Work-Life Matters: Crafting a New Balance at Work and at Home

Work-life balance isn’t about where or how you spend your time. At least not solely. It’s about where and how you use and replenish your energy. Work matters. Life matters. Work-life matters.

As we start to navigate life during and after the pandemic, employers and employees are increasingly re-evaluating how work can be made more sustainable and more fulfilling. Many employees - particularly Gen X and Gen Z - are seeking a new psychological contract with their employers.

Putting these trends into context and offering practical solutions, this book takes a deep dive into why work matters as part of a healthy and fulfilling life. The authors present a new and different way of thinking about the matter of balance, arguing that there is no hard divide between ’work’ and life’ because ’work’ takes place entirely within ’life’ and you can’t balance two things when one is a subset of the other. To achieve the balance required for a healthy existence, we need to recognise that there are activities in all parts of work-life that drain our energy and others that give us a buzz. Rather than trying to solve the drain of hard work by living it large at the weekend - or compensating for an unfulfilling home life by working like a demon, we need to create balance at work and balance at home.

Now is a golden opportunity to re-examine the world of work and job-craft to make them more satisfying, less draining and more energising. The ideas in this book provide a practical guide to help that process.

David Pendleton is Professor in Leadership at Henley Business School, and a member of the Henley Centre for Leadership. He co-founded the Edgecumbe consulting group in 1995 where he worked with a wide range of clients from the airline, hospitality, retail, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and professional and financial services sectors in Europe, Asia and America. He was Executive Chair of Edgecumbe from 1995-2005. The holder of an Oxford doctorate in Psychology, David is a Chartered Psychologist an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School, Oxford University, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and a member of their Trustee Board.

Peter Derbyshire started his career as a chartered accountant before becoming a college lecturer for 10 years, during which time he established a life-long interest in psychology, philosophy and education. After a decade in local government, he went on to become a management consultant and critical friend to failing local authorities, followed by a number of years as a leadership coach in the further education sector, using a psychodynamic model in improving the learning and reflective capacities of college leaders. A long-term fan of Eastern Philosophy, Jung and Wittgenstein, Peter has sought to blend his own experience with that of others in finding solutions. He is now working as an adviser to a niche legal practice based in the South West UK.

Chloe Hodgkinson is a Business Psychology Consultant at Edgecumbe Consulting Group. She specialises in job crafting, leadership and employee engagement and has an academic background in Psychology, Business and Human Resources. Chloe conducted research into job crafting while completing an MSc in Occupational Psychology at the University of Leicester. From here, she graduated top of the cohort with a distinction and was awarded the Rob Stammers Award for Outstanding Academic Performance in recognition of the contributions from her studies and research. Her opinions and frameworks on job crafting have since been published in the Washington Post, MIT Sloan Management Review, Forbes and The Telegraphs.