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Experience with work life balance tips

A few years ago, I attended a PMP (project management professionals) conference. One of the speakers was an entrepreneur and his presentation focused on work-life balance. He had a powerful presentation that culminated in him saying that “there is no such thing as work-life balance because those that are passionate about their jobs will want to do them around the clock”. That is a great statement and idea, but can we truly say that we all are passionate about our jobs to the degree that this is all we want to do? I don’t think so. In my opinion, a lot of people see their jobs as means to an end, to support their family and to make a living so they can focus on their true passion whatever that may be (some may still feel their jobs are all they ever wanted from life, but I cannot believe that is the majority).
With that in mind, I think work-life balance policies are important and may save businesses money in the long-run. Let’s suppose that we have a policy that allows employees to work from home 1 day a week. Employees will likely appreciate the break from the office and the business might same money on electricity costs (as one example). In addition, happier employees tend to perform better and are less likely to experience burnout, which can cost companies a lot of money (employee taking a leave of absence due to burnout is not an ideal situation).
All companies care about their image, especially now when employees leave their reviews and perceptions online for prospective applicants to see (Glassdoor), having work-life policies where employees feel valued, supported and trusted means a great deal. I think having these policies will also increase loyalty among staff and they will be less likely to leave.
My experience with flex-time is interesting and that is mostly because I am one of the people that tends to work at all hours of the day until I cannot. The jobs I have had in the past required this commitment. As an example, my prior job was taken up by a total of 3 people when I left. Implementing any policies around work-life balance would have been moot although I did have flexible schedule in that I came in at 4am sometimes, left at 2pm and came back at 5pm to work until 11pm. Before I had officially left, HR department found out that I have done tons of overtime and paid me for 3 full months extra. That was appreciated although, had there been policies in place I would likely still be working there.  
At my current place of work, we do have work-life balance policies in place on the University level, but the Institute decides on how these are implemented. As a result, these policies morphed into something different:
1)      Typically, at University level, all employees can leave at 4:30pm and take half an hour lunch instead of one hour. Or they can choose to come in at 7am and leave earlier as a result. Proper flexible time schedule. Our institute is different, our supervisor said that we all need to agree on the exact same flexible summer schedule or nothing will be implemented. That defeats the purpose of flex time. 
2)      Working from home only applies to managerial/professional staff which, I think, creates a huge divide among staff members. They feel “less than” and as a result many take a whole lot of sick days or “cannot make it to work because of weather” (and there is no snow just a bit of rain). It really is not optimal.
3)      One of our older employees asked to leave 30 mins early during winter (while taking shorter lunch) so she can get home before the dark (driving in the dark was difficult for her). Since she was a clerical employee the request was not immediately approved. Instead, her supervisor called HR and asked that she submit an official form so that it is on her record. She felt that to be an attack and a way for her to eventually pushed out because she is too old, so she ended up taking is as vacation hours.
Not a great approach to making employees happy. Our productivity is low, people tend to count minutes before they can go home and find ways to game the system.

References:
Asuresoftware (2017). How Work-Life Balance Can Benefit Your Organization. Retrieved from https://www.asuresoftware.com/blog/how-work-life-balance-benefits-your-organization/
HR.com (2002). Managing Today’s Diverse and Dispersed Workforce—Integrated Technology can help you meet the challenge. Retrieved from: http://www.hr.com/SITEFORUM?&t=/Default/gateway&i=1116423256281&application=story&active=no&ParentID=1119278117389&StoryID=1119649134156&xref=https%3A//www.google.com/
HR Daily Advisor (2016). How to Improve Work/Life Balance for Employees. Retrieved from: http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2016/02/10/how-to-improve-worklife-balance-for-employees/
Yadav, T. (2015). Work life balance: challenges and opportunities. International Journal of Applied Research, 1(11), 680-684.
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