CEO Says People Who Don’t Want To Work On The Weekends Have A Problem That Has Nothing To Do With Their Hours
fizkes | Shutterstock When it comes to work-life balance, many employees have varying opinions from their employers. While employees want to be able to separate their personal lives from work rather than being forced to work and neglect their social lives, employers and CEOs think differently.
Such was the case for the CEO of a Fortune 500 healthcare company, Iñaki Ereño, who claimed that there's no reason employees should even crave work-life balance. His argument: you should love what you do so much that working on the weekends doesn't make you feel like you need balance. It's the kind of thinking, however, that billionaire CEOs can make when they have forgotten what it's like to be overworked, underpaid, and barely making ends meet.
A CEO said people who don't want to work on the weekends aren't working the right jobs.
"When the balance of your life becomes a topic, then you have a problem," Ereño told Fortune. "You need to like your job, to not feel that your life needs to be balanced."
Ereño explained that he loves running the £16.9-billion-a-year ($23 billion) Fortune 500 Europe company with over 100,00 employees. "I enjoy thinking about business things on the weekends. I do emails, and I read my papers and all of that. Do I feel that that is a big pressure? No … I enjoy doing that. So I don’t feel I need to think about how I balance my life."
When asked about advice that he would give to anyone who works so they can enjoy their weekend off, he added, "I think the advice here is to take some time to think about what you like doing. Don’t do a job that you don’t like, so then you need balance."
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The problem isn't the fact that people aren't working the right jobs, though. The problem is the belief that, no matter what job you're in, you should be willing to center your entire life around it to prove you're a committed and valued employee. That idea might work for some people, but it's not a one-size-fits-all idea that everyone needs to buy into.
Most employees are choosing to prioritize work-life balance over pay.
According to Randstad’s 2025 Workmonitor report, work-life balance was the highest-ranking factor for staff in their current or future jobs for 83% of the 26,000 workers surveyed across 35 countries, slightly ahead of pay at 82%.
The research proves that workers are demanding more of their employers. Nearly half of survey respondents said they wanted to be treated better at work, and 31% had gone so far as to leave jobs that didn't offer flexibility in hours and schedules.
Is it any wonder, really? We all experienced how remote and flexible schedules can work effectively thanks to the pandemic. Why would we take steps backward now that we aren't on lockdown?
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Work in today's day and age is more than just a paycheck. Employees have different expectations of the jobs they work, and those expectations don't include spending hours past the time they were supposed to leave still at the office, neglecting their family, friends, and interests outside of their job.
Chances are, Ereño doesn't have to clean the house on the weekends while squeezing in time with family and friends. He doesn't have to worry about running out of PTO for doctor's appointments, and he doesn't have to ask for permission to alter his workday to pick up his kids from school. His affinity for looking over work on the weekend is not the same as that of any employee below his C-suite. It's like comparing apples to oranges, which is why his view is so shortsighted.
The idea that work should always come before your own well-being is extremely outdated, and it should stay that way.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
