Work-Life Archives - Page 2 of 10

A Wellness Program Under Test

Eighty percent of large American employers offer workplace wellness programs. Zirui Song of Harvard Medical School and Katherine Baicker tested one in a randomized trial at BJ’s Wholesale Club. The program ran at 20 sites, with 140 sites as a control, for 18 months from January 2015.

Employees in the program reported more exercise and more attention to their weight. Measured health, health spending, absences and job performance did not change significantly. The results appeared in JAMA in April 2019.

Self-Preservation

In 1988 the poet Audre Lorde wrote in A Burst of Light, after her second cancer diagnosis: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

In 2024 the consulting firm McKinsey estimated the American wellness market at $480 billion. Eighty-two percent of American consumers called wellness a top or important priority.

The Happiness Course

In spring 2018 the Yale psychologist Laurie Santos taught a course called Psychology and the Good Life. More than 1,200 students enrolled, about a quarter of Yale’s undergraduates. It became the most popular class in the history of Yale College. Santos said, “I hate seeing them so time constrained that they never have a chance to take a break and explore this interesting place.”

An online version, The Science of Well-Being, had more than five million learners by October 2026. Its description promises challenges to increase your own happiness “and build more productive habits.”

Not at the Same Time

In December 2018, on the tour for her memoir Becoming, Michelle Obama spoke at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. “I tell women that whole ‘you can have it all’ — mmm, nope, not at the same time, that’s a lie.”

Why Women Still Can’t Have It All

In 2012 Anne-Marie Slaughter, the first woman to serve as director of policy planning at the State Department, wrote in The Atlantic about why she left that job. “Juggling high-level government work with the needs of two teenage boys was not possible.”

Her article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” became “one of the most-read pieces in the magazine’s history.”

Eighty-Five Percent

American career advice often says that about 85 percent of jobs are filled through networking. PayScale writes: “Some estimate that upwards of 85 percent of open positions are filled through networking.”

The figure is hard to trace. PayScale links it to a survey by LinkedIn and the Adler Group, with no sample or date. A 2023 article credits it to the job site Zippia.

Bring Your Whole Self to Work

“Bring your whole self to work” became a corporate catchphrase. Pamela Paul of The New York Times called it “a certified buzzphrase at Google.” One advocate, the author and speaker Mike Robbins, said that it “isn’t about over-sharing, complaining, or making excuses.”

In September 2022 Paul argued against it under the headline “Do Not Bring Your ‘Whole Self’ to Work.” “For some people, a private life is actually best when it’s private.” She proposed, “Let’s all bring only — or at least primarily — the worky parts.”

Topics for Small Talk

JobTIPS, an online guide to job skills, tells readers that “Small talk is a normal and expected thing that happens in almost every work environment.” Good topics include what you did over the weekend and television shows, movies or music.

Topics to avoid include politics, religion, salary, personal financial problems, personal questions about relationships and personal health issues.

Relationships Are Not for the Office

The psychologist Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks of the University of Michigan studies what he calls Protestant Relational Ideology. He describes it as “a deep-seated belief that affective and relational concerns are considered inappropriate in work settings.” A university release summarized it as a “widespread American belief that personal relationships and emotions in the office are inappropriate and unprofessional.”

He traces the belief to the ascetic Protestants who founded early American communities. One of his chapters is subtitled “an American Anomaly.”

Polite but Impersonal

In September 2015 the psychologist Adam Grant wrote in The New York Times: “We’re social creatures outside work, yet the office interaction norm tends to be polite but impersonal.”

He reported that in 1985 about half of Americans said they had a close friend at work. By 2004 it was 30 percent. “Now, work is a more transactional place. We go to the office to be efficient, not to form bonds.”