I think work life balance is a product of capitalism. Before the whole industrial revolution and all that, work was the process of contributing to society but society was life. The contribution was shared among the society and all of the benefits were realised by all of the society.
Greed by both parties has given rise to the need to separate work and life. The industrialist decides that the economic benefits resulting from your input will not all be passed back to the society (workforce) and thus society (workforce) has decided not to contribute any more than is absolutely neccesary.
I think a basic truth in life is that income received is proportional to the amount of your life you give up to contribute. There are skews off this track from volunteer work and financial decisions we all make. Those aside the more time you put in, the more benefit you have the ability to receive.
Does work life separation exist? The hardarse in me says it's called retirement. Aside from that, the beauty about electronic devices is that they have an off switch. The work/life separation exists, it's a choice. Bluring those lines is not inevitable, it's a choice we all make.
We recently had a group finance manager leave the company after having some epiphany that there are more important things in life than work. My comment to her was that there are enough discussion around the place about work/life balance, hours and income that it's a decision that most people would make early in their career. Having that kind of insight at that level in your career suggests that one has been rather blind while taking the journey through the pay grades.
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