"Work-Life Balance" Is the Wrong Goal. Here's What to Build Instead.

Looking at the Data: In the Great Lakes and New England, only 1.3% of employers say work-life balance isn't a priority at their company. 17.4% of employees say it isn't. The 16-point gap is one of the most consistent findings in TriNet's 2025 State of Work report. Stephen Hargett, who builds physical workspaces for SMBs across the 14-state region, argues the gap exists because the framing itself is wrong. "Work-life balance" treats work and life as enemies. The operators winning don't balance them — they design for the conditions that make work actually feel like part of life.

Watch the full interview with Stephen Hargett → 

The data: the priority gap is the loudest signal in the region

TriNet's 2025 State of Work report surveyed 150 employers and 115 employees at small-to-medium businesses across Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, and Ohio.

The 16-point gap on whether work-life balance is even being prioritized is one of the most consistent perception splits in the entire State of Work report. Employers think it's handled. Employees experience it as unaddressed. The gap isn't about hours — it's about whether the conditions of the workday support their teams.

Why Hargett rejects the "work-life balance" frame

Workspace builds the physical environments businesses work in across the Great Lakes and New England. Hargett has spent more time in more offices in the last five years than most consultants have in twenty. His observation: the operators who treat work and life as separate domains end up with employees who treat them the same way and end up resenting it.

I think for people to really understand, we have to retire the notion of "work-life balance." Now it's moving towards "work-life," one thing, fully integrated.” - Stephen Hargett 

The frame as “work-life balance” assumes a zero-sum trade. More work, less life. More life, less work. Operators try to "give back" life through perks: games in the office, snacks, the occasional half-day Friday. Employees experience those perks as compensation for a workplace that costs them life, which doesn't actually solve the problem the perks are trying to address.

Hargett's wrkspace philosophy is to design physical workspaces when you can to support the conditions of work that employees and teams really want. Natural light. Real food. Space to take a real break. Acoustic separation so that the focused work and the social work don't fight each other. None of this is radical. Yet, most of it is rare.

Design layouts are so important because people have so many things on their mind. You need the space to tell the person what to do without them having to find waypoints and signage to elicit a certain action. We're thinking about is distinct spaces - that when you walk in, automatically, without instruction, without signage, just from the culture that is present and how it's laid out, you can say "Oh, this is a community space, I can talk at my normal level," or "Oh, this is a focus space." - Stephen Hargett on what designing for an integrated life 

Why the priority gap is so consistent across 14 states

The Great Lakes & New England region spans from Maine to Iowa. Different economies, different industries, different climates. The gap in how businesses prioritize work/life balance versus how their employees feel that prioritization is consistent.

• The “work-life balance” framing problem Hargett identifies is universal. Operators treating work and life as opposed end up signaling the opposition to their teams. The signal lands the same in Boston as it does in Indianapolis.
• The growth in remote and hybrid work has shifted what "workspace" even means. Operators investing in the physical workspace are still designing for 2019 patterns. Employees experiencing the workspace are operating on 2026 expectations.

Why this matters for SMB operators in the Great Lakes and New England

The State of Work data and Hargett's frame point to a specific operator opportunity:

• Physical workspace design is an Employee Benefits investment. The conditions of the workday - light, acoustics, food, movement, real break space - are benefits in the operational sense, even when they don't appear on a benefits-package summary.
• The "perk" frame is a tax on operators who use it. Ping-pong tables don't address what the State of Work data is measuring. Workspace design and true work integration do.
• Multi-state operators across 14 states need to consider creating a consistent design philosophy rather than more uniform office layouts. What looks like good workspace design in Boston isn't the same as Indianapolis - but the principles are - understanding the needs of your employees and their roles and then designing for it.
• HR outsourcing and HR compliance carry real weight in this region. Massachusetts, Illinois, Minnesota, and Connecticut have substantive paid-leave, pay -transparency, and pay-equity requirements. Maine, Indiana, and Iowa are lighter. Multi-state SMBs need infrastructure to handle the asymmetry.

How to put this into practice

For Great Lakes and New England operators who are rethinking workspace and the "work-life balance" frame:

1. Drop the work-life balance language entirely. Replace it with "designing for integrated life" or just "the conditions of the workday." The language shapes the strategy.
2. Audit your physical workspace against the conditions you'd want for your work. Space for quiet, focused work, and collaboration.
3. Pair workspace investment with benefits that match. Mental health, paid time off, parental leave, learning budgets — these are aligned-priority areas across the region. Underinvesting here while investing in office design signals confused priorities.
4. Get HR outsourcing support if you operate in three or more Great Lakes / New England states. The compliance asymmetry between Massachusetts and Indiana, or Illinois and Wisconsin, is meaningful enough to require structured support.
5. Audit the gap between employer and employee skill expectations. When employers see a 20-point higher need for creative skills than employees do, the workplace isn't communicating where the work is going. Close the gap explicitly.

What's next for Great Lakes and New England SMBs

The State of Work data describes a region where employers see a healthier workplace than employees experience. The framing of "work-life balance" is part of why the gap persists — it sets up a trade that operators then try to manage instead of dissolving. Operators in the 14-state region who reframe the question, invest in the workspace as a benefits decision, and pair both with strong HR infrastructure are the ones building businesses people want to stay inside of.

Read the full Great Lakes & New England regional report from TriNet's 2025 State of Work →

See how TriNet supports Great Lakes and New England SMBs with HR outsourcing, benefits, and multi-state compliance →

FAQ

Why is "work-life balance" the wrong framing for SMBs?

The argument, made by Stephen Hargett of wrkspace, is that the framing creates an opposition between work and life that then has to be managed. This is a frame that needs to be adjusted, particularly after the COVID pandemic merged our work and life in many ways. Operators using the frame treat perks as compensation for a workplace that costs the team's life, instead of designing the workplace so that the conditions of work support the full person.

How does workspace design relate to retention?

Workspace design — light, acoustics, food, break space, movement — is part of the operating conditions of the workday. When the conditions are poor, no benefits package compensates. When the conditions are strong, retention improves because the workday isn't extracting more than the employee signed up for.

What Employee Benefits actually matter in this region?

Mental health coverage, paid time off, parental leave, and learning and development budgets. These are aligned-priority areas across the Great Lakes and New England, and the strongest Employee Benefits investments for retention and to support the employee’s life.

Why is there a skills-expectation gap in the region?

Employers in the region expect creative skills (52%) and upskilling (50%) to matter substantially more than employees do (31% and 28%). The gap signals operators planning for a future workforce that their current teams aren't seeing — usually because the workplace hasn't communicated where the work is going.

Do Great Lakes and New England small businesses need HR outsourcing?

For multi-state operators, yes. The HR compliance asymmetry between Massachusetts, Illinois, Connecticut, and Minnesota on one end and Maine, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri on the other makes lean in-house HR difficult past about 30 employees. HR outsourcing or a PEO addresses the asymmetry without scaling the in-house team linearly.

What HR compliance requirements vary across the region?

Massachusetts has Paid Family and Medical Leave and aggressive pay rules. Illinois has the BIPA and pay-transparency rules, for example. Minnesota and Connecticut have growing paid-leave and pay-disclosure requirements. Maine, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri are lighter. Multi-state SMBs face a real compliance asymmetry that needs structured supporting.

How can SMB leaders close the workplace perception gap?

Talk directly to the 17% of employees who experience work-life balance as unaddressed. Audit the physical workspace against the conditions you'd want to create a supportive environment for your team. Replace the "work-life balance" framing with one that doesn't assume it's one of the other.