From where did we ever get this notion of work-life balance? It goes back to that 20th-century management myth that, your life is your life, but your work belongs to us. In fact, you belong to us when you’re at work. It’s an old idea going back at least one-hundred years, and arguably longer than that.
In today’s world, what you do for income could partially be from an employer, partially what you do for yourself, you could do it with partners and peers and friends. You could do a lot of things for income. And what you do for income must be integrated with what you do for health, what you do for fun, what you do with friends, what you do for your spirituality, and so on. In other words, what you do for income is part of an integrated life and you own it all.
It’s not a question of balancing life on the one hand and work on the other. Rather, it’s about integrating everything you do throughout your life. So what do people want when they’re “quietly quitting?” In fact what they want is the autonomy to decide how much of their life they want to spend doing this, that, and the other thing. Things with their friends, with their family, with their health, things they do for money, things they do just for fun.
It’s the autonomy that’s the issue.
@dr.mark.reinvention Replying to @professormoriartty Quiet Quitting isn’t work-life balance. #quietquitting #worklifebalance #career #autonomy #fow #futureofwork ♬ original sound – Mark “Reinvention Project” PhD