When considering ways to make your work life and personal life more compatible, Barbara Roberts suggests thinking in terms of the word “fit” and not necessarily “balance.”
“Balance,” she said, “can suggest that work and personal lives should be in perfect symmetrical alignment, which they rarely are.”
Roberts would know. Since 2015, she has served as executive director of MSU’s WorkLife Office, a unit dedicated to helping MSU employees make their various lives “fit.”
“We look more at how you fit together the elements of work and personal life,” she said. “Sometimes you have to put more time into work, and other times you have to put more time into family. It’s a matter of how do you fit all your pieces together.”
Under the direction of Provost June Pierce Youatt, the WLO’s mission is to partner “with the community to create an inclusive, responsive work environment where all faculty and staff are respected and supported toward well-being in [their] work and personal lives.”
“We help people find the resources they need to fit their work and personal lives together,” Roberts said. “I like to think of it as work being complementary and not in competition with life.”
The resources people need are many and varied. They can include connecting with MSU and local community resources to find child and elder care, the development of a flex working plan, finding commuting support and even finding pet sitters.
Helping MSU employees navigate transitions is a big part of what the office does. This is especially true for new faculty members, many of whom are new to the United States.
“Many new faculty are coming from countries that have socialized medicine or subsidized child care,” Roberts said. “It can be jarring.”
One way the WLO is helping faculty in this way is through a partnership with the MSU Alumni Association that matches the faculty member with a local alumni family. “The newcomer can have a local family to ask all those questions they don’t want to bother people at work with,” Roberts said.
But by far, the most common issue is the shortage of child care. Because either both parents are working or a single parent is in the workforce, the demand for child care is higher than ever.
“It’s said that it costs more to raise an infant to school than it does to send a student to college, and it’s mainly due to child care costs,” Roberts said. “Parents often ask themselves, ‘Is going to work worth the expense of daycare?’”
In its nearly three years on campus, the WorkLife Office has helped hundreds of Spartans. Since July 1, WLO has helped more than 330 individuals, including 196 staff, more than 100 faculty members and 41 community members.
Last month, the WLO hosted the Fatherhood Forum, a gathering that brought together dads from all areas of life, all of whom are determined to be the best they can be. It also offers workshops on breastfeeding, which are designed to give pregnant women and their partners information on preparing to breastfeed and strategies for continuing to breastfeed after returning to work.
University-wide breastfeeding guidelines were recently approved. And just last year, MSU received a Michigan Breastfeeding-Friendly Workplace Award from the Michigan Breastfeeding Network.
In these challenging times, Roberts said the offerings of the WLO are needed more than ever. “People need help finding resources and managing their energy and time,” she said. “Since everyone works more continuously these days, it’s more important than ever to find the fit between work and personal lives.”
In addition to Roberts, the WLO staff include Jamie Hutchison, lifespan and family services coordinator; Lydia Weiss, educational program coordinator; Audrey Smith, office manager; Lori Strom, a part-time employee who consults with Age Alive initiatives; and Hudson Bennett, a student employee.
