Introduction
How do you achieve a balance between work and home life? This paper draws from a survey of Project Managers within Compaq, and across other corporations to a limited extent. It presents how people are feeling about the balance of work and home in their lives, and provides information on what does and doesn't work for them. Some of the survey questions could be correlated with satisfaction level, and others seemed to be irrelevant. The survey collected information on the general characteristics of those surveyed, as well as their self-described behaviors. At the end of the survey, participants were asked to list, in order of importance, those things they either do or would like to do to improve their satisfaction with the balance. A summary of these responses, sharing the “lessons learned” from what others do who are pleased with the work/home life balance they've achieved, wraps up the findings.
The survey, conducted in early 2001, received 500 responses. Of the respondents, a third were satisfied or very pleased with the balance they've achieved, slightly more than a third were “okay,” and about a third were either not pleased or very unhappy. The overall distribution is shown in Exhibit 1.
This author makes no claim as to whether potential behavior changes in the summary may be positive for a career. Those with the greatest satisfaction with their work/life balance are significantly more likely to feel that their career is on track. This survey didn't attempt to determine which came first—choices and behavior that improved satisfaction leading to a better career, or an on-track career increasing satisfaction. However, if your career isn't on track, and you're not happy, doing “nothing” is unlikely to improve the situation.
The World of Project Management
The nature of project management is intense and demanding. By definition, efforts that require project managers have inherent stress from the need to balance constraints and achieve results. In today's fast paced world of change, there are some who think we can move from “better, faster, and cheaper” to “perfect, now, and free.” As people migrate from office buildings to home offices, the distinction of “going to work” gets blurred, and the questions become: Are you ever “not” at work? How do you “leave”? Does work anywhere, any time; become work always, all the time? Does your brain ever stop thinking about work, or do issues circle in your head whether it is 2 AM or you're out on the golf course?
Depending on your answers, this scenario can lead to a sense that all one does it work, and there is no balance with the other important things in life. So, how do you get a life?
Project Management Perspective
As Project Managers, in our work we are used to balancing competing interests:
• Employer or manager versus the project's customer
• Time for personal contribution versus support and enabling activities for team member contributions
• Triple constraint: time, quality, and cost.
At home, we face similar struggles:
• Personal time versus that with family and friends
• Balance of children versus spouse
• Finding time to sleep or exercise
• Doing fun things or “home work”—such as cleaning and other household chores.
By the very nature of our jobs, we are used to balancing competing priorities and interests. As goal- and success-oriented contributors, we achieve what we set out to do. Which means, as Project Managers, the secret may rest in setting “balance” as a goal and applying our skills.
Survey Description
The survey consisted of 20 questions, and was conducted through the Internet. Most questions were composed of multiple answers, and ranged from select one of many or select all that apply, to rating likelihood of behavior and fill in the blanks. In all, there were over 175 different “items” to answer or leave blank, and it generally took about 30 minutes to complete the survey.
Exhibit 1. Satisfaction With Balance Between Work and Home Life
Exhibit 2. Personal Habits and Behaviors
Five hundred responses were recorded by the system. Of those, 85% were Compaq employees—as internal distribution lists were the primary method of requesting survey participation. Sixty-nine percent identified themselves as Project Managers, 5% as Program Management Office Managers, and 18% as Project Management Professionals (PMPs). The majority of respondents were male (62%), and 5% didn't answer either way. While 75% work on teams that share a common language, 24% work on teams that are located in multiple countries.
General Results
The overall satisfaction results were strikingly similar regardless of job or role: 69% were okay, satisfied, or very pleased with their balance between work and home. Overall, the responses formed a normal “bell” curve. Of the total, 88 identified themselves as PMPs. This did not change the likelihood of satisfaction. On the other hand:
• Women rated their satisfaction level higher than men, and one-third of the respondents were women.
• Those with members of their team in multiple countries (24%) were slightly more satisfied than the average.
• Men were happier if they had no dependents, while women were happier when they had dependents.
Those that are the least happy were the most likely to say they would switch jobs given the opportunity (57%). Somewhat surprisingly, among those who were satisfied or very happy, if given the opportunity, 12% would switch jobs anyway.
The factors, which most directly correlated with work/home life balance, were a matter of control. Work life flexibility, approach to overload, the ability to “leave work behind” and set limits were strongly related to overall satisfaction.
Areas Surveyed and Results
The survey asked questions in a number of areas with respect to satisfaction levels. While some are “facts,” others are perceptions and behaviors, and theoretically at least, open to our control. The general areas addressed were:
• Support Structure
• Personal Habits and Behaviors
• Work Related Behavior
Exhibit 3. Most Likely Responses to Overload
• Travel and Commuting
• Services Used
• Tools
• Vacation
• Regular Activities
• Commuting Activities
• Activities to Balance Work and Home Life.
Support Structure Impact
There was a direct correlation between satisfaction and whether the person has a strong support structure, such as supportive family and friends, supportive management, and the appropriate team to get the job done. Far less important was whether the company has a well-defined support network. Although not the focus of this survey, only 49% of the respondents felt that their teams have the necessary size and skills for the job. Is it any wonder that Project Managers feel stressed and that projects fail?
