I just came back from a HR SUMMIT in Hong Kong where i was one of the speakers and i was surprised that the issue of Work-Life balance was never mentioned. From all recent research among managers (particularly women) work-life balance is one of their major goals yet among HR managers at this coference it did not seem to rate a mention. Why is this so?

Perhaps the answer lies in these difficult times that simply having and keeping your job is the first and only priority. With retrenchments and down-sizing leaders are trying to reduce their cost base so that an astute manager will not want to raise an issue when simply having a job is a bonus.

The emphasis at the conference seemed to be on the measures that leaders go do to retain their all their staff, reduce their cost base and keep retrenchments at a minimum e.g. for example one company has asked every one of their leaders to take a 5% permanent cut in remuneration, another has offered a 12 month sabbatical for any employeee without pay.

But is this enough? It reminds me of the climate change debate, many initiatives have been put on hold because of the current financial crisis but shouldn’t we expect more from our business leaders. Why can’t we expect that work hard to maintain employment that offers some form of work-life balance. If you are an employee why would you expect anything less?

So lets no let our leaders (particularly in HR) off the hook. They keep telling anyone that will listen that people are our best asset yet what they are really saying is people are our best asset when it suits us and for most leaders, today it does not suit them at all.

Ken Hudson