By — Margaret Sessa-Hawkins Margaret Sessa-Hawkins Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/twitter-chat-achieve-ideal-worklife-balance Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Twitter Chat: How do we achieve the ideal work-life balance? Nation Jul 8, 2015 10:20 PM EDT In June, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released a survey on work-life balance in advanced nations. The results? The United States ranked 29th out of the 36 countries polled. Despite U.S. residents saying that work-life balance was very important to them (it ranked fourth out of eleven priorities) they were not able to prioritize it. While the U.S. ranks very high in on scales measuring income and wealth they spent an average of only 14 hours a day on themselves, and that was including sleep. So why are Americans so bad at establishing a work-life balance? Is this a recent development, a product of social media and the “lean in” culture? Can we establish a better work-life balance in America? Should we? To address these questions and more, PBS NewsHour held a twitter chat with Brigid Schulte (@BrigidSchulte), author of “Overwhlemed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time, as well as Liana Sayer (@LCHSayer) of the University of Maryland, who studies how people use their time. Additionally, many of the PBS NewsHour staff who took part in the great work-life balance experiment participated. Here are some of the highlights of that conversation: [View the story “New Story” on Storify] By — Margaret Sessa-Hawkins Margaret Sessa-Hawkins
In June, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released a survey on work-life balance in advanced nations. The results? The United States ranked 29th out of the 36 countries polled. Despite U.S. residents saying that work-life balance was very important to them (it ranked fourth out of eleven priorities) they were not able to prioritize it. While the U.S. ranks very high in on scales measuring income and wealth they spent an average of only 14 hours a day on themselves, and that was including sleep. So why are Americans so bad at establishing a work-life balance? Is this a recent development, a product of social media and the “lean in” culture? Can we establish a better work-life balance in America? Should we? To address these questions and more, PBS NewsHour held a twitter chat with Brigid Schulte (@BrigidSchulte), author of “Overwhlemed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time, as well as Liana Sayer (@LCHSayer) of the University of Maryland, who studies how people use their time. Additionally, many of the PBS NewsHour staff who took part in the great work-life balance experiment participated. Here are some of the highlights of that conversation: [View the story “New Story” on Storify]