Work/Life Balance For Passionate Geeks

Presented by Joshua Warren

OR:

Put That Laptop Down And Come To Bed!

About Me

PHP DeveloperWorking with PHP since 1999

Founder & CEOFounded Creatuity in 2008

PHP Development Firm

Focus on the Magento platform

I was inspired, in large part, by never wanting to work in a traditional office thanks to the movie

‘Office Space’.

Frequent Conference Presenter

Occasional Open Source Contributor

Over-Tweeter

Hardware Hacker

Avid Sci-Fi Reader

Aspiring Author

JoshuaWarren.com

@JoshuaSWarren

IMPORTANT!

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What’s That?

Work/Life Balance

–Wikipedia

A concept including proper prioritizing between "work"

and "lifestyle"

–Wikipedia

“Lifestyle” includes health, pleasure, leisure, family &

spiritual development/meditation

Work/Life Balance

Used to be simple

Work 8 hours making widgets, then go home

The widgets didn’t follow you home

Work/Life Balance TodayWork 8+ hours

Spend an hour driving home

Check your work email on your smartphone

Finish up “one last bit” of work after dinner

–Every Overworked Developer

That’s OK, though, because I love what I do!

Work/Life Integration

“If people enjoy what they do, there’s no need to draw strict lines.” —Fortune Magazine

Not a bad concept, but…

Work/Life Integration

Work/Life Integration, especially when abused by employers, destroys personal boundaries

Healthy personal boundaries are critical to self-worth, happiness & fulfillment

The best attempts at work/life integration use technology to allow employees to alter their work to

better accommodate their personal life.

The worst attempts at work/life integration use technology and peer pressure to take advantage of

passionate, driven employees.

Cui Bono

Evaluate a company’s work/life initiatives by asking a simple question - cui bono - “to whose benefit?”

Or: It’s about to get real…

The Personal Case For Work/Life Balance

2,000 Saturdays

#OpenWest

The average male in his mid-30’s has 2,000 Saturdays left in his life.

Don’t waste them.

2,000 sounds like a lot - but think about how fast each weekend disappears.

Also, that assumes you reach the average.

Every year, our community loses friends and colleagues well before their time

Work is important, but life is precious, and it’s entirely too short.

Importance of Personal Time

Develop and maintain healthy relationships

Personal growth & development

Happiness & fulfillment

Importance of Personal Time

Improve your health

Lower stress levels

Or: A slightly less depressing, more business-y segment

The Business Case for Work/Life Balance

#OpenWest

Tech executives - you’re not running a factory. Stop treating

your employees like factory workers.

Studies have linked personal downtime to increases in creativity, memory, learning and problem solving.

Hiring millennials? 40% of them will leave if you don’t have a good work/life balance

policy. — Washington Post

In other words - do you want high performing employees who are creative, solve problems and

help your business grow?

Give your employees downtime!

Or: Stop Working Your Employees To Death

Implement Work/Life Balance at Work

#OpenWest

Work/life balance is not a perk. It’s an attitude of respect for each

employee’s life and need for rest.

Healthy work/life balance requires a culture where employees feel safe disconnecting from work.

Create clear boundaries and expectations between working and non-working times.

Flexible hours and working from home are great, but create a clear boundary that signals to manager and

employee when the employee is working.

Flexible hours and remote work are not an excuse or justification for overworking employees.

As an employee - ask for these boundaries if you’re not receiving them.

Popular OptionsTelecommuting

20+ PTO days

Compressed workweek

Flexible schedules

These options are great, but implemented on their own without a cultural change, they are often

underutilized.

For example - instead of “flexible schedules”, set “core hours”.

Corporate employees of Darden Restaurants have core hours from 9:00AM - 3:30PM

Old culture: all employees must be in the same office at the same time, or they aren’t getting work done

New culture: it’s important for employees to be able to collaborate, but their productivity won’t suffer if

they don’t have the exact same hours.

Or: Rediscover Those People and/or Pets Living In Your Home

Implement Work/Life Balance at Home

Set boundaries.

Determine what you and your family are comfortable with, and stick to it.

For some people, that means work stays at work.

For others, it means getting that last hour of work in after the kids have gone to bed.

Experiment with small changes.

I banned laptops from my bedroom and discovered that one change greatly improved my sleep.

#OpenWest

Know yourself. Take time to set priorities to help you guide your

own personal balance between work and life.

Track all of your time for a week - including time spent at home.

Does your time spent at home match up with your priorities? If not, rearrange until it does.

Treat your personal time the same way you treat your work time.

Would you walk out of a meeting at work for a minor issue at home?

Then don’t give up your personal time for a minor issue at work!

Focus on your health

Get better sleep - FitBit

Improve your nutrition - MyFitnessPal

Get some sort of exercise - FitBit + MyFitnessPal

Even minor improvements to your health will have a noticeable impact on your work/life balance and your

enjoyment of life

Or: gl hf

Work/Life Balance For Remote Workers

Remote workers tend to have the very best or very worst work/life balance.

Again - it all comes down to boundaries.

Set clear boundaries with everyone involved - both your family and your coworkers.

Ensure your family respects your work time - establish a clear signal when you are ‘at work’.

Ensure your work respects your family time - establish clear rules and expectations of when you will and

won’t be reachable.

Find a support group - A coffee shop, a coworking space, a makerspace.

You need an in-person outlet for work-related stress other than your family.

Or: gl hf dd

Work/Life Balance For Passionate Geeks

Example: You’re a full-time PHP developer who spends all day working with a custom app in Laravel

Coming home and working on a personal project in Laravel - is it work?

Personal projects closely related to what you do at work aren’t necessarily bad.

The key is balance.

Don’t spend all of your personal time on a project that closely mirrors what you do at work.

Split your personal time between projects similar to your work and completely unrelated projects.

Start small - if you usually work with Symfony at work, learn Laravel at home.

Then, find hobbies in unrelated areas

Spending your downtime learning a new hobby or skill will boost your creativity.

If you’re a software developer, buy an Arduino and start tinkering with circuits.

Combine your interests and your work with new hobbies as well.

For example - I enjoy speaking with developers and trying new beers.

I use every trip I take - for work or pleasure - to connect with local user groups and get their recommendation

for a good local beer.

Work/life balance is hard. Especially for those of us passionate about our work.

It’s an important topic, and important to get it right - those 2,000 Saturdays will pass by in a blink.

Set aside time for yourself, for your family and for downtime.

Stop and think about how you’re spending your time, and what boundaries you have in place.

#OpenWest

Define one boundary between your work and your life and starting Monday, respect that boundary.

Keep In Touch!

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@JoshuaSWarren

JoshuaWarren.com