Ethics Corner - December 2008 - By Jeff Courtright, Ph.D.

The Greek word from which we get “ethics” is also the one from which we get “ethos”—the personal character we bring to our communication in public lives. Yet how do we balance the public and the private? Take a moment to reflect: A productive work life, a happy home, time for leisure (I know, some of you are saying, “What’s that?”), and taking care of your health, physical, mental, and spiritual. How do you keep it all in balance?

A recent article in the new PRSA online research journal, Public Relations Journal, may not provide the answers, but it sheds some light on the problems we have balancing our lives and how public relations professionals manage this balance (defined as “the balance between personal, home, and work responsibilities”).

In the article, Aldoory, Jiang, Toth and Sha (2008) studied how work-life balance is perceived by male and female practitioners. The researchers conducted eight focus groups, one all-male group and one all-female group in each of four cities (Washington, New York, Chicago, and San Diego). Moderators also were the same sex as the participants. Several interesting findings suggest some things to think about as we go about our business.

First, the participants tended to look at their lives holistically, i.e., work and personal lives are not two separate things. The balance is fluid and the complexity deep. Words such as “tug of war,” “multitasking,” “integration,” “juggling,” and “flexibility” were used in focus groups to characterize perspectives on managing the balance. Personal/home life was limited to just family. Respondents include exercise, athletics, private time, and time for pets.

Of course, there are many factors that affect our perceptions of how well we balance our public and private lives. Partners and supervisors can adjust our thoughts and feelings about the balance in either a positive or a negative way.

Gender also was a factor. Interestingly, men stressed the need for integration but viewed the problem of balancing work and family as more of an issue for women. Before you groan or shake your head, hang on: the all-female focus groups expressed the same idea. Indeed, one female participant suggested that women place that expectation on themselves. In fact, one of the key findings in the study is that these practitioners, when they perceived that their level of balance was not where they wanted to be, either would express feelings of guilt or discuss what factors in their lives they would blame for the imbalance.

Here are the challenges that practitioners face, based on the study. (Perhaps you’ll recognize some of them.)

1. Public relations itself is a service industry that is a balancing act; expect struggling with balance due to the nature of the profession.
2. Society’s perceptions of what makes for a good professional and a good balance create pressures on us.
3. Sometimes employers only give “lip service” to flexible leave policies, in reality giving the impression that taking advantage of such policies would negatively affect one’s career.
4. As noted above, the women themselves saw other women (and sometimes themselves) as a source of the “super woman” image. Our perceptions create barriers.
5. Using technology in a balanced way can be a challenge. (How addicted are you to e-mail or your Blackberry?)
6. The fluidity of self-identity makes it hard to maintain some degree of balance. Since work and personal life are never truly separate, how can you manage the ebb and flow of life?
7. Parenthood. ‘Nough said.
8. Some practitioners lengthen their hours at work in order to satisfy what needs to be done. Is this wise? Does it help bring about balance or not?
9. The amount of guilt felt when one part of life “intrudes” on another.

As stated previously, the study doesn’t provide answers to achieving “balance.” However, the participants did identify some strategies to help:

1. Open and honest communication with supervisors, partners, spouses, etc.
2. Time management with the use of firm routines for weekdays and weekends.
3. Use new technology to your advantage. It can help you manage work issues when at home and vice versa (and likely other places).
4. If your current job makes it too difficult to balance life, leave. (The study stated it this way because that’s how the participants talked about it. I would certainly say, “Consider it carefully.”)
5. Discover the amount of balance you can achieve, and recognize that it won’t be perfect. Accept what you can’t change, change what you can, and know the difference.

For the complete article, go to http://auth.iweb.prsa.org/xmembernet/main/pdfpull.cfm?prcfile=6D-020401.pdf. If you bookmark http://www.prsa.org/prjournal, you can see one of the many benefits that your PRSA membership makes possible for you.