The balance between work and life, do you think it’s pretty much non-existent these days?
Or are you one of the lucky ones that can just show up, do your bit and then go home and not have to worry about a single thing until your next “shift”?
One of my BIG goals this year is to cram a year’s worth of my “work” {buying/ordering supplies, dyeing wool, drawing patterns, making kits etc} into 3 months so I can enjoy the other 9 months at a more normal pace.
I want to be able to work in my garden, do a bunch of canning, take a few trips and work on some house and personal projects without having to stop everything and pull out all my work supplies and turn my house into a mini workshop and then pack it all away again only to have to pull everything out again a few days later.
On one hand it’s kind of a crazy idea, condensing a year’s worth of work into 3 months, but on the other hand, I think it’s kind of a genius idea.
It seems like long before cell phones and email, most people didn’t have the constant connection to work once they left the office for the night or weekend.
But these days it seems like the work-life balance is in an age of constant contact and high expectations of work bleeding into personal life. It makes me wonder whether or not the balance between work and life is completely obsolete.
These days, for a lot of jobs {especially people who work online} it is expected that you will be available after hours. Calls, texting, notifications, and emails are the norm. It made me wonder if this whole availability thing is less driven by the actual company and more driven by our own need to be considered “hard working.”
I’ll admit, certain elements of work can be addictive. For me and my Etsy shop that equates to shipping out a package as soon as the order comes in and answering questions immediately. I chalk it up to good customer service, whether it’s at 5 am or 9 pm.
But has our addiction to always being available via our phones and email led us down a path where work is permitted into personal time?
It seems like we now live in a world where it is acceptable for work to constantly interrupt our personal time. But oddly enough, we’re not as comfortable when our personal time interrupts our work.
Why is that?
With the exception of the lucky few who get to set their own schedules {and can stick to them!}, most people are subject to face-time at their place of employment.
I think feeling stretched too thin is pretty common these days. People put in long hours at work AND at home, and there just isn’t enough time for them to pursue as many personal endeavors or get other tasks done.
We can only be so “productive” on a given day. Personal time matters. Balance matters.
Have you found the right balance between work and home yet? If so, I’d love to hear your secrets. Maybe I could borrow a few. 😉
~Mavis
Brianna says
My hubby struggles with work-life balance. I hate it. His work pings him on his phones when we are driving somewhere, out at one of the kids’ activities, eating out, etc. and he always answers it text or call almost immediately. He has a highly demanding and stressful job and is a critical piece in that job, but the leash they have on his drives me crazy. He has always been one to ‘mentor’ others too, so those people are also pestering him too. I secretly enjoy when he travels for work because it gives me a break from his leash. I can eat dinner with the kids in peace and have a conversation about whatever, I can drive and just listen to the radio, I can begin my house in peace and quiet. He works from home and is on call a lot and he bought me some beats noise-canceling earbuds last year. I am not an earbud person, but I put them in my ears most days as I do household tasks just to drown out his work life.
Yes, I have worked on and off over the years, but I never make myself accessible after hours. I actually give the employer a landline phone number for me so they cannot text me or bother me much. I have had many ask why I don’t give them my cell phone and I pretty much tell them they have a phone number that works for me and my cellphone is private. I did have one employer figure out my cellphone number and when he contacted me on it, I told him he was wrong and that was not okay and he had a valid phone number for me….but he also was creepy and stalked other employees’ online social pages and would make comments to them about their posts. He had contacted me on my cell phone during my lunch break, asking me to come back early as they needed my help asap. I ignored it, went back after I took my full lunch break, and confronted him over it. When I am on their clock, I have no cell phone….not in my pocket, not transmitting to my watch, etc…..it is my full undivided attention to my job. When I am on my time, I am accessible on a home phone, but I also pick and choose my accessibility for others online via email, call phone, watch, etc. Somedays I just don’t want to be bothered and I ignore it all or leave it somewhere else in my house for awhile,
Margo says
Good. For. You! Strong boundaries are necessary and if you are blessed to have a job that doesn’t require your attention 24/7, enforcing those boundaries is essential!
Christie says
I’m beginning to think that is the expectation in corporate America. Those who play the game and respond 24/7 are promoted time and time again. Those of us who work hard 8-10 hours a day get overlooked for future growth opportunities. It is a very competitive space these days. Luckily I am in my 50’s and looking forward to retirement soon! I plan to still work, but not in the rat race that I’ve been in for the past 35 years.
I love your strategy of the 3 month work cycle and hope it pays dividends for a more relaxing 9 months later in the year!
Lori says
My salary is based on a 40 hour work week. I have agreed to give them 40 hours of my time, knowledge and undivided attention, for the salary and benefits they provide. That’s it. Regardless of your work ethic, you have to draw the line somewhere in this day and age or they will take advantage of you. In our corporation I have found that the people who work hardest and are the most responsible get all of the extra work while people that barely get things done are left alone. So I had to stop being always available.
