• last year
The Indian-American World Bank head was once asked about work-life balance. Here's what he had to say.
Transcript
00:00This stupid habit of having a Blackberry and an iPhone
00:03in your hand all the time, honestly,
00:06you're not spending time with the people you're with,
00:07and the instrument isn't your work-life balance.
00:09One big topic at the GSB is work-life balance,
00:15and you obviously have a very busy career,
00:17a very global career.
00:19Why do you guys have a topic at the GSB?
00:20You've got a problem with work-life balance here?
00:23We're just really worried about it in the future.
00:24I want your work-life balance.
00:30Oh, this is for the future?
00:31For the future, for the future.
00:33You're already planning for your work-life balance.
00:36We're trying to protect what we have right now.
00:37I got it, I got it.
00:38And so, how do you think about balancing
00:41those two things in your own life?
00:45Work-life balance is a very personal thing.
00:48You know, there are guys who work 12 hours, 18 hours a day
00:51and think that they've got balance.
00:53There are others who work six hours a day
00:54and they think they've got balance.
00:56So, I don't know how you define it for yourself,
00:59but for me, work-life balance requires,
01:03I guess, a couple of things to happen.
01:05One is you've got to enjoy what you're doing.
01:07You really have to.
01:08It's really, really critical.
01:11And if you don't enjoy what you're doing,
01:12it's time to do something different,
01:13and that's part of the reasons
01:15why I've changed what I did over the years.
01:17Because if you're gonna work as hard as we work,
01:19and I travel probably two-thirds of the time,
01:24and if you're not gonna enjoy
01:25what you're doing when you travel,
01:26why the hell are you doing it?
01:28And so, work-life balance starts
01:31with enjoying what you do really well.
01:35At the same time, you've got to have time for yourself
01:38and the people who matter to you.
01:39I mean, by that I mean, you know,
01:41not just helping Aditi move into a dorm room in Harvard,
01:44which, by the way, was up four bloody flights of stairs
01:47with no elevator, with a room partner
01:49who had a stupid shipping trunk
01:51that was bigger than my car
01:53that had to be carried up the stairs.
01:54And I used to call that the two Advil evenings, right?
01:57You kind of had them, and then you had two Advils
01:59so you could wake up in the morning
02:00without a broken back.
02:01But you've got to provide time for that.
02:04You've got to provide time for their play
02:08with their acting in it on the small part
02:10that's third tree from left,
02:11because it's important to them.
02:13And so, if you're not gonna be there when they need you,
02:17then you've got no balance.
02:19So, I was living in Hong Kong for a little while,
02:22running Citigroup in Asia,
02:23and I used to fly back from Hong Kong for one evening
02:28to be able to spend the time that was required
02:30if one of them or Ritu were doing something
02:33that was important to us as a family.
02:34So, I guess you've got to enjoy what you're doing,
02:36but you've also got to take out the time
02:38for the people who matter to you.
02:39And when you're with somebody,
02:41spend the time with the person.
02:43This stupid habit of having a Blackberry and an iPhone
02:46in your hand all the time,
02:47honestly, you're not spending time
02:49with the people you're with.
02:50You're spending time with the instrument.
02:52And the instrument isn't your work-life balance.
02:55It's actually in some ways an invasion
02:57on your work-life balance.
02:59It's useful, don't get me wrong.
03:00I use the darn thing all the time,
03:02but it's an invasion if you're not careful.
03:04So, finding the right space that says,
03:07when I'm with you, I'm focused on you,
03:09you matter to me, and I'm gonna spend time with you
03:11as compared to I'm doing that, but also doing this,
03:14looking at my email, doing phone calls,
03:16taking out paper, working on the weekends.
03:18You've got to figure out how to find that balance.
03:22That's what work-life balance is.
03:23The rest all kind of works out.