Usually people’s main complaint with regard to work-life balance is that their work is taking over their life, but this is not always the case:

I recently conducted a workshop at a call-centre. There I found staff and managers who considered their job boring and routine. They all sought excitement and interest in their personal lives to relieve the tedium of their work.

Work-life balance is often about working on your “life” – developing goals, living up to your values and working on your priorities.  What the staff and managers at that call centre needed, however, was to bring some “life” into their work.

We all need challenges and aspirations as a fuel for our development, sense of satisfaction and achievement.  My advice to them was to find ways of making their work and work environment more enjoyable, stimulating, challenging and exciting.

Boredom is oppressive and stifles human potential and talent. If your work or the work of those you lead and manage suffers from too much routine, you might like to consider the same questions I asked the team at the call centre.

• What can you do to bring more creativity and innovation into the workplace?
• How can you improve morale by generating a greater sense of team spirit and sense of mission?
• How can bring humour and fun into the workplace?
• What can you to do to encourage continuous improvement?
• How can you involve people in striving for customer service excellence?
• What goals or milestones could you set that would give people a sense of achievement when reached?

To contact Nick Woodeson, please email him at