Recently I was invited by Helen Farmer at Dubai Eye 103.8 to join a conversation on whether work–life balance has become an impossible dream. The segment looked at the pressure many workers are feeling today, from school hours and long workdays to the practical question of what employers and employees can realistically do to protect family time.
Flexibility is broader than most organisations think
One of the points I wanted to make clearly is that flexibility is still too often reduced to the wrong thing. It is not just about working from home. It is not even primarily about location. What people are really asking for is a way of working that is sustainable in real life.
That means flexibility in time, in rhythm, in workload, in predictability and in the degree of autonomy people have over how they organise their work. The notes I had prepared for the conversation framed this more precisely: flexibility today is about time, place, load and life stage, not simply about remote work.
Why flexibility has become a trust issue
This is where many organisations still miss the point.
They talk about flexibility as a policy, while employees experience it as a signal. A signal of trust, of respect and of whether the organisation is designed around reality or around control. When flexibility becomes a control mechanism instead of a coordination mechanism, trust erodes very quickly. And when employers continue to optimise for attendance while employees are trying to optimise for life, tension is inevitable.
That is why I still struggle with the phrase work–life balance. It suggests that work and life can somehow be neatly separated, when in reality they constantly overlap. The more useful question is whether work is organised in a way that is sustainable for real lives.
From a recruitment perspective, this matters even more than many leaders realise. Flexibility has moved from a perk to a credibility test. Candidates no longer just ask what the policy says. They try to understand whether the lived reality actually matches the promise.
What employees should do differently
One practical tip we discussed is this: if you want more flexibility in your current role, do not position it as a favour. Frame it as a way of working more sustainably. Be specific about what kind of flexibility you are asking for, explain how it supports performance, and link it to outcomes and coordination with your team. The more concrete and solution-focused the conversation, the easier it becomes to build trust.
That, in the end, is what this debate is really about. Not ideology or entitlement. But credibility, trust and whether organisations are willing to design work for the reality people actually live in.
You can listen back to the Dubai Eye interview here. (omny.fm).