I encourage readers to think about the concepts and intersections of work-life balance, work-life integration, and work-life harmony within their own professional and personal lives.
Joshua D. Hayes, ABD, MA, MAE
First Vice President, American Association for Access, Equity, and Diversity (AAAED)
The concept of work-life balance has been taught, re-emphasized, and ingrained within me for nearly 20 years. It was not until November 2023, when a colleague, Dr. Keiwana Perryman, first introduced me to the new concept — or at least new to me — of work-life integration. Immediately upon hearing this concept, I began to think about how and if I enact work-life integration within my own professional and personal life.
In her USA TODAY article, Dr. Annette Butler, president of the American Society for Access, Equity, and Diversity (AAAED) conveyed, “As an access, equity, and diversity professional, the expectation is for us to have answers, advice, and be current on laws and related policies. Little or no emphasis may be placed on our self-care, stress management, or maintenance of a safe space to decompress.” In this article, I encourage readers to turn their emphasis to these often-neglected tasks and think about the concepts and intersections of work-life balance, work-life integration, and work-life harmony within their own professional and personal lives.
The Work-Life Pyramid
While writing this article, what dawned on me is that the concepts of work-life balance, work-life integration, and work-life harmony exhibit three journeys. These three journeys, each with their own challenges, can be viewed through the lens of a three-level pyramid: work-life balance forms the floor of the pyramid, work-life integration is the middle, and work-life harmony sits atop them both as the apex.
Google defines balance as “different elements [being] equal or in the correct proportions,” integration as, “when separate things are brought together,” and harmony as “a pleasing combination of different parts.” As we transition from balance to integration and from integration to harmony, our work and personal lives grow from residing in an equilibrium to becoming a pleasing whole. Each transition, however, is not easy.
Work-Life Integration
As employees and AAAED leaders, we often spend more time with our full-time jobs than with ourselves or our families; therefore, striving to balance, integrate, and harmonize our work lives and academic matriculations can be exceptionally challenging. Based on conversations some of my AAAED colleagues and I have been having for nearly two decades, work-life balance means trying to care for our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. What we continue to work through, however, is learning about and learning how to put into place work-life integration.
Work-life integration requires ensuring (not simply striving to ensure) that our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being are our top priorities every single day of our work-life integration journey. Examples of steps my AAAED colleagues and I have taken to ensure work-life integration include a significant reduction of weekly work and academic matriculation hours to more reasonable investments of time, an increase of daily rest/sleep, and the use of seeing counselors or therapists, for example.
Work-Life Harmony
What does work-life harmony look like? In full transparency, work-life harmony (at the top of the pyramid) is an ongoing challenge and work in progress we continue to strive toward — the attainment of a pleasing combination of different parts (e.g., work, life, academic matriculation, well-being).
John Maxwell stated, “Success is not a destination, it’s not a place you arrive one day but the journey you take.” Utilizing Maxwell’s perspective as a framework, my thought is that work-life harmony is not a destination, it’s not a place you arrive one day but the journey you take. I am beyond grateful that my AAAED colleagues and I continue to travel together on the journeys of work-life balance, work-life integration, and work-life harmony.