Personal Habits and Behaviors
In the areas of attitude and behaviors that a person can control, as shown in Exhibit 2, some behaviors correlated with satisfaction, and others did not.
There was a correlation between the likelihood of the following and overall satisfaction:
• Regularly able to leave work “on time”
• Taking appropriate breaks during the day
• Making time to stretch or for other healthy activities during the day
• Taking a break from work at lunchtime.
On the opposite side, the following patterns did not have the direct correlation:
• Using a “to do” list—most everyone used one
• Jumping from task to task
• Starting and finishing one task at a time.
Work-Related Behavior
When it came to availability and working hours, the correlations with satisfaction became a lot more blurred. Only when taken in the context of whether the person was acting based on internal drivers or external pressure, was there a clear cause and effect. For example, those with a job requirement to be always available were less satisfied than those without that requirement. The very pleased respondents were most likely to have clear availability— either available or not, rather than being available as circumstance required.
In general, as working hours increased, so did the percentage of respondents who were dissatisfied. The greatest jump came at 50 hours per week: those that work less had up to a 21% level of dissatisfaction. For those who work from 50 to 55 hours a week, the dissatisfaction level jumped to 46%, and at over 55 hours, two-thirds expressed dissatisfaction.
When it came to work outside normal working hours, there is a “break” between those that are very unhappy and those that are not pleased. The unhappiest seem to have “disconnected” at some point, and work a similar amount to those that are very pleased. The “not satisfied” work more than anyone else. The difference between the very pleased and not pleased seems to be in the “reason” for overtime. Those that are pleased are more likely to see the additional time as their choice, while those that are displeased see the time as required to meet their goals or by their employer.
Exhibit 4. Regular Activities
Flexibility in work schedule also correlated with happiness. The common theme in all is personal control over schedule, rather than externally imposed time clocks. Those that were most pleased indicated the greatest likelihood that they could:
• Schedule vacation to meet personal needs
• Take work time for errands and then make it up
• Set their own start and stop times
• Work at home occasionally
• Vary their hours from day to day
• Take sick time easily.
The same themes continued through responses of likely and unlikely behavior when a person has “undone” work and feels overwhelmed (see Exhibit 3 for the top five likely responses by satisfaction level). While everyone expressed a similar likelihood that they would prioritize, do what they felt was most important, do what matches their boss's priorities (which on average, only 60% paid attention to), the happiest respondents were significantly more likely to:
• Work some overtime, but set personal limits on the time
• Do what I can, and mentally “leave” work behind when I leave.
On the other hand, the unhappy were more likely to work overtime to do it all, and continue to worry about the undone items when they left work. They also tended to show less flexibility in their responses—those that were most satisfied picked a larger number of likely responses.
Travel and Commuting
Travel is frequently blamed as a cause of unhappiness. While those with higher satisfaction were away from home less than those that were unhappy, 15% of those that are happy are away from home three or more nights a week. A significant portion of unhappy people (39%) is not away from home overnight, and only 25% of those that are unhappy were away three or more nights per week. However, “excessive” travel mattered: once travel got to five or more nights a week, no one was happy.
The relationship between commuting and happiness was less direct. While those who were most pleased generally had shorter commutes, once commuting time exceeded 120 minutes per day, the satisfaction percentage increased to over 70%, where at a commute of less than 120 minutes it had dropped to 61% from a high of 96% for no commute time. It appears that those who are “choosing” long commutes, rather than being away from home overnight, are significantly happier than those who are away from home weekly (only 20% are happy).
Services Used
Surprisingly, there was no strong trend difference in the services used as related to work/home life balance satisfaction. Across the survey, the most frequently used services were:
• Online bill payment (52%)
• Catalog shopping and purchasing (39%)
• Automatic bill payment (34%)
Exhibit 5. Most Frequent Responses on Activities to Improve Balance
• Online shopping and purchasing (33%)
• Eating dinner out three or more times/week (31%)
• Maids or housecleaning (30%)
• Take-out one or two times/week (30%)
• Grocery delivery service (25%)
• Driver/limo to commute (22%)
• Yard and/or garden service (20%)
Tools
Tools showed no clear correlation between the haves and the have-nots with respect to satisfaction. If the answers of the very dissatisfied were ignored, it almost appears as if having more tools such as computers and cell phones decreased satisfaction, rather than increasing it. This may reflect the tendency to “never” leave work if you have enough tools to be in “constant” communication, but it was a weak relationship at best.
Vacation
The area of overall vacation length is hard to characterize: most respondents described their office contact, not their vacation length. For those who listed length, it generally was one to two weeks, and most frequently over the Christmas holidays. There were 43 people that didn't answer the vacation question at all, and another eight people said they don't get to take any vacation or can't remember their last one.
