The leader of any successful company will tell you that a work-life balance is good for corporate wellness; a reputation of putting employee wellbeing first increases morale, yields superior work and attracts the best talent in the market. Recently, job site Indeed.com released a list of the top 25 companies nationwide in terms of work-life balance, and director of recruiting Mark Steinerd explained, ‘Proper work-life balance makes employees feel appreciated, which in turn makes them more productive and more likely to stay with the company for an extended period of time… This list showcases those companies that, according to previous or current employees, got it right.’
Companies who made the list often infused balance into the work day itself, through creative managerial practices. Desk time is often the epitome of work day drudgery, and so Farhad Chowdhury, the chief executive officer of the application development firm Fifth Tribe, works with collaborators over an intensive four-mile hike rather than a conference room. The physical challenge is a great team-building exercise, and the collaborating element promotes thinking outside the box by removing professionals from the box itself. Chowdhury noted, ‘That’s why I try to do this with everyone with whom I interact professionally.’
Flex time also rated high on Indeed.com’s list of companies. As an employee at Wegmans explained, ‘Because I am a college student, my schedule can sometimes be all over the place. Thankfully Wegmans is more than happy to work around my school and personal schedule and make a work schedule that I can easily adhere to. For the two years I have worked at Wegmans, I have not regretted one minute of it!’ Most of us would rather work to live, rather than live to work, which means we place higher value on picking our kids up from school, attending a class or going to an important family event, than putting in the nine to five. During his 2010 TEDTalk Why Work Doesn’t Happen at Work, Jason Fried, co-founder of the Web application firm 37signals, explained a flexible professional atmosphere allows the long, uninterrupted thought required for great (and even good) work to manifest.
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