Up until March 2020, Karen Peterson\u2019s weekdays revolved around her commute. The Lendio CMO spent two hours on the road each day going to and from the company\u2019s Salt Lake City offices \u2014 precious hours that forced her to sacrifice time with her family, time at work, and, more often than not, both. So when the coronavirus pandemic forced companies to close their offices, it was as if, suddenly, Peterson had gained ten new hours a week.<\/p>\n
Working from home has made Peterson more productive at work and more present with her family, but not just because of those ten extra hours. She didn\u2019t merely trade her old commute time for two additional work or family hours each day. Instead, she focused on building something she realized was missing from her life for years \u2014 harmony.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of balance<\/i> \u2014 this idea that you’re either in one place or the other \u2014 I like to think of my time in terms of harmony<\/i>,\u201d Peterson says. \u201cSometimes, I\u2019ll need to invest more time in something work-related, and others I might need to care for my children. When I reframe the way I think of my time, I feel like I have more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s even allowed her to take more time for herself. She\u2019s able to do yoga every day. She can take more frequent walks around the neighborhood. For Peterson, marrying her work and personal lives has been a boon for her overall productivity, happiness, and health. And she\u2019s not the only one who sees this particular benefit brought about by the massive work-from-home experiment that the pandemic thrust upon much of the working world.<\/p>\n
Before video meetings from the kitchen table became part of our daily routine, working women worldwide spent their mornings like Peterson: They commuted to work, dropped their children off at school or daycare for those with little ones at home, and spent their days running to and from meetings. They took the time during their commutes to catch up on audiobooks, listen to the news, call friends, or plow through their emails.<\/p>\n
Many women noticed a change when they began working from home: with their days no longer a juggling act, time in between meetings or before or after the workday can be spent with their children, taking walks with their families, eating with their partners, and blocking off time to work out at home or add new commitments like volunteering or socially-distanced book clubs.<\/p>\n
To some, these might seem like small lifestyle adjustments, but it turns out that they profoundly impact the way women work. They\u2019re examples of how women can achieve work-life harmony while working from home\u2014a subtle shift that has helped women in the so-called \u201cnew normal\u201d of their lives as employees, leaders, mothers, partners, and friends.<\/p>\n
With work happening mere feet away from family members who might require childcare, education, medical attention, or simply a snack, women have developed new habits and adopted new approaches to time management. Instead of trying to balance their work and personal lives, they\u2019ve begun to fit them together seamlessly. As a result, women worldwide feel empowered to take control of their time and energy and embrace all of their roles, at home, at work, and everywhere in between.<\/p>\n
While terms like \u201cwork-life balance\u201d and \u201cwork-life harmony\u201d are relatively new, the idea of separating our work and home lives actually goes back hundreds of years. Labor laws enacted in the U.S. in the late-1800s restricted working hours for women and children. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act mandated a 44-hour week for all workers. With the government regulating how much time people could legally spend at work, Americans could look at their personal and home lives much differently.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until the rise of technology and the so-called \u201cknowledge society\u201d in the late-20th Century that we started to see our work and personal lives begin to converge.<\/p>\n
Many industries began to employ workers who were valuable for their specialized knowledge. Soon, information technology \u2014 then mobile technology, then cloud technology \u2014 allowed employees to \u201ctake their work home.\u201d This changed work as we know it, forever blurring the lines between work and home.\u00a0 Those disappearing boundaries gave rise to the concept of work-life balance<\/i>. In time, top employers started touting work-life balance as a job perk as more progressive companies offered benefits like flexible time off, personal days, and WFH options. The idea of balance became known as the best way to be a happy, healthy, and high-performing knowledge worker.<\/p>\n
Peterson says the idea of balancing work and personal life was progress, but not perfect. With balance, there is always a choice between one<\/i> or the other<\/i> (work vs. everything else in life). But to achieve harmony, workers can direct their energy with focus and presence where it is needed most and at the moment it\u2019s needed most.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of balance conjures the idea of a teeter-totter\u2014and who can maintain balance on a teeter-totter?\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s having both of the sides working together in harmony. That\u2019s where we should want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The entire idea of work-life balance is a fallacy<\/a> and implies an ability to equally divide both time and energy, writes David Ballard, head of the American Psychological Association\u2019s Center for Organizational Excellence. And it\u2019s not just researchers who are eschewing the concept of balance in favor of work-life harmony. Business leaders like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, apply it to their lives. Bezos believes that getting more work-life harmony is better for business <\/a>as it doesn\u2019t require a tradeoff.