“The Monday-through-Friday, nine-to-five is a pipe dream.” That’s how writer Stephanie Walden introduces her piece, “The ‘Work-Life Balance’ Misnomer: Is Work-Life ‘Integration’ the New Norm?” featured on Mashable last week. I think she’s spot on.
Before today’s technology-enabled ever-connectedness became the norm, people had to figure out a way to balance work and life. By mere definition, that meant work and life were separate. They were “equal or in the correct proportions,” but two separate elements nonetheless. That balance was all about dedication and separation.
Today, that separate equilibrium seems less and less possible and probably even negligible. People are so engrained in their work at all hours and from any location that balancing two separate life spaces becomes a nonissue. People simply don’t have two separate life spaces.
Instead, workers are striving for a new goal: a work-life ‘integration’ that fits their lives. In her article, Stephanie explores this new idea and walks through some tips that have helped people who seem to be making the integration work.
- Put your health first.
- Find spheres that overlap.
- Address stress.
- Family matters.
- Conduct self-assessments.
These tips might work. But is that a good thing? There is so much research out there about overworked and under-vacationed Americans. Is this advice simply perpetuating that trend? Keeping us plugged in even more? And at what cost? Weigh in using #TopOfMind.
The ‘Work-Life Balance’ Misnomer: Is Work-Life ‘Integration’ the New Norm?
Work-life integration appears to be a new reality. You may find yourself taking a personal call at work or looking over an excel spreadsheet during family game night. This article dives into tips and advice from professionals that are making work-life integration actually work.
Missouri home to more startup accelerators than most states
According to data from Seed DB, Missouri has more startup accelerators than all of the states in the US except for three. Most of these accelerators are in St. Louis. In 2013, more than 50 startup companies started doing business in St. Louis. Most of these companies are in the tech sector. These accelerator programs are creating stronger deals. In 2012, seven companies in St. Louis raised $3.9 million and then in 2013, 15 companies raised seed capital of $5.7 million.
5 Tips For Prioritizing Your Ever-Growing To-Do List
It can be very difficult to figure out what your biggest priority should be at certain times of the day. The night before work, write down the top three to five items that you want to accomplish the next day. Here is the precious list:
- It’s a step toward a big professional goal.
- Your boss says it’s top priority.
- It makes you money.
- It lightens your mental load.
- It can only be done today.
Silicon Valley Now Has a Fantasy Venture Capital League
You don’t need to be an accredited investor anymore to make speculative guesses on startups. Welcome to Valleyball, a fantasy VC league that let’s everybody bet on a startup’s performance a year from the day the bet is made. This league links to the public crunchbase profile of each startup so that you can make educated fantasy guesses on these companies. It’s bringing the fun back into investing.
Are Employee Non-Competes Obsolete?
Should non-compete agreements be abolished and do they actually help your cause? Thomas Erickson and New England Venture Capital Association are trying to make the case that they are bad for business and are obsolete. Erickson argues that employees will work for these mediocre firms, build up a lifetime of expertise and then are not able to use it at their next job and have to go into a new line of work as well as take a salary cut. There is an alternative that is better. A non-compete does not cover intellectual property. Rather than having employees sign non-competes, have them sign non-disclosure agreements or intellectual property protections.