Enterprise leaders like to debate the parable of work-life steadiness. However for Netflix cofounder Marc Randolph, the rule was easy: each Tuesday at 5 p.m., he walked out—it doesn’t matter what.
“I’ve worked hard, for my entire career, to keep my life balanced with my job,” Randolph wrote in 2023 LinkedIn publish that has recirculated on social media.
“For over thirty years, I had a hard cut-off on Tuesdays. Rain or shine, I left at exactly 5 p.m. and spent the evening with my best friend. We would go to a movie, have dinner, or just go window-shopping downtown together.”
It’s no query that it may be tough for founders and CEOs to set strict work-life boundaries; typically they should tune into late-night conferences with shoppers in several time zones, or really feel that they need to at all times be on name in occasions of enterprise emergency.
However even whereas serving as chief government of $416 billion leisure large Netflix for seven years, Randolph caught true to his Tuesday exception for the sake of his sanity.
“Nothing got in the way of that,” Randolph stated. “No meeting, no conference call, no last-minute question or request. If you had something to say to me on Tuesday afternoon at 4:55, you had better say it on the way to the parking lot. If there was a crisis, we are going to wrap it up by 5:00.”
“Those Tuesday nights kept me sane. And they put the rest of my work in perspective.”
Why some CEOs assume work-life steadiness is a fantasy
There are a lot of CEOs who put no limits on their skilled lives, opposite to Randolph’s work-life philosophy—and so they assume it’s important to achieve success. Lucy Guo, the cofounder of Scale AI, usually begins her workday at 5:30 a.m. and can preserve going till midnight. At simply 30 years outdated, she grew to become a self-made billionaire from her 5% stake within the $29 billion AI firm. And she or he may not have reached these heights if it wasn’t for her intense work ethic.
“I probably don’t have work-life balance,” Guo advised Fortune final 12 months, including that those that chase it are in all probability within the unsuitable job. “For me, work doesn’t really feel like work. I love doing my job…I would say that if you feel the need for work-life balance, maybe you’re not in the right work.”
Andrew Feldman, the cofounder and CEO of $8.1 billion AI chip firm Cerebras, stated it’s potential for employees to have a “great life” clocking in at 9 a.m. and heading out at 5 p.m. Nonetheless, in the event that they need to launch the subsequent unicorn firm or generation-defining product, they received’t get very far working a standard work schedule.
“This notion that somehow you can achieve greatness, you can build something extraordinary by working 38 hours a week and having work-life balance, that is mind-boggling to me,” Feldman stated on the 20VC podcast in 2025. “It’s not true in any part of life.”
“The path to build something new out of nothing, and make it great, isn’t part-time work. It isn’t 30, 40, 50 hours a week. It’s every waking minute. And of course, there are costs.”
The case for clocking out
Working on hyperdrive with no breaks has turn out to be a badge of honor for CEOs—however others warn in opposition to the grind. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon inspired the up-and-coming era of enterprise leaders to interrupt away from work for the sake of their relationships and well-being.
“You need to have work-life balance,” Dimon stated to college students on the Georgetown College Psaros Middle for Monetary Markets and Coverage in 2024. “What we tell our people at JPMorgan is you have to take care of your mind, your body, your spirit, your soul, your friends, your friends, your health. You really have to.”
Complete Meals CEO Jason Buechel isn’t keen to overwork himself within the high position, both.
Regardless of incessantly touring for enterprise and having a “minimum of 10 meetings per day,” he totally makes use of up his PTO advantages annually. He’s additionally made adjustments throughout the firm to make sure that all workers of the $13.7 billion grocery retailer chain take all their days off by putting a cap on what number of hours could be banked. Buechel advised Fortune in 2024 it “really forces people to make sure they are taking PTO…and ultimately having a great work-life balance.”
“I think it’s important for me to help set that example.”
A model of this story was printed on Fortune.com on November 7, 2025.
