Letters To A Natalist World: The “Work-Life Balance” Is YOUR OWN Responsibility
Dear Natalist World,
We need to talk.
All this moaning about a “work-life balance,” especially one specifically for parents, has got to stop. Seriously. I’ts ridiculous. It turns out, you’re not special just because you chose to be a parent. Believe it or not, those of us without kids have lives outside of our jobs too. We make it work, as any adult should be able to.
While a reasonable degree of flexibility from employers is nice, ultimately, balancing out your life is your own responsibility as an adult. Employers pay you to work for them, not to have a personal life. If your work and your personal life conflict, then you have to accept that you must either get a new job that suits the lifestyle that you desire, or alter your lifestyle to suit the requirements of the job you voluntarily agreed to work. There is no reason to expect employers to make special accommodations for you ever single time you happen to want one.
I always wonder about the people who complain about employers not catering to them, personally, altering the job to suit whatever “work-life balance” the employee wants, in a manner that is not extended to all employees equally. They seem like grown versions of the children who were always paid whatever allowance they asked their parents for, while doing little or no work to earn it, and having their parents work their lives around them. I say this because that seems to be the expectation some people place on their employers, as if employers are just nannies to adults.
Take responsibility for sorting out your own life, like a grown up. Finding a “work-life balance” is YOUR problem to work out.
Posted on 2012/07/19, in childfree, Diary, Letters To A Natalist World and tagged childfree. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
thank you for expressing in words what I have been thinking ever since this ridiculousness with the Anne-Marie Slaughter article has been everywhere…ENOUGH WITH THE WHINING. They chose to have babies…they can bloody well deal with the consequences.
3 cheers! Many parents love to complain about their children, but it always ends with “But I wouldn’t trade it for anything”. It seems once someone gives birth they want the world to revolve around them and their spawn. They decided to be a parent, so they need to live with all the crap that goes with it.
Good article. It is also worth mentioning that pushing your work onto your childfree co-worker so you can attend your child soccer game does not a balancing act make. Taking advantage of others does not make it worthy of you telling people you are handling it all.
Yeah, no, I’m not seeing Parent behavior the same way You are. To Me, when I hear Parents complain about trying to find a “work-Life” balance, it’s almost always because They are exasperated from the unwillingness of certain Employers to make one *reasonable* compromise or another. For example, allowing the Employee to use vacation time to stay home and take care of a sick Child.
Now, Employers *do* pay Employees Who are also Parents to work for Them; no doubt. At the same time, one fact smart Employers tend to recognize is, if *reasonable* accommodations are made for Employees, morale and retention rates both tend to be higher, resulting in larger profits for the Employer.
Everyone needs the occasional reasonable compromise. Parents are NOT special, nor do they deserve to be treated special.