Against “Work-Life Balance”

  In the course of working on a short piece for the fall issue of CHURCH magazine, put out by the National Pastoral Life Center, I have decided to come out against “work-life balance.”

  Teaching CST and Economic Justice this semester, I was struck by how students are enamored with the balance scale image—by their third year of law school they seem pretty much convinced that just about everything can be sliced up and “balanced” to provide the right answer to any given problem.

  What happens when we apply this image to the role of work in our lives?  I see a danger that “work” becomes a completely separate category from “life”—and so can maintain its own rules and claims, as distinct from the “life” sphere where “personal” values hold sway. 

  Ultimately I think the “balance” image can actually exacerbate what Gaudium et Spes termed “among the more serious errors of our age”—the “split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives.” (n.43).       

  The Council’s suggested alternative is much more complex than a “balance.”  Following the example of Christ, who, among other activities, also worked as an artisan, Christians would be

“free to give proper exercise to all their earthly activities and to their humane, domestic, professional, social and technical enterprises by gathering them into one vital synthesis with religious values, under whose supreme direction all things are harmonized unto God’s glory.” (n.43).

  Because of this, I’m coming out against “work-life balance” in favor of the term “personal integration.”  I think this is more helpful in clarifying that the “work” sphere and its time demands must be judged in light of an overarching framework which gives meaning to one’s entire life. 

  “Personal integration” is also more helpful in the effort to find value and meaning in tasks and commitments outside the workplace because they too can be modeled on Christ’s own life, which certainly embraced a range of activities—not only manual labor, but also foot-washing, cooking breakfast for his friends, family celebrations and dinners, as well as moments of respite and prayer.

  As a result of this shift, I'll have to eat some of the terminology in the piece I did on the Part-Time Paradox, but that's ok.  I’ll let you know when the piece is out.  Amy