The Work-Life Balance Trust

An independant charity, with no political affiliations

 The Work-Life Balance Trust


IF YOU NEED FURTHER HELP …



Does your life ever feel like a game of Ping Pong, with you as the ball? Life has always been just one thing after another, but in the past thirty years, for many people, it has speeded up until it sometimes feels as if we all are in a Keystone Cops movie.

Everyone wants a happy well-balanced rewarding life. In order for this to happen today, People - Who - Work - Too Much (even if they love their work) need to take stock of their life and possibly do three things to improve it.
  1. List all the problems, however small, however large
  2. Determine to knock them out of your life, one by one.
  3. Do it.
The shortest distance between two points is an intention. It takes personal effort to get real improvement - and everyone can improve their own work-life balance.

Too often, it's too easy to blame some other person or organisation when the person that needs to stop, reassess and then take action is yourself.

To end, here is our top ten list of recommended self-help publications, people and organisations. They have been selected by the Trust's Deputy Chair, Helen Whitten, CE of Positiveworks, who is responsible for all our self-help initiatives.

In 1990, when Good Housekeeping commissioned Shirley Conran to write an article on personal work-life balance, she drew up a short list of the best life coaches in Britain: then she paid the person at the top of that list - Helen Whitten - to assess and improve Ms Conran. Then Shirley lured her into the Trust where she had responsibility for all our self-help programmes and tools, such as publications and CD's, many of which were written by her.

Here is her carefully selected suggested list of reading and resources on Work-Life Balance, including those she wrote for the Trust.
  • Carrington, Diane: The Launch - Managing the transition from education to the workplace, Network Education Press, 2005
  • CiPD: Getting the Work-Life Balance: Managing Family Friendly Policies
  • Clutterbuck, David: Managing the Work-Life Balance
  • Fletcher, Winston: Beating the 24/7: How Business Leaders Achieve a Successful Work-Life Balance
  • Glynn, Caroline: Work-Life Balance: The Role of the Manager, Roffey Park Institute 2002
  • Holden, Robert: Happiness Now, Hodder & Stoughton, 1998
  • IIP: Managing the Work-Life Balance: Helping Organisations Support Work-Life Policies
  • Industrial Society/Work Foundation: The Work-Life Manual
  • Provost, Judith A., Work, Play and Type: Achieving Balance in your Life, Oxford Psychologists Press
  • Smedley, Keren: Age Matters: Managing and Motivating the Older Workforce, Gower 2006
  • Whitten, Helen: Your Mind at Work, Kogan Page, 2000

CDs:
  • Whitten, Helen: Help Yourself to a Better Life: 7 Steps to Work+Life Balance, Positiveworks, 2002
  • Whitten, Helen: How to Survive Life Positively, Positiveworks 2001
  • Carrington, Diane: Launching Yourself, Guide for Young People, Positiveworks 2003

Useful Websites:


HELP AT YOUR WORKPLACE

The work of the Work-Life Balance Trust has helped to put the work-life balance issue on the agenda of government and organisations. However, individuals within organisations are still having major problems with actually putting policies into practice in terms of everyday behaviours. There is resentment between those who have children and those who don't; senior managers still feel they can't really take that much flexible time because of demonstrating their commitment, people in general have so much workload that it is difficult to leave early; people are having to deal with being a 'sandwich' between generations; older workers are getting tired with the long-hours culture but don't have pensions so need to continue to work but would benefit from flexible working.

So, there is still work to be done to ensure the implementation of the cultural, behavioural and attitudinal changes necessary to fully integrate policy into practice. The work of the Trust will continue to be developed by Advisory Committee members who are specialists in the field supporting individuals, managers and organisations to make work-life-balance a natural part of everyday life. These are:

Useful Organisations

Positiveworks Limited
Coaching and training of behaviours required to implement work-life balance policies.
Tel: 020 7823 8771

AgeTalks Limited
Specialising in consultancy on work-life issues relating to the older workforce.
Tel: 020 8347 6260

Flexecutive Limited
Specialising in policies and practices on flexible working.
Tel: 020 7636 6744


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PRESIDENT:  Shirley Conran OBE
TRUSTEES: Lindsay Cook   Janet Fitch   Sandra Hepburn
PATRONS: Gillian Ayres OBE    The Baroness Brigstocke CBE    Professor Petruska Clarkson    Elaine Clifton
Professor Nigel Coates    Jasper Conran    Sebastian Conran    Dr Dennis Friedman    Kathy Gilgunn    Richard E Grant
Felicity Green Hill    Lady Irvine    Lynda La Plante    Prue Leith OBE    Nonie Niesewand    Sian Phillips
Mary Quant OBE    Maureen Rice    Professor Andrew Samuels    Professor Jane Somerville    Christopher Ward
Michael Wolff    Peter York   Jennifer d'Abo    Girton College    St. Paul's Girls' School    William Morris Academy
W-LB Trust Charity Commission Registration No. 1088149

'Work-Life Balance Week is organised and run by W-LB Limited (Company No. 4154218) with the assistance of a media-based Advisory Committee. For projects which are charitable, the company receives financial and other assistance from Work-Life Balance Trust, registered charity no. 1088149'

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