Photo credit: Dr. Sorrenson
By Laurie Sorrenson, OD, FAAO
Oct. 1, 2026
I’ve never been very good at work-life balance.
For years, I thought I should feel guilty about that.
I love my family. I love traveling. I love exercising, learning Spanish and ASL, scuba diving, seeing my grandson, spending time with friends and doing plenty of things that have absolutely nothing to do with optometry.
But I also really like all the things considered “work”… most of the time, anyway.
I think about the practice when I’m not at the practice. I talk about optometry with my husband and son. I get ideas for articles while I’m on vacation. I have friends who are optometrists. I travel with optometrists. I answer texts, phone calls and emails from optometrists every day. I go to meetings where I learn something about business or optometry, and then I can’t wait to try it.
I recently researched “work-life balance” for a talk I gave to young doctors accepted into the AOA Center for Independent Practice program. I learned a few things I wanted to share.
The Problem With the Word “Balance”
Photo credit: Getty Images/ROB
When I hear work-life balance, I picture a scale.
Work is on one side. Life is on the other.
If work gets too heavy, life suffers. Therefore, to improve life or be happier, we need less work.
Sometimes that is true. There are people working ridiculous hours in unhealthy environments who desperately need boundaries and time away (and a new job!) I also see people trying to figure out how to work less so that they can be happier. To note, one-third of retired people are not happy in retirement, so it isn’t just about working less.
Research suggests that what happens in one part of our life spills into the others. Psychologists call this spillover. Sometimes spillover is negative. A terrible day at the office can follow us home.
But positive experiences spill over too!
A Good Day at Work Can Follow You Home
One study I really liked was published in the Academy of Management Journal.
Researchers Remus Ilies, Kelly Wilson and David Wagner followed employees over time and looked at their daily job satisfaction and what happened when they went home.
They found that on days employees were more satisfied with their jobs, they also experienced more positive emotions at home and greater marital satisfaction.1,2
Think about that for a minute.
We spend so much time worrying about preventing work from spilling into home by “keeping work and home separate” that perhaps we have overlooked the possibility that making work better may make home better too.2
When I originally wrote this article, I listed about six other studies and their conclusions about how negative and positive experiences at work consistently spill over into people’s home lives. I decided it was too redundant and figured you could trust me or look it up yourselves!
After doing that research, my thoughts are that we don’t leave ourselves at the office. The person who walks through the front door at 6:30 is the same person who was at work at 4:30. (Unless you have had a procedure done like on the TV show “Severance;” that’s a weird show!)
Maybe Happiness at Work Is a Life Strategy
I have seen plenty of studies that show that happier employees are also more profitable for the business, and employee turnover is reduced.3
I would also say that if my employees are happier, I am happier too! Doesn’t drama and discord at the office sometimes wreck your life at work? And it spills over into how you feel at home? So doing what you can to improve your work environment but also your employees’ work environment, is important.
Imagine an employee who spends the day with people she likes. She has some autonomy. Her systems work. She feels competent. Patients appreciate her. Her coworkers help her. She laughs during the day. She accomplishes something meaningful and leaves feeling like she did a good job.
Is that employee more likely to be pleasant company that evening, or are they just getting through the day with no close friends at work? I’m pretty sure the happy employee is more likely to be their best self when they arrive home each day.
The Stress of Trying to Achieve the Perfect Balance
Another problem with our obsession with work-life balance is that it can become one more thing we aren’t doing well enough.
I’m supposed to be a great doctor.
A great business owner.
A great spouse.
A great parent and grandparent.
I should exercise.
Eat healthily.
Travel.
See my friends.
Sleep eight hours.
Read.
Volunteer.
And apparently, I am also supposed to maintain perfect balance among all of them.
Maybe constantly asking ourselves, “Is my life balanced enough?” isn’t the right question.
Maybe a better question might be: Do I like my life?
What Does This Mean for an Optometrist?
As owners, I think we sometimes approach employee well-being and our own well-being almost entirely through scheduling and pay.
How many hours are they working, or am I working? Are we closed Saturdays? Can they or I work from home? How much PTO do we offer? How much am I paying them? How much money am I making?
Those things matter. But maybe just as important is what those hours actually look like?
Can we:
- eliminate a tedious process that frustrates them (and me) 10 times every day?
- automate something we hate doing?
- help our employees become really good at something? Can I get better at something? Or learn something new?
- recognize employees when they do a great job?
- find ways to help staff and ourselves create better friendships, laugh and have a better social circle?
- give employees the authority to solve a patient’s problem without hunting down a manager? This gives them autonomy but also makes our life better!
Maybe one of the best things we can do for an employee’s “personal life” and our “personal life” is to give employees a better work life. Help make their job easier and more automated, provide more training and autonomy, and give them more opportunities to build friendships. Because when my staff is happier, I am happier.
Photo credit: Dr. Sorrenson
Stop Keeping Score
I really don’t believe life is supposed to be balanced every day. I am not sure it is supposed to be “balanced” every month or year! I know my life has never felt “in balance,” but I do know I have worked to do more of what I love and am good at, and less of what I don’t like or am not that good at.
Maybe that’s the goal. Instead of trying to divide our lives into perfectly proportioned boxes labeled WORK, FAMILY, FRIENDS, HEALTH and FUN, maybe we should concentrate on improving the quality of all of them.
Maybe the goal is simply to build a life, with work included, that you actually enjoy living. At least most of the time!
References
- Ilies R, Wilson KS, Wagner DT. The spillover of daily job satisfaction onto employees’ family lives: The facilitating role of work-family integration. Academy of Management Journal. 2009;52(1):87-102. (Academy of Management Journals)
- Heller D, Watson D. The dynamic spillover of satisfaction between work and marriage: The role of time and mood. Journal of Applied Psychology. 2005;90(6):1273-1279. (PubMed)
- https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employee-satisfaction.aspx
Read more from Dr. Sorrenson here.
Read more insights from our editors here.
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Laurie Sorrenson, OD, FAAO, ABO, is president of Lakeline Vision Source in Cedar Park, Texas, CEO of ODs Care working with Half Helen, Director of Practice Management and Austin Administrator of Vision Source and the Professional Editor of Review of Optometric Business (ROB). To contact her: lsorrenson@gmail.com |
