You wouldn’t necessarily think the phrase “work-life balance” would be controversial.
But while some people view it as an important equilibrium to maintain, some CEOs outright hate it or call it a “lie.”
Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, came under fire in August after he pointed to work-life balance as a contributing factor to why the tech giant was trailing startups like OpenAI in the AI arms race (he has since walked back the remarks).
Here are some of top business execs’ hottest takes on work-life balance.
Jeff Bezos says work and life should make a circle, not a “balance”
Clive Mason – Formula 1
In 2018, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said that workers should aim for work-life harmony, not “balance,” at an event hosted by Business Insider’s parent company Axel Springer. Bezos also called the concept of work-life balance “debilitating” because it hints that there’s a trade-off.
Bezos said that it’s not a work-life balance, but “it’s actually a circle.”
Bezos said that if he feels happy at home then it energizes him and makes him more productive at work, and vice versa.
Satya Nadella thinks you should focus on “work-life harmony”
Associated Press
Microsoft’s CEO also thinks that “work-life balance” isn’t the goal. Instead, he says to focus on work-life “harmony.” In 2019, he shared his thoughts with the Australian Financial Review, saying he used to think that he needed to balance relaxing and working. But, he’s since shifted his approach, aligning his “deep interests” with his work.
TIAA’s CEO thinks the entire concept is a “lie”
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“Work-life balance is a lie,” TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett told Fortune CEO Alan Murray in 2023. Brown Duckett has previously said she used to struggle with guilt and balancing her demanding job with being a mother.
Brown Duckett says that she views her life as a “portfolio,” and that she takes time to perform different roles like mother, wife, and business executive. Though she may not always physically be with her children, she says she strives to be fully present during the time she is able to spend with them.
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt walked back comments that work-life balance was why Google was behind in AI
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Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt criticized Google’s remote work policy and work-life balance during an April lecture at Stanford University, saying they contributed to the company’s trailing of AI startups like OpenAI.
“Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning,” the former Google exec said in a recording of the lecture that was posted online in August. “And the reason the startups work is because the people work like hell.”
He added that those looking to start successful companies today are “not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week if you want to compete against the other startups.”
After his comments gained attention, Schmidt walked back the comments.
“Eric misspoke about Google and their work hours and regrets his error,” a Schmidt spokesperson wrote in an email to Business Insider.
Arianna Huffington says you shouldn’t have to choose between work and life
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Arianna Huffington, founder of Thrive Global and HuffPost, told Great Place to Work that we shouldn’t view productivity and relaxation as two opposing forces. Huffington said that when one area of your life improves, the other does as well.
According to research from Oxford University in 2019, happy employees are 13% more productive compared to those who aren’t happy. Huffington told Great Place to Work that employees should focus more on “work-life integration” since “we bring our entire selves to work.”
Still, Huffington believes that your personal life should always come first.
“While work is obviously important and can give us purpose and meaning in our lives, it shouldn’t take the place of life,” she told Great Place to Work. “Work is a part of a thriving life, but life should come first.”
Don’t expect work-life balance if you work for Elon Musk…
STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Elon Musk is a known workaholic, and he expects those who work beneath him to be as well.
In 2022, just after Musk took ownership of X, formerly Twitter, he sent out an email to employees telling them to either dedicate their lives to working or leave the company. Musk reportedly made X employees work 84 hours a week. While some people think remote work improved their work-life balance, Musk has often criticized it and called it “morally wrong.”
According to Walter Isaacson’s biography about Musk, Musk held an even tighter working schedule for himself. The billionaire would stay at the office overnight and shower at the YMCA when he joined the workforce in 1995, Isaacson wrote. Musk has continued the habit while working at Tesla and buying Twitter, often spending the night at work.
In 2018, Musk said that he works 120 hours a week, amounting to 17 hours a day.
Jack Ma has also actively endorsed long work hours
One of China’s richest men, Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma in 2019 expressed his support for the controversial “996” work system in many Chinese workplaces, which refers to working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. He’s called “996” culture a “huge blessing” for younger workers.
“Many companies and many people don’t have the opportunity to work 996,” he said in 2019. “If you don’t work 996 when you are young, when can you ever work 996?”
“If you find a job you like, the 996 problem does not exist,” he added. “If you’re not passionate about it, every minute of going to work is a torment.”
China’s government called the grueling 996 schedule “illegal” in 2021, though it’s believed to continue to be an expectation at many Chinese companies.
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