Most companies I’ve worked for have talked about maintaining a work/life balance. In other words, do whatever it takes to get the job done regardless of family, friends or outside hobbies. I’m always skeptical when I hear a company preach balance because they can’t possibly know what “balance” means for every single employee. It’s an HR buzzword.

I used to believe it was the job or company that dictated how much balance, if any, existed. If I could just find the right position or the right company, magically everything would come into focus and my family would be given the same priority as my work required.

I was dead wrong. It’s not the company. It’s not the position. It’s me. It’s how I manage the job, not how the job manages me. It’s setting expectations right from the starts with my manager, my reports on when I’ll be available and what hours I will work. Over the past few years I’ve found that nearly every manager has been accommodating to my desired schedule.

Some weeks I do better at managing my work load and family time. But now I know I’m in charge rather than the job or the company.

Conditional answers don’t work with kids. If I attempt to give them an answer such as: “We can go outside and play if it doesn’t start to rain”. They just want to go outside now!

I wish more adults were like this. I can act on a yes or no. I know where I stand and what I need to do. I can move on or get back to work. It removes the gray areas.

This is one trait I like about my current boss. I don’t get a long-winded story that ends in ambiguity. I never leave his office wondering what the answer was. I know straight up whether I got a yes or no.  Even when the answer is no, at least I know to move on and find another solution. It’s oftentimes hard to say no, but it’s the right thing to say when it’s the honest answer.

I like the whole experience of visiting Fry’s Electronics. I like the young man or woman who stands near the entrance greeting everyone who enters. I like the newspaper ads plastered on the wall near the entrance. I love the “wall of motherboards” and the sheer number of external USB drives available for purchase. There are entire rows and sections of products which I have no clue what they do or how they are used. Maybe it’s a medical device. Maybe it’s a piece of the Space Shuttle. I have no idea.

I like it all. But I really enjoy the random impulse item located next to the cash registers at Fry’s. I can always count on finding a totally useless item in this area, and today was no different. Next to each register was a stack of UBS Beverage Chillers.

 Now it’s one thing to head to the checkout with a game, a monitor or printer and come home with a pack of gum, Snickers or even Chapstick lip balm because my impulses got the best of me.

But how does one explain the desire to add a USB Chiller at the last second to a spouse? It makes sense for Fry’s to put them in this area because I can’t imagine anyone enters the store thinking, “I gotta remember to pick-up that USB Beverage Chiller”.