The life of a working parent has always been relentlessly demanding, but during the Covid-19 pandemic it has morphed into a rigged game of whack-a-mole. Attending to a child’s education means neglecting a meeting. Focusing on a work assignment means leaving children to their own mischievous devices—or, in the […]
Now more than ever, “employers should arm managers to support their employees,” says professor Shelley Correll. For the first time in modern history, three of our major social institutions — work, school, and family life — are all happening in one physical place: our homes. And that […]
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What do we really need about work-life: a balance, more effectiveness at work or a better blend of work and life? Do we just need to invest more into life and not work? Or since some are afraid of loosing their job or the next raise, we should just invest more in our work, taking the spiral back to an imbalance with life?
The conversation is on and getting hotter. Thanks to a pandemic that made almost everyone to invest more into life and family – by working from home. Though with excess time capacity, we could not do much of fun stuffs the way we do traditionally. The last few months have also transformed where, when and how we work, breaking down the tenuous barriers that separated our personal and professional lives. In addition to this […]
In today’s digital age, where connectivity is 24/7, it can be challenging to disconnect from work. In today’s digital age, where connectivity is 24/7, it can be challenging to disconnect from work. Many of us actively choose not to. Is that a bad thing? The adage of work-life balance—the […]
Jack Welch, who led G.E. through decades of prosperity, is dead at 84. He died on Sunday 1st March, 2020 in New York City.
How did he, described hisFunWorkLife?
Personae Description: Combative and blunt.
Personnel Management: Someone who dislike bureaucracy, made sweeping payroll cuts by slashing G.E. work force. Earning himself the nickname “Neutron Jack,” in the process.
Talent Development: He created intrapreneurs within G.E., and other companies repeatedly recruited talent from there.
Accolades: In 2000, The Financial Times named G.E. “the World’s Most Respected Company” for the third straight year. That was a period, when Mr. Welch was managing the company. And Fortune magazine named him, the “Manager of the Century,” in 1999.
Curtain Fall, Window View Thought: If the widely diversified corporation that Mr. Welch built for about four decades (from 1960 when he joined, to 2001 when he stepped down as Chairman and CEO), is now out of favour in year 2020; why the fight in the trenches of life, especially corporate or political life?
What Mr. Welch gave to hisFunWorkLife, was it, =, >, or <, what he gave to hisWork, what he gave to hisFun, or what he gave to hisLife?
Life Map
Fifty Percent of Life at Work (in G.E.) + Fifty Percent of Life Outside of Work = Total Existence
“There’s no such thing as work-life balance“
But that will be throwing out his post G.E. Work-life. This includes productive work, and income generating activities such as the two business books that he co-wrote with his wife, Suzy Welch, “Winning,” published in 2005, and “The Real Life MBA,” published in 2015. Or that he now has an MBA program running at his Jack Welch Management Institute. And that he kept making money from other ventures till he stepped out of life.
Seventy Percent of Life at Work + Thirty Percent of Life Outside of Work = Total Existence
It therefore seems like the most important part of Mr. Welch’s life was about G.E. And Mr. Welch ‘succeeded’ during his time at G.E., so did G.E. defined him? Should whatever G.E. has become now, also define him? Should his life before G.E. or after G.E. define him?
New York Times business columnist James Stewart wrote in 2017, “Hardly anyone considers Mr. Welch a management role model anymore, and the conglomerate model he championed at G.E.- has been thoroughly discredited, at least in the United States.”
But as Mr. John A. Byrne wrote in “Jack: Straight from the Gut,” Jack Welch “…was the right person for the (his) time,”
A story can be written in different ways, to show whichever side we prefer to look from.
Jack Welch – It’s Not Where You Start From
Jack was an only child to a railroad conductor father and a homemaker mum. Neither of his parents had graduated from high school, but he earned a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D.
He inherited a strong company, with $1.5 billion in profits, but took it higher. He led G.E. to a record fivefold jump in revenue and got the company’s stock market shares valuation to soar from $14 billion to more than $410 billion. And for all his hard work, love him or hate him, he went home with a record severance payment of $417 million when he retired in 2001. Got married thrice and surely had kids.
hisFunWorkLife, hisWork, hisFun or hisLife?