Susan was doing well in her job. She had an eight-hour workday, great friends, a supportive family, good health, and she was paid well. Everyone around her thought she was happy and lived an ideal life.

Susan was well-compensated and appeared to have time to balance her career and personal life. But she was struggling.

But Susan’s life was actually a mess. Her overly aggressive boss thought nothing of shouting at her in front of her colleagues. Though Susan was a good performer, she was constantly anxious about the next time her supervisor would berate her. Though she was expected to work eight-hour days, her boss would call her at any time of the day or night.

Susan began to dread hearing her cellphone ring and was so worried all the time that she couldn’t even sleep. She fretted that her colleagues and friends would lose respect for her, and she lost so much confidence that she couldn’t handle even the simplest of social interactions. Susana began to spend less time with her friends and family, where she would have to put up a brave face, and instead devoted more hours to work, where she could worry freely, obsessing over every detail of her job to the point of compulsiveness.

By most traditional measures of work-life balance, Susan was doing quite well. She was well compensated for an eight-hour workday, and she appeared to have enough free time to balance her career and personal life. But in reality, Susana was struggling. What’s more, her frustrations would not be picked up by conventional measures of wellbeing, because those measures don’t take into account the quality of people’s experiences, nor do they incorporate people’s own evaluations of their lives. Instead, those measures rely on factors like income and number of hours worked, under the assumption that these factors determine the quality of people’s lives.

Beyond work-life balance

When the idea of work-life balance was first introduced, it was a revolutionary concept. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution and its resulting shift to manufacturing work made it possible for employers to require workers to labor longer hours than ever before in human history. In some industries, people toiled 14 to 16 hours a day, six to seven days a week.

As researchers began to study the impact that these long hours had on stress levels, health, and family life, the idea of work-life balance gained currency, and many countries began to legislate limits to the workweek. Most developed nations now mandate 40-46 working hours per week, with a minimum of two weeks per year of holiday/vacation.

The concept of work-life balance has been instrumental in influencing these changes and bringing about an improvement in the quality of life that is assumed to accompany shorter working hours. But the concept is useful only up to a point. Globalization has undermined the relevance of reducing worker hours to achieve work-life balance and has revealed limitations; the most significant is that at some point, limiting hours further is just not sustainable.

France has mandated a 35-hour workweek, for example. But what can the country do next? The workweek can’t be reduced indefinitely, as this has implications for a country’s economic viability and competitiveness. In a globalized world, if workers in one country are unwilling to work for economically viable hours, then businesses will migrate to a country where they are willing to do so. In countries such as India and Pakistan, workers are motivated to work 10- to 12-hour workdays — and this is unlikely to change soon due to the large number of workers willing to do so to move up the economic ladder.

Another problem with the concept of work-life balance is that it takes the number of working hours into account but not the quality of the working experience. A person may spend 35 hours a week at work, but if that worker, like Susan, has an abrasive manager or is in a highly stressful job or one that is not suited to her natural talents, then those manageable work hours are unlikely to enhance her quality of life. Conversely, a person may choose to work long hours because it allows her to progress in her career or to build a social system at work.

Thus, the assumption that reduced hours at work lead to an improvement in personal life is too narrow, and probably faulty. Other factors, such as social support, health, safety, and job fit, contribute greatly to the quality of a person’s life. Since the concept of work-life balance doesn’t take into account these significant factors, it does not provide direction as to how people can actually improve the quality of their lives, except for reducing the hours spent at work. As such, it is not actionable.

The assumption that reduced hours at work lead to an improvement in personal life is too narrow, and probably faulty

How we think about and experience our lives

A more comprehensive concept-one that’s more appropriate for the 21st-century economy-is that of wellbeing, which includes factors that contribute to our experiences and our perception of our lives. Until recently, wellbeing has been seen as an esoteric concept that is difficult to define and quantify. It is most commonly understood as relating to wealth or health, perhaps because of the ease with which these things can be measured.

One reason that wellbeing has been difficult to define is that it means different things to different people depending on what they consider important. To one person, it may mean prosperity or wealth; to another, it may mean values or community involvement or the realization of one’s potential. This is why wellbeing should be measured at the individual level, though it may be aggregated for organizations, communities, and nations. And any measure of wellbeing must be broad enough to incorporate an individual’s own choices and purpose in life while being specific enough to be compared and aggregated to facilitate action that can improve it.

Gallup has developed a wellbeing metric that includes the five key elements of wellbeing: Career, Social, Financial, Physical, and Community. These five distinct factors emerged from research that Gallup conducted across countries, languages, and vastly different life situations. Because these elements of wellbeing are universal, they can be measured and reported on for individuals, organizations, cities, countries, and regions around the world.