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m happy at work, I\u2019m better at home,\u201d Bezos wrote in a 2016 Medium post. \u201cAnd if I\u2019m happy at home, I come into work more energized\u2014a better employee and a better colleague.\u201d<\/p>\n Peterson says a benefit of achieving harmony is it gives her more time and space to develop new self-care habits, which help in all areas of her life.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if it’s 10 minutes of yoga or quietly reading classic literature, those activities are life-giving and energy-building for me,\u201d she says. \u201cKnowing that, I make time for those things, and I reap the benefits because I\u2019m more charged when I am working.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah Fricke, a senior manager of global sales enablement at RingCentral, says she used to spend her mornings checking notifications on her phone or networking over coffee \u2014 and that\u2019s when she wasn\u2019t zipping through an airport terminal hoping not to miss her flight to a client meeting. Today, her mornings consist of long walks with her new dog, Walter. That freedom gives her long periods for proactive, strategic thinking\u2014without a million notifications.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve rediscovered my mornings,\u201d she says. \u201cRather than diving straight into work, I give myself that time back. By being more proactive with how I spend my mornings, I\u2019m now less reactive.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Leadership expert Dr. Steward Friedman<\/a> says rather than focusing on any one aspect of our lives \u2014 or to seek balance \u2014 we should seek to enrich everything vital to our overall happiness: The quality of our relationships, our engagement in the community, and our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.<\/p>\n \u201cIf instead, we pursue the prospect of harmony among the different parts of life\u2014like the instruments in a jazz quartet trying to make good music\u2014then the possibilities for wellbeing and high performance are much greater,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not possible to have it all in balance, all at once.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of finding that sense of peace is embracing the overlap between the different aspects of our lives. For Jenny Dingus, associate vice president of customer experience and retention at RingCentral, embracing the overlap between her home and work life has helped her feel more productive all around. Instead of trying to separate, she\u2019s finding ways to merge her work and personal lives even more. Sometimes that simply means conducting walking meetings \u2014 listening in, or even leading, strategy sessions while taking in some fresh air.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore, I felt like I always had to be in front of my computer and never allowed myself much flexibility,\u201d she says. \u201cBy embracing the overlap between my two worlds, I\u2019ve created space for myself and actually work better because my environment isn\u2019t so rigid \u2014 this way, nobody\u2019s needs are being neglected.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, Dingus has seen noticeable improvements in both her mental health and work performance. By asking herself, \u201cHow do I take care of myself<\/i> so I can take care of my work<\/i>, my teams<\/i>, and my family<\/i>?” she learned that she needed to honor where the three meet. Now, she is more confident that she can give what\u2019s required to her work while not detracting from her personal needs. \u201cInstead of choosing one or the other, I\u2019ve been able to find ways to increase my personal mental health and work outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the coronavirus pandemic ushered in today\u2019s new work-from-home realities, Dingus and Peterson were among the many working women frustrated with her life being timed to the minute every day of the week. Kirstin Burke, vice president of marketing at DataEndure, says she once spent her days shuttling her daughter to and from school, making sure she made it to her after-school activities, trying to connect with her husband \u2014 all while squeezing in a full day of work.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like if I wasn\u2019t out of one place and arriving at another, the whole house of cards would fall down,\u201d\u00a0 she says. Now, because her home and work lives are inexorably linked, she feels more flexibility and less tension because she\u2019s stopped trying to keep them separated.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, I\u2019ll get up for a glass of water and end up doing a load of laundry and the dishes,\u201d she says. \u201cNow, instead of feeling guilty, I find acceptance that life is all in one place and strive to stay present to whatever I\u2019m doing. It\u2019s like the tune of the song has changed\u2014the harmony is just different now, and it\u2019s still beautiful. The best part is that I\u2019m present to it now, which makes every part of the song sweeter.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more on how women are thriving in their at-home work environments:<\/p>\n Chapter 2: How our new habits can \u2014<\/span> and should \u2014<\/span> work for<\/em> us<\/a><\/p>\n Chapter 3: <\/a>Your physique is no good here: How WFH is leveling the (physical) playing field for women in the workplace<\/a><\/p>\nHarmony here<\/i> means harmony there<\/i><\/h2>\n
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