Pausing on Compartmentalization

Sometimes at work I talk to my team members about compartmentalizing work stress and home stress: not allowing the stresses and concerns of one to impact the other. I often associate compartmentalization with the phrase “work life balance”. Our work environment, especially for the people providing phone and email technical support, lends itself to compartmentalization. It is the type of job that once a person logs out of the computers, he or she can leave work and not think about it until returning the next day.

In talking with one of my team members today, however, I paused in my dedication to a separation between work and personal life. My phone agent, S, told me that he was exchanging texts with his high school age son who had informed him that his school had received some kind of gun violence threat (something related to the Mayan end of world/calendar thing supposedly inspired someone to contact and make such a threat).  Happily, S and I could talk about this openly. He told me that this was on his mind and that he had mapped some scenarios in his head where he would pick up his son from school. It turns out that this was not necessary, but I appreciated the fact that he told me about this in the morning to avoid any potential surprises later on. This is just a week after the school killings in Connecticut.

As a non-parent, how can I seriously talk to my team members who are parents about separating the stresses and worries of child raising from what they do at work? With the modern connections of texting, email, and cellphones they have readily at their desk, how can I expect there to be a wall between the two? I don't think I can, and I don't believe I should.  So many of my team members are parents. I see my role as a leader to empathize with their concerns and help them manage a work life balance instead of creating two compartmentalized lives.