Because Gallup’s wellbeing assessment measures these elements individually in addition to yielding an overall score, it is actionable: The assessment gives individuals, organizations, cities, and countries the ability to manage wellbeing by undertaking actions to improve it. If an individual has relatively low Social Wellbeing, for example, she would do well to focus her efforts on improving interpersonal relationships with friends and family.

This can be managed over time. As her Social Wellbeing increases, she may choose to concentrate on Career Wellbeing, for instance, or choose to address both elements by spending time socializing with colleagues and making friends at work. In this way, wellbeing can be measured and managed comprehensively at the individual, as well as government, state, city, or corporate levels, by taking its various components and their interactions into account.

Conventional metrics such as employment status, income, educational level, hours worked, and women’s participation in the workforce are necessary to understand an economy, but they are insufficient when it comes to understanding and evaluating overall life satisfaction. Unless we begin to use a metric of a life well-lived — as measured by one’s own experiences and evaluation — people like Susan will continue to be under the radar, aware that something is amiss, but without an idea why or what to do about it.

The Five Essentials of Wellbeing

For many years studies have been done exploring the demands of a life well-lived. More recently, due to the evolving workforce and generational issues there has been an increasing need to understand how to help our employers achieve a well-balanced life. The elements of wellbeing that transcend the global work environment that differentiate a thriving life not a surviving life are as follows:

• Career Wellbeing: how you occupy your time — or simply liking what you      do every day
• Social Wellbeing: having strong relationships and love in your life
• Financial Wellbeing: effectively managing your economic life
• Physical Wellbeing: having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis
• Community Wellbeing: the sense of engagement you have with the area where you live

Take a moment and enjoy all the gifts you have and it will reduce your stress and only say “YES” to the activities and life experiences that you know you want to do!

 

 

They’re young, smart, brash. They may wear flip flops to the office or listen to IPODs at their desk. They want to work, but they don’t want to work to be their LIFE. These are Millennials a force of as many as 70 million, and the first wave is just now embarking on their careers — taking their place in an increasingly multigenerational workplace. Get ready, because this generation — whose members have not yet hit 30 — is different from any that have come before them. Read the rest of this entry »

I’d like to thank the kind folks at Social Media Delivered for featuring me as one of their favorite authors!

Here’s what they had to say about my book, Ties to Tattoos: Turning Generational Differences into a Competitive Advantage:

When bringing up a point related directly or indirectly to social media, digital communications, or online communities, one hears more often than thought.. “Facebook’s that thing my grandkids are always on,” or “I’ve heard about this Twitter thing lately, but I’m still not quite sure about what or how should I tweet.”  The communications landscape is changing the way we relate to and with different demographics. Read more on socialmediadelivered.com

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On April 12, I’d like to invite you to join me for the Leadership and Learning Lecture series sponsored by Tenet. I’ll be speaking from 1-2 p.m. about generational differences. The title of the speech is “Collaboration vs. Collision: Bridging the Communication Gap Between Generations.”

I hope to see you there!

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The Fly Away with the Bridge fundraising gala was a huge success! I would like to thank all of you who attended for helping support a wonderful cause. Because of you, more underprivileged women will have access to life-saving mammograms and and other breast cancer care.

April’s Modern Luxury will contain coverage and pictures of the event. Click here for a sneak peek!

The latest Generational Guru Newsletter went out today! Click here to have a look. In it you’ll find articles on generational issues and other HR and business-related issues, including:

• How to Fire a Client (Transitioning Well)
• Six Diversity Competencies Successful People Share
• Economic Shift: Back to Employee Retention Basics
• Keeping the Keepers

Also take the Strong Life Quiz and find out what type of job best suits your personality!

Finally, enter the Texting Lingo contest and win a $50 iTunes gift card!

To subscribe, fill out the form in the upper right corner of this page.

It’s Okay to Manage Your Boss is the title of my friend Bruce Tulgan’s latest book. I want to personally invite you to check out his weekly video newsletter at http://www.rainmakerthinking.com.

Bruce offers practical strategies for keeping it together in the face of the competing demands of multiple supervisors.

Bruce says:

“If you are like most employees, you answer to multiple bosses — some directly, and others indirectly. You are often pulled in different directions by these competing authority figures with competing interests and agendas. All of them have the ability to improve or worsen your daily work conditions, your chances of getting rewards, and your long term career prospects. And all of them are different.

Under these circumstances, you are the only one you can control. You can control your role and conduct in each of these relationships. You can control how you manage and how you get what you need from these relationships.”

You can subscribe to Bruce’s weekly video newsletter for on-the-job tips in an easy to peruse format.  Enjoy!

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be speaking on Generational Differences in the Workplace at Raytheon (McKinney location) on March 30, 2011. Feel free to contact me for more information!

I recently spoke and hosted a book signing at the Texas Women’s Diversity Event on November 18th at SMU.  I was lucky enough to have Chuck Greeson from Jobing.com take some wonderful pictures of me and my book during the event.  It was a great event.  I met some fantastic professionals from the surrounding areas as well as those involved in women and diversity initiatives.

