Balance: The New Workplace Perk

You work 90 hours a week. You take Adderall to make it through the day. The only balance in your work life is the energy bar you grab en route to your 13th red-eye flight this month, and you have about five years between now and complete burnout. As one frazzled executive, an associate director at investment bank UBS, described it: "You can have time and no money or money and no time."

Does that sound like fun to you? No? Well, you're not alone. While some ambitious young go-getters are willing to make that sacrifice, a growing number of employees are not. According to a recent survey by the Association of Executive Search Consultants, 85% of recruiters have seen candidates reject a job offer because it wouldn't include enough work-life balance. And 90% of recruiters say work-life balance considerations are more important now than they were five years ago.

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For companies competing for talent, that's not just a nuisance--it's an emergency. And the problem is only getting worse as baby boomers approach retirement age and start thinking about exiting the workforce entirely. But there's good news for those seeking to climb the corporate ladder without collapsing, exhausted, at the top. According to the AESC survey, two-thirds of companies are developing programs to help top candidates boost their family time without sacrificing their careers. "People's lives are not going to change," says Cathy Benko, a principal at Deloitte Consulting and head of the company's women's initiative. "The working environment needs to."

Now that companies are catching on, some top job candidates can bargain for more than just money. Case in point: Lisa Patten, a director at accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. She was happily working for another employer until a PWC partner called her in 2004 and asked her to join the ranks. Thinking she had nothing to lose, she compiled a laundry list of requests that included a four-day work week so that she could spend more time with her children and the flexibility to work from home if not on a client visit. The partner didn’t even flinch. "It's becoming a candidate’s market, empowering new hires to demand more perks," says Allison Cheston, a vice president at AESC. "Without doubt, this is a trickle-up trend."

For many companies, it's paying off. Three years into her job as director of the human resources consulting practice at the accounting firm, Patten says that she brings in more business and logs more billable hours than she did at any other point in her career. She says the flexible workplace makes her more productive. In fact, a recent survey found that people who are committed parents actually perform better in the office.

Of course, PWC's flexible work initiative isn't a good fit for every firm or every employee. When clients ask about creating similar programs, Patten warns them that success depends on many factors: Finding a disciplined, self-motivated employee and having a clear set of performance metrics to assure accountability. Nevertheless, says Patten, when done right it's a valuable recruitment and retention tool.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is unusual, however. Younger companies tend to be much more creative in finding ways to keep their employees happy. Google offers onsite laundry, gyms, car washes and free ski vacations to its employees. At Genentech employees get a six-week paid sabbatical for every six years of service. At gamemaker Cranium, the company culture is intricately related to the type of products produced. Family-inclusive parties are held at every major holiday and employees take home 10 free games a year. When school is canceled because of snow, the chief executive brings his kids to work just like everyone else.

For most executives, though, work is not fun and games, unless you're counting follow the leader. And when that attitude pervades the entire workplace culture, companies have trouble encouraging anyone to take a day off. To counter such reticence, Deloitte's Benko started a corporate blog 18 months ago to help publicize the ways some executives successfully integrate their personal and professional lives. Sound interesting? Take your shoes off. Put your feet up. Enjoy. If you’ve got time to read a blog during your workday, how bad can life be?

Dr. Ridge, Executive Health Columnist for Forbes.com, is on the faculty of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He is also vice president for healthy living at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.