“We’re all working multiple jobs. We’re all so tired, we’re barely able to keep up with our kids. We barely know our neighbors. Everybody is so stretched thin because our values have shifted away from what really matters.”
― Jessica Marie Baumgartner, Author
Has it Become a Myth?
In a recent issue of Entrepreneur magazine, insurance industry CEO Dustin Lemick exposed the so-called work-life balance for exactly what it is: a myth. VIM Executive Coaching frequently sees executive leaders who are stressed-out and burned-out to such a degree that work place triumphs turn into “so what’s,” and personal lives become treadmills that lose all “life itself.”
Unfortunately, as Ms. Baumgartner suggests, we have “shifted away from what really matters.” She could not be more correct. Executive leaders have put themselves in a pressure cooker. Executive leaders, often running in place, are trying to be everything to everybody in an attempt to be balanced. As a result, they stretch themselves so thin they are ineffective in neither personal nor business settings, they live with stress.
In a June 6, 2025 LinkedIn article on the executive sleep crisis, it was noted:
“In the relentless pursuit of success, many executives sacrifice sleep, believing that burning the midnight oil is a testament to dedication. However, this chronic sleep deprivation doesn't just lead to fatigue—it fundamentally impairs cognitive functions critical for effective leadership.”
In a practical sense of work-life futility, many executive leaders have reported to us that on weekends, they frequently spend hours with their families (family fun time), then tuck their kids into bed, then work until past midnight trying to catch up with what they have presumably missed while at play. They might get a few restless hours of sleep, then shudder as alarms go off and summon them to work.
Where did it begin?
It is terribly easy to blame the change of balance on the COVID pandemic and lockdowns, cultural shifts or country. Our management guru commentators portray American executive leaders as fun-loving, having-it-all leaders. The numbers do not bear such arrogance.
Indeed, of those leaders who get 6 hours or less of sleep each night, the U.S. executive leaders get the least sleep at 18% of the work force, even less than Canada or Japan or the U.K. Last year, U.S. executive leaders who got less than 6 hours, lost more than 528,000 days to illness, and among corporate executives, the U.S. led all countries polled at more than a whopping 1.2 million days lost.
Sleep deprivation as the medical community knows, results in poor decision making, irritability, depression and sickness. In other words, American executive leaders don’t have it all; not hardly. They grin and bear it.
What now?
There is a great deal of data that leans away from separation, and much more toward amalgamation. This is definitely not to say executive leaders must be willing to “talk business” during a wedding or graduation party, but to be mindful as to prioritization, blending and understanding that like breathing, to cultivate awareness of what is, and is not important; what is useful, what carries weight and what is not pertinent.
What has happened to the so-called work-life balance is that many individuals don’t know how to separate. It doesn’t make them bad people, only stressed and anxious people who are ineffective at work and play.
Our programs at VIM business coaching are designed to restore balance and to bring greater awareness and calm.
Questions: If you could learn to better relax and to bring greater equilibrium into your life, would you take that path?
What do you see as the greatest hindrance to creating more balance in your life?