This Week’s Focus On The Train: Work-Life Balance
on April 8th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Hey passengers, the theme on the LiFeTrain this week (see Merry Monday) is finding Peace, which includes Work-life balance. As we travel down the Tracks over this week and possibly a bleed over into next depending on how far the Krazy conductor decides to travel (ER…That would be MWAH) we’ll look at ways to restore harmony and reduce stress. If your work life and personal life are out of balance, like mine, your stress may be running high. I am looking for ways to reclaim control, and of course in the process share with my fellow passengers.
Finding work-life balance in today’s frenetically-paced world is no simple task. I find myself spending more time at work than at home. At times I feel like I am missing out on a rewarding personal life. Then again, if we’re facing challenges in our personal life such as caring for an aging parent or coping with marital or financial problems, concentrating on our jobs can be difficult.
Whether the problem is too much focus on work or too little, when our work life and your personal life feel out of balance, stress — and its harmful effects — are certainly the result.
To take control, tomorrow we will consider how the world of work has changed, then hopefully you’ll join me in an evaluation of reevaluating our relationship to work and look for strategies for striking a more healthy balance.
I hope you’ll join me over the next few days, and…if you have a suggestion or two…please by all means comment.
Interesting thing someone said to me the other day: Never make someone or something your priority when they see you as an option. This makes perfect sense to me.
I once worked for a company that was laying off people left and right. Every other Friday at 11:00, people were looking over their shoulders to see if their pink slip was being delivered. The company was caught up in a financial scandal and was cutting back costs. They started paying less for our health insurance which meant more out of our pockets and less in our paychecks. We were short staffed because of the layoffs, so they were asking people to work overtime to pick up the slack. More work, less money. I always said no and never volunteered.
So my boss comes over to me and says “I see you’ve been surfing the web a lot lately looking for another job. We can see what you’re doing on the monitor”.
I shrugged. “Uh, yeah. So what?” I kept eating my popcorn. I was on break and didn’t think it was any of his business what I was doing.
“Well, you’re a good employee and we want to know what we can do to motivate you to stay”, he says. I gave him a really dumb look and envisioned him in my mind with a big “L” on his forehead for “Loser”. Did he really think I was going to fall for that? There was nothing he could offer me. They were not giving raises or promotions, they were not offering any job security, and busting my butt seemed to be such a worthless effort. My energy was better spent surfing the web looking for another job.
“Um, that won’t be necessary”, I said. I ended up finding another job that was more secure and paid more money. And guess what? Even THAT ain’t guaranteed from one day to the next.
Giving all of our energy to things and people who can kick us to the curb is a massive waste of time and energy. There are times when I find myself relentlessly throwing myself into my job, its woes, trying to keep it, trying to be perfect, and getting good evaluations. Then there are days when I say “Eh, phooey”. I remember the good old days when I had sense enough to put my energy into other important things and was much happier.
The older we get, we need to invest in things that will sustain us through all trials: God, our loved ones, and our health. I’m getting off this train at the next stop for a nature walk.