Balancing Acts: More than 250 Guiltfree, Creative Ideas to Blend Your Work and Your Life.

By Barbara A. Glanz Publisher: Dearborn Trade Publishing 2003. ISBN. 0793165202

Barbara Glanz's book, Balancing Acts: More Than 250 Guiltfree, Creative Ideas to Blend Your Work and Your Life, takes a novel approach to meshing work and life. Rather than feeling guilt about the heavy emphasis one places on work and struggling to find ways to make work life and personal life come into "balance," Glanz proposes that people should accept their commitment to work and strive to find ways in which they can "blend" the other aspects of their lives into their work life.

This is an intriguing idea, and one against which I initially rankled. However, Glanz's premise has validity. Many men and women pay lip service to the idea of down shifting their commitment to work in order to make more time for their family and personal life. When this fails (as it almost always does) the employees feels frustrated and guilty about the relative neglect of their personal life. Barbara Glanz urges readers to accept the fact that their lives are never perfectly in balance. To be successful at work, most employees must make a substantial time commitment to their employer. Rather than struggle against that commitment, she recommends they find ways to blend work and life by integrating the other important areas of life into their work life.

Glanz proposes that there are six major facets of life that need to be blended: work, family, friends, health, spirit, and service. For most people, work is the greedy institution with which all other areas must be blended (there is, for example no discussion of blending family with friends or health with service). Following the introduction, separate chapters are devoted to the ways in which work can be blended with each of the remaining facets (family, friends, health, spirit, and service). Each chapter also has suggestions for ways in which employers can facilitate the blending of work and personal life.

The most interesting chapter addresses the blending of work and family life. According to Glanz, work-family blending can be achieved by involving family members in one's work life. This can be as routine as distributing company trinkets to family members and displaying family pictures and handicrafts in the office. It can be as innovative as enlisting the assistance of family members in completing work-related tasks. For example, Glanz suggests that children perform simple work-related duties such as filing or preparing mailings. The more technologically savvy teen or spouse can perform help design web pages or make slide presentations for their parent or spouse. Children and spouses can also help promote business by distributing their parents' business cards to friends, teachers and co-workers. Other suggestions seem less useful, for example, calling an employee's parents to tell them what a valued employee their child is. The chapter also lists creative suggestions for employers who want to help their employees blend work and family (family picnic, family days, etc.).

Unfortunately, more than half of the suggestions in the work-family chapter involve ways to blend work and family while traveling (e.g., leaving notes around the house, recording bedtime stories, sending post cards). Many others involve suggestions for employees who can readily bring their work home. These suggestions are often not relevant for those working in a non-professional setting.

At first glance, many of Glanz's suggestions for blending work and family seemed either opportunistic or misguided. However, when I shared some of the suggestions with my teenage daughter, to my surprise, she thought they sounded interesting. For example, she liked the suggestion that a parent videotape a typical day at work and share the tape with the child(ren) (although I doubt that my parents would appreciate it if, as suggested, I made a similar video for them). Children do want to he involved in their parents' lives. Glanz's proposal that parents actively include children in their work life rather than protect them from it merits some consideration (Maybe next semester I can enlist my children to help me grade my students' papers!).

The remaining chapters are also filled with practical examples and suggestions lot blending work and personal life. As with the previous chapter, some of the suggestions are more plausible than others. The Work and Friends chapter suggests ways to involve friends in work or ways to make friends while at work. Suggestions range from interdepartmental bowling tournaments, to enlisting a co-worker to care for a sick child (and return the favor in the future). The Work and Health chapter lists ways to take care of physical needs while at work. For example, health is promoted by keeping a bottle of water at your desk or by walking during your lunch hour. Blending work and spirit can be achieved through refreshing and express oneself throughout the day. For example, taking "joy" breaks, meditating, listening to motivational tapes, and developing soothing rituals (for example, one woman asks each person who comes into her office to choose one of several Beanie Babies to hold throughout the meeting) can enhance one spiritually. Organizationally, an employer can sponsor meditation rooms, workshops, music performances, or employee art exhibitions. Finally, the chapter on work and service encourages the employee to find ways to perform volunteer work either through one's employer or in one's employer's name.

From my reading, Barbara Glanz' primary professional identification is as a professional speaker, although she has also authored books and articles. Her background in motivational speaking could be belied by her heavy reliance on cartoons, bullet-pointed suggestions, and catchy quotes. While reading this book I often felt like a participant in a motivational/self-help seminar. Those who do not appreciate that approach will be bothered by the tone of the book. Readers may also be piqued by the frequent quotes, which range from trite ("Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly"--unreferenced) to erudite ("The only ones among us who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."--Albert Schweitzer).

Some readers may take issue with Glanz's premise that, for many, the path to personal fulfillment is through the blending, of family, friends, health, spirit and service into one's work life. This makes work the centerpiece around which all other aspects of one's life revolve. By encouraging families to become involved in and support the work lives of their loved one, Glanz seems to be, borrowing a term from the self-help literature, "enabling" a workaholic lifestyle among her readers. For those who are willingly and heavily invested in their work, this may be the most realistic solution for managing work life and personal life. And, indeed, some of the suggestions are helpful. However, there is another alternative that involves rearranging priorities in work and family life. Glanz ignores that option (and therefore, as she states, avoids guilt).

Balancing Acts is a practical, self-help book. It is neither theoretical nor is it research-based. It is, therefore, not recommended for anyone who is looking for a scholarly discussion of the work-nonwork life interface. I do recommend this book for the non-academic reader who is looking for an easy-to-read, inspirational book with helpful suggestions for integrating one's work life with their personal life. However, the suggestions in this book are tailored for those working in a professional setting and in many instances are not relevant for those working in blue-collar, pink-collar or service positions. Finally, this book may be most useful to human resource professionals. The book includes several helpful and innovative suggestions for ways in which employers can enhance the blending of work life with personal life in a way that will enhance the well-being of the employee and their family and friends through the blending of personal and work life.

Patricia V. Roehling, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Hope College