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“Work-life balance” is often regarded as an important indicator of a thriving, successful career.
Millennials and Gen Z workers, in particular, place a high value on work-life balance and seek out benefits that enable flexibility.
About a third of Gen Z and millennials say work-life balance factors (flexible work arrangements, more time off) are the most important quality in their career moving forward, second only to higher pay, a recent Bankrate survey found.
But “work-life balance” is a “horrible, misleading” goal to strive for, says Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati.
“Find work-life balance” is a common piece of career advice Gulati encourages his students — and the CEOs he interviews on his podcast, “Deep Purpose”— to ignore.
“My primary issue with the term “work-life balance” is that it puts work in opposition to life … it assumes that work is bad and life is good,” says Gulati. “Work shouldn’t consume you, but when you treat work and life completely separate, by implication, you’re saying, ‘I’m dead when I’m at work.'”
Here, Gulati explains why focusing on work-life balance can be counterproductive and offers a better alternative:
The problem with work-life balance
Maintaining an equal split between work and life isn’t just difficult to do — it also doesn’t guarantee happiness.
That’s because the concept of work-life balance is based on the false assumption that work and life are two unrelated entities, Gulati says. For most people, work and life are intertwined, and trying to separate them can lead to burnout and a lack of fulfillment in your career.
“It’s self-limiting because when you subscribe to that belief, work is just work, devoid of meaning beyond a paycheck and perhaps a sense of power,” says Gulati. “There’s so much more enrichment we can derive from our work when we find what we do is meaningful and connect it to a personal value or interest.”
To be clear, Gulati isn’t suggesting that work should consume your life. Instead, you should reconsider how different aspects of your life can fuel one another and foster positive energy.
According to Gulati, the “happiest” people don’t seek a balance between their work and personal lives, but harmony.
How to be happier at work
When there’s continuity between your personal and professional routines, you can create a more grounded and fulfilling life, says Gulati.
The goal is to find areas of compromise and synergy. For example: Forming meaningful connections with your co-workers is a great way to feel more motivated at work, as is volunteering for projects that draw on your personal interests or experiences, Gulati explains.
The benefits are endless if you can find meaning in what you do. Research shows that raises and promotions are more common among people who find their work meaningful. What’s more, the studies found that these workers tend to be more resilient, motivated and harder working than their peers.
In other words, merging your personal and professional lives can lead to a happier, more successful career.
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