Leading By Example With Work/Life Balance

by Devin Moore / Aug 21

I only hire people that enjoy working, and then I encourage them to take lots of breaks and engage in other activities. I champion work-sponsored events including but not limited to team sports, field trips, flex time and other outings to make sure that the employees are taking enough breaks. The supervision issue means that it’s extra important to have a longer tryout period on an employee to make sure that they don’t take advantage of a great work environment by not doing enough or trying to do too much. Either of these conditions should be treated as if it were as serious as simply not showing up for work, with the consequence of termination communicated clearly in the tryout period. It’s not that I want to fire someone for trying to get the job done, but the health costs of an employee pushing themselves to burnout far outweigh whatever tiny productivity gains they might achieve.

Finally, I lead by example: I try to balance my work/life as much as possible, and I communicate my schedule to my employees so they can see that I’m not unnecessarily burning the midnight oil. Another thing that helps employees to work hard only when necessary is to communicate far in advance the schedule for working overtime on projects such as a required late-night rollout. If employees know in advance that they will be required to make the extra effort, the special-ness of that effort will be recognized and they will have less of a chance of assuming I want them to do that all the time with projects. I also take care to remind people that are working too hard that extra hours do not equate to extra income on a salaried position — it’s predictable achievements that are rewarded the most. My employees are rewarded for working smarter and producing value for the company, not for being a warm body to show off to some VP or client.

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