Work-life balance lesson from Willie Wonka and Charlie

We ended our mini-vacation this week with a viewing of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (the Johnny Depp remake).

I’m easily entertained by movies, and quite noncritical of them, as long as they are relatively nonviolent — so I’m no film critic.

This one was quite enjoyable — and would have been even if I did not have the excuse of taking two of my three children (the 17-year old had already seen it — a “kids’” movie not too “uncool” for her and her teen pals).

The music and visuals were bright and fun, and the characters well-cast and played.

There was a point near the end of the movie at which I felt the director rather simplistically, but nonetheless effectively, evoked evolving contemporary attitudes towards work-life balance. My family members — who unlike me are not obsessed with employment-related issues — were unconvinced that this was an intended “moral of the story.”

You decide. Then I’ll give you some good links on work-life-balance issues.

In the movie, Willy Wonka offers Charlie the ideal job — ownership and live-in management of the Wonka Chocolate Factory. Innocently, Charlie asks if he can bring his family — Mom, Dad, and four elderly grandparents. When Wonka essentially responds “of course not,” Charlie promptly declines the offer.

Wonka is shocked and befuddled — like the old-line company man (woman) still might be today if an up-and-coming star employee turned down a wonderful promotion with a high 6-figure salary in order to spend more time with his or her family.

Making matters worse for Mr. Wonka, all the other candidates had self-destructed, revealing horrid character flaws during the pre-interview plant tour, cleverly designed as a screening device. So Charlie, with his desire for work-life balance, had some bargaining leverage.

Without totally spoiling the ending, let’s just say Wonka finally saw the light on work-life balance and made some personal changes in that area.

So pop culture now says: tis better to seek love and family and be poor than seek riches and be a miserable workaholic.

(A couple of other little labor and employment touches in the movie. Charlie’s grandpa was laid off from the chocolate factory when Wonka closed it, only to reopen it with cheap immigrant labor. His dad was laid off when his factory job — screwing lids on toothpaste tubes — was replaced with a machine.)

Now for a little Internet reading tour on work-life balance.

This week’s Blawg Review #19, at Patent Baristas, picked up our post “Bored out of a job?” and linked it to Patent Baristas’ own post “Discovering Your Work-Life Balance,” which in turn was inspired by a similarly-titled post at Feld Thoughts. Both have some nice practical tips; the latter is a “confessions of a workaholic” as well.

Next, look at a site I just discovered, BlueSuitMom.com (not a blog, but it puts out a newsletter and looks to be full of interesting content). Main tabs are: Family; Career; Money; Health; Food; Travel; Community; and Seminars. All mainly directed at working women, but we all can learn from it. Here’s the link to the “Career” tab subtopic “Finding Balance.”

Then, if you haven’t seen it already, take a look at JD Bliss: Balancing Life and the Law. As with the previous site, even readers not in the target audience (in this case lawyers) will find much of interest if they have an interest in work-life balance.

A little interesting science: “Extroverts Have Edge Balancing Work and Family.” A sampling:

Conscientiousness . . . was related to less conflict between work and family, presumably reflecting efficient time use and organizational skills . . .

“Conscientious individuals -— those who are efficient, organized, and thorough -— may be better able to successfully complete work tasks in less time so that they are less preoccupied with work while at home and vice versa” . . .

Those with the neurotic personality trait — think Woody Allen or Jerry Seinfeld’s characters -— experienced the greatest amount of work-family conflict . . . “If something goes wrong, they tend to exaggerate the negative” . . . “These are the people who regularly experience high levels of anxiety.”

The Center for Work and Family Balance puts out a newsletter, The Balancing Act. The latest edition examines “Phased Retirement: IRS Regulations Leave Hurdles to be Overcome” (.pdf)

Oh, yeah, did I mention this is a special post to curry favor with The Mommy Blawg, host of next week’s Blawg Review?

At “The Intersection of Mommyhood and the Law,” The Mommy Blawger would seem like someone with special interest and insight into work-life balance. Not to be sexist, though, as Daddies probably have at least equal trouble and need for help in this area.

One sign of the Mommy Blawger’s personal balance is her blog audience: “lawyers, who are my natural audience despite my occasional utter lack of legal content . . . blogging mommies, typically conservative Christian homeschoolers . . . . Don’t believe for a minute that the mind of a stay-at-home mom turns to mush; there is some amazing theological and philosophical blogging going on out there. Third are the birth junkies.”

Go get ‘em Mom: looking forward to seeing your Blawg Review!

(photo by Mr. Babyman via flickr)