This reminds me of all the casino properties I opened – each felt like a marathon. During the first, The Mirage, we were so filled with enthusiasm that working 12+ hour days seemed fun. Then one day we learned that a middle school child of a husband-and-wife management couple was falling seriously behind because neither of the parents were home enough to supervise his studies. The news hit us like a two-by-four – we were unbelievably oblivious to the impact our work was having on our employees’ families. Sitting here writing about it embarrasses me all over again. We mistakenly praised unchecked perseverance… and it happens in many companies, big and small. That incident kicked our appreciation for work-life balance into overdrive: we set up study halls so parents could be with their children and children could see their parents at work and gain an appreciation of what they did. And it taught us the value of pacing the demands we placed on managers and being more open to creative scheduling. Today there are software programs that allow employees to swap shifts if needed, a great policy improvement that benefits everyone. Don’t get so caught up in your work that you lose sight of the other important things in your life. Think of work not as a long race but as many short races that can be more easily managed today.
Walter Elliot (1888 – 1958): A politician of Scotland's Unionist Party prominent in the interwar period.
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