The type and frequency of vacation contacts with the office got more interesting, as the answers tended to jump around, rather than correlate directly with satisfaction. A revealing quote from one respondent: “Vacation does not mean doing work from someplace else.” Those at either end of the satisfaction spectrum, either very pleased or very unhappy, reported similar check-in patterns, although they were probably motivated by different reasons. Two key areas of difference emerged:
• Very pleased respondents were more likely to have no contact during vacation (65% compared to around 40% for all others)
• Very unhappy respondents were more likely not to have had a vacation they could remember (17% compared to about 1% for all others).
This certainly leads to a clear behavior pattern that employers can impact: providing for and ensuring that staff has the opportunity and takes vacation time. At a personal level, the Project Manager can take the necessary steps to build their project plan and team to support vacations.
The “middle of the road” group, ranging from not pleased to satisfied with their work life balance, were more likely to check in by choice—about 55%, than the two “ends,” which were down around 40% check-in by choice.
Regular Activities
Activities varied among the responses: some activities correlated with satisfaction levels, while others didn't. Since respondents could indicate that they participated in multiple activities, it was interesting that those who were unhappy generally selected about 4.5 activities, while those that were happy selected 5.6 and the most pleased selected 6.2. There was no way to tell is this was a cause or effect: people may be happy because they have time to do more things, or they may be happy because they are active (back to the notion that if you want something done, ask a busy person). There were some activities for which participation did not correlated with satisfaction, while others did, as noted below and illustrated in Exhibit 4.
The regular activities of the group were reported with a similar frequency across all levels of satisfaction for:
• Time with spouse or significant other
• Time with children or family
• Job related personal development
• Non-job related training
• Participation in community and civic groups
• Driving kids to and from activities
• Weight management program.
Activities that showed higher participation levels with higher satisfaction levels were:
• Time with friends
• Time with extended family
• Regular exercise
• Participation in social groups and clubs.
One activity stood out in making a difference: participation in church activities. For all but the most pleased, participation was about 23%—very flat. For those that are very pleased with the balance between work and home, that participation level jumped to 45%.
Commuting Activities
Satisfied respondents do “less” things while commuting than those that are not satisfied. The only thing happy respondents did more of than the unhappy was to “relax, do nothing.” The most frequent activities for all groups are to listen to the radio or music, make work phone calls, and make personal phone calls.
Activities to Balance Work and Home Life
So what were the actions and activities that people felt most helped them balance work and home life—either because they did them or thought they should? Of those satisfied with their current situation, the top 10, using a weighted ranking were:
1. Regular exercise (3)
2. Time management/planning (1)
3. Time with family/friends (19)
4. Work time flexibility (6)
5. Social life (4)
6. Vacation (11)
7. Ability to work from home (10)
8. Protected non-work time (25)
9. Priorities (5)
10. Supportive management/company environment (16)
Of those dissatisfied, the list was slightly different, reflecting a different starting point, different set of circumstances, or different perceptions of what would make their work and home life better:
1. Time management/planning (2)
2. Reasonable workload (14)
3. Regular exercise (1)
4. Social life (5)
5. Priorities (9)
6. Work time flexibility (4)
7. Pay/financial satisfaction (27)
8. Participate in sports (17)
9. Technology and tools available (11)
10. Ability to work from home (7)
These sets of “top 10” were selected from 54 different activities groupings. The rank on the opposite end of the satisfaction scale is shown parenthetically after each item. When the differences in the list are examined, there were a few important distinctions. Those that are most happy consciously limit their work time, by protecting certain times, be it weekends, quitting time, whatever, as non-working, whereas the unhappy didn't recognize it as even being important. As seen previously in the general activities answers, the happiest rate spending time with family and friends, and having a supportive company much higher than those with a less balanced work/home life.
Those that are least satisfied with work/home life balance had significant issues with money and financial satisfaction, and were more likely to feel they needed to get a reasonable workload. The wording of their answers was also revealing: if unhappy, they were generally hoping for “more” or “less,” versus those that are happy and just “have” the activity already. Some examples around pay and workload:
• Better pay—then I can afford to vacation
• Being able to spend less than 10-11 hours daily away from home for work
• A schedule that realistically looks at work to be done.
The results when simply counted, without regard to importance of an activity, for each of the satisfaction levels, are shown in Exhibit 5.
Getting a “Life”
Based on the results of this survey, practical steps you can take to increase your satisfaction level are to:
• Leave work “on time”
• Learn to leave work “mentally” as well as physically
• Take breaks during the day, including lunch!
• Plan vacations into your project schedule and then take them
• Explore options for flexibility in your work schedule, such as working at home occasionally.
• Set personal “limits,” determine priorities, and then stick with them—do not try to “do it all”
• Determine if you can increase the supportiveness of family and friends, as well as management.
On the lighter side:
• If you're a woman, have some kids, or if you're a man, get them to grow up and leave home
• Gossip and visit with friends and co-workers often
• Don't bother with the fish … according to this survey pets didn't make anyone happier.
In conclusion, it is your life, and you choose what you make of it. Take control—a large part of satisfaction is attitude. Mentally decide on what you'll do to handle the balance, create a situation that satisfies your needs, and then do it.