Its true that being in the IT industry for so long ensures that one embraces jargon or learns to abhor it from the very core of her / his existence, and falling in the latter category, I am no exception either. This subject is definitely material for another post, in due time.
Nevertheless, work-life balance is something some of my BSchool buddies have also used in order to convey the balance between academics and extra curricular activities.
Now, the very essence of the term and its subsequent usage denotes that it is an oxymoron, which thus implies that work and life are two different mutually exclusive entities. Hence, applying the regular tenets of logic would lead one to conclude that if you have a life, you can’t work and vice versa, which is why both of them need to be balanced out.
The implications are that work is not a part of your life, and this in turn makes even those who are ‘meh’ about their work to end up despising it merely because they now see it as something necessary but invasive.
I think the Indian IT industry is seeing a trend where the new poster boys are those that are able to juggle multiple things aside from work in their daily lives. It is a far cry from the times of old when the guy who’d spend ages in front of his comp working away was considered as a model employee.
Personally, I think the entire hoopla around the said term is stupid. If you can’t make time for something, it isn’t important enough.
