Workaholic Plouffe's Work-Life Tips For Grads

Posted by: Lauren Young on May 26

Would you take career advice from a workaholic?

Cornell University’s 2009 graduating class heard work-life tips from David Plouffe, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager.

According to The Cornell Daily Sun, Plouffe, 42, said that while he has had an extraordinarily successful career, the “real scorecard is not the number of electoral votes I scored, but my relationships with my friends and family.”

Plouffe—who has a son and whose daughter was born two days after the 2008 Presidential election—also stressed the importance of striking a balance between work and time with family and friends, although it is clear that he is totally out of whack in that category: When Plouffe managed the Harkin presidential campaign at the age of 24, he went an entire month without speaking to his parents. And during the past two years, he often only had two or three hours of free time per week, the Sun reports.

“Even Bernie Madoff would say that math isn’t right,” Plouffe said. “But I knew exactly who I wanted to spend [that time] with. I just had to figure out when and how.”

“I was a phantom, doing important and increasingly remote things that were interesting to read about, but [simultaneously] began to make me somewhat of a caricature. Over the last two years, as I lived out the dream of every professional in my field, I could only do so by becoming somewhat of a ghost of a father and a husband,” Plouffe said.

According to The Cornell Chronicle, Plouffe also told graduating seniors they “are now prepared to play a large role in shaping history for generations to come, who will be studying their accomplishments in these hallowed halls.”

But, he warned them, “You must have passion for your work. And you’d better really treasure and get the most out of your non-working hours…those are the increments of time that will define your life.”

How do you think David Plouffe spent the holiday weekend: working or hanging out with his family and friends?

I did not check work email once during the long weekend, which was spent at the beach. Alas, that could be a stupid precedent, according to my colleague Cathy Arnst, who reports that employees “who are actually foolish enough to take a vacation in these perilous economic times should stay connected to the office if they don’t want to be out of a job when they return.”

How did you spend the Memorial Day holiday? Did you manage to amp up your life-related activities? Or did you end up working most of the time because you are paranoid about losing your job?

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