Marianne says
I own a restaurant, so for 90% of my staff it’s “show up, do your shift, feed the hungry people, make them happy & smiley, clean up & go home. If I have after hours stuff to communicate with the management team I make sure I’m not sending out random emails at 2am (yes, I’m still up), days off or too early. Generally they reach out first during non-work hours. Then I’ll impart info via text. Also, we live in a small town and our employees are a tight knit group that do a ton together – so I am also pausing before texting to put myself in their current situtation to self check if it’s intrusive or not
Nancy says
Have a friend that works in tech field (not life or death situations here.) Last week her manager told her she needed to answer more quickly after he texted her a question and it took her 4 minutes to answer. Are you supposed to have your device in the restroom and work from the toilet? Lol, so ridiculous!
Virginia says
You’ve identified a big part of the problem right there — modern expectation that our needs be met quickly.
Ashley Bananas says
I had a job where I was expected to be on call all the time and worked a lot of overtime hours without pay. It was a competitive but low paying field and the company I worked for had known financial problems due to over buying properties for years and then they were like the 2010 housing market, upside down. They eventually filed bankruptcy and downsized. However, the time that I worked there they expected you to work until the work was done without overtime. I called them on this and lost a lot of favor for speaking up. They were never willing to pay me overtime. In fact, when I had an assistant they had me come in two hours earlier than that person and them stay two hours later so they never paid anyone overtime but had a body in the building. I often took calls from our sales team so they didn’t lose money if they needed things adjusted during off hours. I had poor boundaries.
I left that field completely and now work for the government, and it is very clock in, clock out, dont take your work home. I enjoy my work life balance much more now. It just took me a while to find something that I liked that also had the culture of not taking advantage of their employees.
I will say that when you have one person who is the bread winner financially and they have a job that demands that of them, the alternative is that they may not have that large salary or good benefits etc. so they kowtow to the ever present and invasive job. It’s a struggle.
Then with ebay/etsy/etc I know a lot of people that do that and it seems like a never ending job cycle with fast turn around and shipping when they do get sales. Or people who are independent contractors for places that do food and grocery delivery, to make sure they have constant money coming in they are constantly on the clock.
Diana says
I have been self employed with an interior decorating business for many years. When I had an actual shop with 18 employees it was easy to lock the door and go home. Now I “retired” with an Etsy shop and actually work harder than before! I work non-stop to keep up with orders and respond to customer requests. This year I have decided to actually use the vacation mode and shut down when we are traveling. Normally I get home from a trip and am overwhelmed with the number of orders to handle. I make throw pillows so it is time consuming to keep everything sewn and I get a lot of custom requests. I have learned to say no to weird things like dog beds, or 10 foot cushions and have streamlined to only pillows. I am thinking of only shipping 3 days a week instead of 5. It is a process to learn to set boundaries and give yourself time to live your life!
Kristina says
I think this is a very American phenomenon. Less so other places, where people personally feel that they can protect that boundary between work and life and there are laws that also help form a barrier that ensures free time and vacation. As a farmer, I live a pretty seasonal life – slow in summer, busier and busier as the year progresses, til the last 16-18 hr days at harvest, then BoOM! Slows down again and we do it all over again, lol.
debbie in alaska says
I am an executive and I am paid very well and I am on call at all times (unless I am on vacation) however it is not abused. Meaning If someone reaches out to me after hours it’s important. I love my job and I genuinely enjoy the team of people I work with (which helps!) and part of my job is communication of critical situations to our community – so being on call comes with the territory. That being said – work/life balance is important — however it is unlikely to succeed unless both the employee and the employer agree that work/life balance is important – it has to be part of the culture to truly be successful in my opinion.
Judy says
I am curious about the earthquake that hit Maine on Monday. Did it shake where you live?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes. It was only 3.8. We thought it was a truck rolling by.
Judy says
I’m glad you are fairly unaffected!
SueD says
My OH was salaried, and the company philosophy was for salaried you worked until the job was done. They also wanted anyone in a key position to have someone as backup. Every time he got someone assigned, trained, etc, the person was transferred. We took our sons on a 4 day weekend to Toronto. He had to have a pager that would work internationally. When mobile phones became prevalent, management wanted his number. He told them it was his private number and if they wanted to contact him ‘anytime’, then they needed to provide him with a work mobile. They never did. Companies counted on people like my OH, work more, sacrifice home/family time. The younger generations drawing a hard line between work and private time, are right.
Linda Sand says
Set YOUR business hours and post them. Turn off notifications. Only respond during business hours. My work hours are primarily afternoons. No mornings. Occasional early evenings. You can do it!
Gigi says
I teach at a community college and I teach days and nights and run labs with staff. Some students need to get a hold of me and use an texting app. I make it well known that it may take up to a day to get back to them. I answer in my convenience.