I have a friend – let’s call him Andrew. Andrew works in the City. He is paid a lot of money and works a lot of hours. Our two families joined others for a church holiday earlier this year and I noted that Andrew was up to doing two or three hours of work a day. On one hand this looks ridiculous. Can he really not manage his work better so that he can focus on his family during the holidays? But then I realised that Andrew has something to teach us about work-life balance.
When people say they want “a better work-life balance” they may simply mean that they want to be paid the same money but work fewer hours. As well as it not really meaning what it claims, the term implies that ‘life’ and ‘work’ are distinct – but the opening chapters of Genesis teach us that work is part of life. Indeed, work is the main element of what ‘life’ should be.
But, returning to my friend, Andrew. Andrew should have been on holiday, leaving aside his work responsibilities and relaxing – shouldn’t he?
Well – consider the situation of a normal midweek morning and Andrew gets a ‘phone call from his wife and he is needed to help with a sick child. He is a father and a son and a husband – when at work, he does not relinquish the responsibilities that come with those roles; instead he may well drop what he’s doing to deal with that family emergency.
So, when Andrew is on holiday and starts up his laptop or jumps on a conference call, is he not just doing the mirror of this? The Christian should not be looking for a work-life balance – or, at least scripturally he should not be – instead he should be trying to deal with his responsibilities as both a family man and as a worker and colleague and not compartmentalising his life – and all this under the overall Lordship of Christ, rather than the oft-quoted hierarchy of God, family and then work.
Furthermore, knowing that he is able on holiday to take and make calls and send and receive emails, Andrew may well be less stressed in the lead-up to his holiday – knowing that he does not have to set in place systems to manage his two weeks away from the office. Also, he knows that an hour or two a day working, while ‘on holiday’, may well save him and his colleagues many hours – or even days – once he returns.
Andrew probably still works too many hours; he readily admits he likes the financial rewards that come with his many hours while acknowledging the strain on his wife as she manages the household, including young children. But part of the answer to 14-hour days in the office just might be to work more when you are on holiday.
