Publications

June 2001 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Tradeoffs: Juggling Careers in Professional Services Firms with Private Life

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda, Scot Landry and Scott M O'Neil

Balancing professional and private lives continues to challenge single and committed partners alike. Professionals are expected to work long hours. It is simply part of the ethos of professional service firms. This case focuses on the lives of three couples connected... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Problems and Challenges; Service Industry

04 Oct 2024
In Practice

Research-Based Advice for the Seasonally Overwhelmed and Schedule Challenged

aside time to focus that can help restore work-life balance. Joseph Fuller: Make time for ‘deep work’ at the office and home People have struggled to balance the demands of work and their personal lives... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

09 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Uncompromising Leadership in Tough Times

This prevents cronyism, the enemy of high performance. To do this they recognize they have to maintain some social distance. But they also know they have to build a tight team. So they manage this paradox. The question of work-life View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

May 17, 2023
Article

Don't Let Passion Lead to Burnout on Your Team

By: Joy Bredehorst, Kai Krautter, Jirs Meuris and Jon M. Jachimowicz

Passion is often heralded as the key to a fulfilling and successful career, but the authors’ recent research suggests that it can also come at a cost: Feeling passionate about work can lead to exhaustion and even burnout. Through studies with more than 700 employees... View Details

Keywords: Burnout; Emotions; Work-Life Balance; Employees

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May 2002 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Tim Blanchard at Jones Mendel & Co.

By: John J. Gabarro

Tim Blanchard struggles to balance all the demands facing him as a partner of a consulting firm. He must decide how to serve clients, mentor his people, provide strategy and direction to the high-tech group, and spend time with family. A rewritten version of an earlier... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Managerial Roles; Work-Life Balance; Consulting Industry

June 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Tim Blanchard at Jones Mendel & Co. (Abridged)

By: Jay W. Lorsch and John Gabarro

Tim Blanchard struggles to balance all the demands facing him as a partner of a consulting firm. He must decide how to serve clients, mentor his people, provide strategy and direction to the high-tech group, and spend time with family. View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Management Style; Partners and Partnerships; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Consulting Industry

07 Apr 2022
HBS Seminar

Hummy Song, Wharton

November 2008
Case

Eden McCallum

By: Heidi K. Gardner and Robert G. Eccles

This case illustrates the leadership and management challenges of starting a new firm based on a new business model and how success creates pressures that challenge the work/life balance which was one of the original goals of its two founders. The case also raises... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Work-Life Balance

October 2010
Case

Cherie Blair: Inventing Herself

By: Boris Groysberg, Robin Abrahams and Lindsay Tanne

Cherie Blair was famous, or infamous, in the United Kingdom as first lady from 1997 to 2007. Her marriage to Tony Blair, however, was the result of her own groundbreaking career in law--a career she fought to keep during the 10 years of her husband's tenure as Prime... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Success; Lawsuits and Litigation; Government Administration; United Kingdom

Article

Where Did the Commute Time Go?

By: Andrew Kun, Raffaella Sadun, Orit Shaer and Thomaz Teodorovicz

The COVID pandemic forced most workers to stop their daily commute to and from work. So what have they done with that “extra” time? It depends. Independent employees with no managerial responsibility have largely been able to spend more time on personal pursuits, but... View Details

Keywords: Telecommuting; Time Management; Work-Life Balance

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March–April 2020
Article

What's Really Holding Women Back? It's Not What Most People Think

By: R. Ely and Irene Padavic

Ask people to explain why women remain so dramatically underrepresented in the senior ranks of most companies, and you will hear from the vast majority a lament that goes something like this: High-level jobs require extremely long hours, women's devotion to family... View Details

Keywords: Overwork; Employment; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Culture

September 1989
Case

Steve Shirley

By: Shoshana Zuboff

Traces the career development of a well-known British entrepreneur who, as a young girl, was forced to flee the Nazi's occupation of Central Europe. Details her early work experiences in the heavily male dominated workplace of post-war Britain and follows the... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Entrepreneurship; Gender; Great Britain

November 2003 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Union Corrugating Company (B)

By: Paul W. Marshall and Julia Stevens

Lauri Union, president of Union Corrugating Co., has successfully transformed her family's corrugated steel roofing and siding manufacturer into a successful enterprise. Reviews how Union turned the struggling company around and also considers the management structure... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Competition; Work-Life Balance; Success; Change Management; Management Systems; Construction Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Steel Industry; Boston; North Carolina

April 2007
Case

Alan Kendricks at Cardiology Associates

By: Boris Groysberg, Colleen Kaftan and Wilfred S. McCalla, Jr.

Alan Kendricks struggles to address many challenges facing him as a recently promoted medical director for Cardiology Associates at Southeastern Pennsylvania University Hospital. He must balance his time taking care of patients, running a practice, managing up, down,... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Business or Company Management; Strategy; Organizational Culture; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Structure; Change Management; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Pennsylvania

March 2006 (Revised June 2006)
Case

The Speedway That Won't Slow Down

Dick Berggren, well-known FOXTV announcer for NASCAR races and executive editor of Speedway Illustrated magazine, considers how to grow the business he founded and balance his time, energy, and commitments to his wife. Explores the explosive growth of media businesses... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Business Plan; Media; Sports; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

20 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Fame, Faith, and Social Activism: Business Lessons from Bono

1980s, the band members' journey to sustain and enhance their identity in the next two decades, and the ongoing commitment to balancing their music careers, fame, personal lives, and—in the case of three of the musicians, their Christian... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

2023
Chapter

Manage Your Work, Manage Your Life

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

Work/life balance is at best an elusive ideal and at worst a complete myth, today's senior executives will tell you. But by making deliberate choices about which opportunities they'll pursue and which they'll decline, rather than simply reacting to emergencies, leaders... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Management Teams