https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/28/walmart-exec-never-believed-in-work-life-balancethe-mantra-she-uses-instead.html#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17568261572476&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2025%2F08%2F28%2Fwalmart-exec-never-believed-in-work-life-balancethe-mantra-she-uses-instead.html

Work-life balance looks different for different people.

For some, the term can mean not working nights, weekends and holidays. Others may look at it as no text messages and emails about work after 5 p.m., prioritizing self-care in the evening instead. While this divide may give you a sense of happiness and fulfillment, it isn't always realistic, says Walmart executive vice president and chief people officer Donna Morris.

"I've never believed in the term work-life balance," says Morris, who oversees the experience of over 2.1 million employees. "I call it work-life integration. There are times that your life requires a lot more, and there are times that your work requires a lot more. … I don't think that's a bad thing."

When Morris is visiting family, for example, her main focus is on them. But if there's something at work that needs her attention, she won't wait until she's back in the office to do so. Work-life integration helps her stay on top of her work duties while still showing up for herself and the people she loves, she says.

"You might be [at your kid's] soccer game, but you happen to look at a few emails," Morris says. Maybe you're chatting with your boss via text while waiting for an appointment, or tying up a few loose ends at work before you put the kids to bed. That doesn't necessarily mean you're a workaholic who lacks boundaries — rather, you find ways to combine your personal and professional duties that work for you, instead of being strict and inflexible with your time.

Morris' insight comes as young professionals are demanding more out of work, shaping new professional norms like relaxed dress codes and mental health days. Along with an inadequate salary and burnout, lack of work-life balance is one of the top reasons why Gen Zers would quit a job, according to a 2022 report from Talent LMS, a workplace training company, which surveyed over 1,200 respondents between ages 19 and 25.

The pursuit of work-life balance can also cause mental distress, Jeff Karp, a professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard Medical School and MIT, told CNBC Make It in September 2024.

"We hear these things from others, [like] trust in the process [and] balance is so important, we need more balance, it's the ultimate goal," Karp said. "It ends up being very frustrating and can lead to anxiety, because we're constantly feeling like we're not in balance. There's a state we should be in [and] we're never in that state."

Of course, sometimes you may actually need a complete reset, shutting off your laptop for a few days and turning your work phone off. But if your boss doesn't use their vacation time, or is constantly reaching out during your time off, unplugging can feel impossible.

That's why it's up to leaders to set the tone for boundaries in the office and what good work-life integration may look like.

"If I never take a holiday, the tone that I set for everybody is, don't take a holiday — you can't do that. And I don't think that that's right," says Morris. "As leaders, we have a responsibility to role model what we expect of others."

"At the end of August, I'm going away [on vacation]," she adds. "And my team will all know, [so] when they're able to actually go off and do something, they should go off the grid and do it."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49230678)

both are bad.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233164)

Much sadder that there are millions of people with the same attitude who will max out at lower middle management, receiving zero benefit for living a shitty life.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49232954)

These people need to be thrown into wood-chippers feet first.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49232969)

but i'd also say they still could have got where they were if they put in 80% of the effort, rather than halfassing it.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233158)

https://ibb.co/2GCzFXS

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233020)

Great stuff, really love the GOPe, the Party of Values folks

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233089)

You are saying for men they shldnt care abt a career? LJL at how MAGAshits have become such lazy nigga like faggots. JFC, who takes care of men if they dont work hard u dumb shit? Can u print money out of Jew tree and live off welfare u stupid snownigga?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233030)

The EU is completely right on this and many other aspects of life that have come about from being forced to look at the dark corners of human experience and what really matters in life by the trials and tribulations of the Great Wars and their attendant industrialized slaughters

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233054)

We can have safety nets and national welfare measures or we can have Babylonian race to the bottom multiculturalism but it's becoming pretty clear that we can't have both

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233065)

I had a pretty long late night thread discussing mostly successful attempts from the GDR to supplement flagging birthrates through state supplementation and the data shows that if the programs are implemented well and consistently you get decent and eugenic enough results

Most Westerners not completely drunk on Randian sociopathy would probably gladly pay a little more in tax to see cleaner cities, less homeless, and more shared heritage people having kids in their polities. Americans in particular resent their tax bills because so much of it goes to extravagantly wasteful dumpster fires in the inner cities and nonsensical life support programs for dying polities

Also I'm not advocating for a socialist welfare state itt just EU style benefits and programs (and contrary to what most Americans think due to FOX news, these are still distinctly capitalist countries that produce merit based outcomes)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233173)

Having a job is understandable. But the super-striver careerist woman is delusional, likely delaying kids until it's too late or having kids and being completely miserable for two decades. It's pathological, but that's the lie sold to them.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233050)

I also think that if a single woman wants to pursue a career as opposed to a traditional family and thinks she can handle it with evidence of such that it's completely fine. It's when these types are actually cracking inside though and trying to pull other women into that mess with them, probably for some hope of finding salvation through others, that it starts getting disgusting

Third wave feminism was a drunken mistake that has whored out entire generations wholesale to the deprivations of an impassive and uncaring market and expected them in return to not only valorize their sufferings but collectively press on in hopes of outrunning the inevitable

re your 2nd paragraph: Some women are different and throughout Western history we have examples of these odd birds succeeding bigly and eschewing family formation and these ladies are heroes unto themselves and a different walk of life but like the priesthood or a nunnery this manner of existence is a calling, not something that can be healthily replicated by praxis and technique, and it's just cruel to expect it to be the standard for things

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233064)

Lmao don’t you know vacations are bad for your mental health!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49233179)

Easy to say when your “work” consists of sending meaningless emails about scheduling & other bullshit

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5768916&forum_id=2).#49235621)