For those of you not familiar with the Texas Diversity Council, they have some fantastic events including their 2011 Texas Diversity Conference held April 6-8th in Dallas, TX.  Their events and symposiums as held all over the state.  I highly recommend you check it out.

I am excited to share with you my feature in The Plano Profile. Mason, my husband’s business Plano Smiles is also mentioned as well as a short excerpt of Ties to Tattoos. You can certainly take a look at their website as well as view the pdf of the article.  Here’s a sneak peak at part of the article.

The title says it all…

by Britt Mott

For the first time in history, the workforce is made up of four distinct generations: tie-wearing Traditionalists (1922–1943); loyal Baby Boomers (1944–1960); independent Xers (1961–1980); and tattooed, texting Millennials (1981–2000).

Sherri Elliott-Yeary, author of Ties to Tattoos: Turning Generational Differences into a Competitive Advantage argues that understanding every generation’s goals, behaviors, and motivations is key to a business’ success.

“Traditionalists…grew up during the enormous upheavals of depression and war.… They value consistency and uniformity. Their spending is conservative,” writes Sherri in her book.

“Baby Boomers comprise a majority of today’s workers. This is the largest generation in human history, with approximately 76 million Boomers in the United States. They are overachievers, idealists, inspired, and often narcissistic.

“Generation Xers…are possibly the least understood. They value portable careers and are loyal to themselves and not organizations. They are looking for a leader and mentor, not necessarily their boss, and they are very techno-literate.

“Millennials, also known as ‘Generation WHY,’ or as I like to call them, ‘Trophy Babies,’ are multitaskers…and team-oriented. This is the generation that has been rewarded for showing up for soccer practice, nevermind winning. If you manage a group of this generation, get ready to provide constant daily feedback.”

Sherri is the CEO of Optimance Workforce Strategies, LLC, a leading human-resources consulting firm in Plano. She is also the founder of Gen InsYght (geninsyght.com). She and her husband Mason are both Plano business owners. (Mason owns his own dental practice, planosmiles.com).

In Ties to Tattoos, Sherri asserts that the “old one-size-fits-all recruiting, rewarding, and managing strategies no longer work.” She says, “Where Boomers are optimistic, Xers are reactive. Where Traditionalists preach patience, Xers preach fun. Where Boomers want personal gratification, Millennials want morality. Where Millennials strive for civic duty, Xers strive for self-reliance.”

In order for CEOs and managers to connect with their employees, they need to know what their employees want and what motivates them. The author suggests cultivating an “inclusive” work environment by holding regular staff meetings to lay out the realities of the company and to encourage feedback. Sherri proffers, “Involving everyone doesn’t mean acting on everyone’s opinions. Younger generations respect authority, but they just want to be heard.”

What about if your company is recruiting? Sherri suggests creating targeted recruiting messages that appeal to the generation you are seeking to hire. “When we did recruiting for WinStar World Casinos, we had a targeted message for Traditionalists, which was work for us and you’ll get benefits after 60 days. For younger generations, we focused on offering a fun work environment.”

One element of the campaign included printing employment and benefit information on the back of playing cards. The cards read, “At WinStar Casinos, having fun is just a part of the job.”

One may argue that categorizing people into generational stereotypes is divisive, but Sherri attests that understanding these differences gives companies a competitive advantage. When every voice is heard, companies boost employee job satisfaction, and ultimately, they profit.

Excerpt from Ties to Tattoos Xers are railing against Traditionalists for being resistant to change, for being unwilling to hand over the reigns. Boomers are begrudging Xers for finding it so easy to change jobs on a whim. Boomers are further miffed that Xers thought to demand balance in their work and personal lives. Traditionalists resent Millennials for their entitlement mentality, especially so when Traditionalists had to work for every penny they earned. Millennials resent Boomers for leaving the planet a mess. And on it goes. All of this anger and frustration comes to a head at work because each generation is competing for the same scarce resource—a way to earn a living.

The technological revolution has only made generational stereotyping worse. More than any other influence, the use and adaptability of technology has put a greater perceived divide between those who grew up without technology and those born into phones with virtual buttons and GPS mapping and Internet access anywhere anytime. …

The differences between Traditionalists, Boomers, Xers, and Millennials are about more than language, more than age, and more than the latent mistrust of one generation of another. Each group behaves differently, thinks differently, and is motivated differently. Each cohort has different goals, dreams, and desires. Make no mistake, the challenges are real. The opportunities for leveraging these differences are equally real. By shifting focus and zeroing in on the talents and strengths of your workforce, you can boost productivity, minimize conflicts, and create a shared culture of innovation, loyalty, and growth.

Follow @sherrielliot on Twitter or follow the author’s blog at sherrielliott-yeary.com. For more on the book, visit tiestotattoos.com.