address it. And also, whether they think the merge is worse for women or men, or if it’s equally split?
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Exhibit A. Sally Whittle.
She’s a full time working mum, and a single mum as well – so for the latter, she deserves a medal in its own right. She’s a big name in the social world but seems to have a bit more distinction than I do, in her commentary on the world at large and getting herself blurred into it, so I wanted to get her view.
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Exhibit B. Nickie O’Hara
I don’t know Nickie very well, truth be told, other than through a mutual love of all things stationery related. But I see that she works in a “regular job” in the day and then, by night is a blogger and also provides lots of geek and social media support to other bloggers and people online. I think the latter doesn’t count as work to some, but to me it does – because people expect responses instantly when it comes to anything related to social media. I wonder how she manages it all – because there’s a lot of it!
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Exhibit C. Jane Blackmore
Jane aka Northern Mum, is known to me because a) I’ve decided she can come and live with me and my friends in our old ladies commune after our Lovely Bloke’s have all shuffled off this mortal coil and b) she’s decided to also be self employed as well as working as a head hunter in a very busy job. I reckon it’s all looking great on the outside, but surely, her “work life merge” must be at an all time high right now? How does she feel about it?
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Exhibit D. Sandra Roycroft-Davis
Sandra is the Founder of Thinking Slimmer. And yes, they are one of my clients. But I often discuss the “women having it all” scenario with her. And with her kids being older than mine and her being able to a) eat well b) find the time to go to the gym regularly and c) allow her husband to do his own thing whilst doing her own at the same time and d) still seeming like they actually quite like each other – well, I think I want to have some of whatever’s on her weetabix in a morning. I wonder what life is like behind the scenes and whether she’s got a really blurring going on for her work and home life….So that’s the four people I’ve got lined up to comment for now. I’m going to add them in one at a time and would really like to hear your thoughts on each post, because I think this is something that social developments and also, mobile developments will only continue to “take advantage of” (in both a positive and negative sense) in 2013…Stay tuned for the first instalment :))
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