How do you improve the main challenge of middle age: Work/Life balance?
The Answer: Move to London.
The cliché of the American who moves to London, in my mind, was the hard driving finance guy who moves here on his way up the ladder. On the ground I see a very different picture of the American family experiencing a far bar better balance.
Every 40-50 year old male I know is trying to balance his work life-- so he works hard enough, makes enough money and does enough things to satisfy his inner man -- with his family life -- so he can be a good father, have dinner with the kids and make his wife happy. And moving to London solves this?
I am not a morning person. I do not get up at 5:00, workout until 7:00 have breakfast with the kids so I can be at my desk by 8:00. I am also not the guy who is in his office at 7:00 in the morning so I can get a jump on the West Coast and try to catch up with Europe and Asia.
But living in London I can be that guy, without the sleep deprivation.
First of all, much of our work is still US focused, so our afternoons are much more meeting filled than our mornings. So we can get up, go to the gym, see the kiddies off to school and still get into the office 5 hours before our US counterparts.
However, the real surprise comes in the evening. Instead of staying at the office until 10 PM, when it’s closing time in the US, almost all the men in my unscientific study find they tell their teams in the US they will be offline for a couple hours, they leave the office at 5:30, even with a stop at the pub they’re home early enough for dinner with the family and nighttime activities. Then they get online at 10 for another hour and complete the day with the US.
The time difference affords me, and most of the families we've met a far better work-life balance than we could have ever found in the States.
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