Is there going to be a talent gap as the work/life balance
tips too far? Top: Galinsky, Arroyo. Bottom: Malveaux.
Opposite page: Shi
to find and strike the right balance for you but
also achieve your own personal needs? I’m not
sure how to answer that question; I’m
wrestling with it myself. It took the diagnosis
of a chronic illness for me to slow down, to get
off the plane, to stop commuting every other
week, and it took that serious illness that could
have killed me to understand that I’ve got to
slow down.
Arroyo: My two cents is that I would see a
large gap in talent in the next decade or so,
and I think about the baby boomers, and I
think corporate America and baby boomers as
well have to realize that there is a limit to how
many hours are in a week. So you can’t continue to expect more and more and more. Many
of us have seen memos from our leaders,
whether you work for J&J or whatever, that
says ‘We’re going to work harder next year and
better and more’ and at some point there’s
going to be so many hours in one week in
which one can be productive and sustain that
pace in the next decade and something is
going to collide, something is going to give.
Within this context, as the baby boomers exit
the work force, the Generation X before that,
they are going to be coming in with a new set
of expectations and demands that place a lot
more emphasis on work/life issues that we
have. And within that you’re going to have
fewer workers to do the work, demanding
more free time to do their own personal
