Introduction:
The topic for our team this week in the #BATTLEROYALE take contest is "Health & Fitness". I started to form an idea for a take about Work/Life Balance. Firstly there has to be a concession to those who have no "Wriggle Room" due to economic, family and professional commitments. Also there are those who thrive in the competitive atmosphere, working a lot to get ahead, wanting to climb as far up the management structure as possible to gain material reward, power and recognition but there is a sizeable block who think about each career move in terms of a Work/Life balance. I see it especially now at 47 years of age, speaking to friends and colleagues who say when the conversation turns to Work/Life balance "Did I do enough to achieve equilibrium between the workplace and the home, was that promotion worth the extra money considering the extra stress, the longer hours. Did I really need the money that much?"
(1) Think About The Consequences:
I haven't always been as reflective as I am now but as I got older, I definitely thought about it more through my own experiences and hearing the stories of my friends. I will use what happened to us as background to my points. I have always firmly believed there is no point in being amazingly successful at 40 if you are completely burned out and worked long hard hours to get there for the past 20 years. I have a friend who worked in the bank, he worked really long hours, he rose through the ranks in IT.
Crap would hit the fan at night and weekends. You would meet him on a Friday night for a beer, completely wound up and stressed. When we would go away, it would take about 3 days for him to uncoil and in the last couple of days from the end of the holiday, you could see him thinking about going back, winding himself up again". He was on great money but he had to take a two year career break because of stress in his early 40s. Now he is back and he says "I am definitely not going down that road again when I am asked to do something, my health is the first thing I think of and the impact on it".
My next story is one about my friend and I, we were in the same grade in two different government departments and a big promotion came up across all the departments. We talked about it and I went "No, I don't think I will go for it. I am happy enough where I am. The right money, the right environment and a good responsibility/stress level. I don't want to be responsible for staff discipline, production and service provision etc. It is good money but it is not life changing". My friend decided to go for it and got it, now a few years later whenever we talk about it, he says "I wish I made same decision as you".
It is funny some people think about the power and recognition, how great it would be or how good it looks to the outside world but often when I am out with my friends, I have a rough idea of where everyone is in their professional life, nobody boasts about how they are doing in fact I notice that the most unassuming person at the table is a woman who is the head of a whole department in a multinational insurance company and earns about 150k more than everyone else.
(2) Lifestyle Options: Here I want to look at different routes some of my friends took that were unexpected.
(2a) A woman, fully qualified accountant, good job, great money earning more than her partner. Had a child and said "I want to be a stay at home parent, I will discuss it with my partner. We are doing okay and I can do book keeping from home part time for extra income". She stayed at home for all 3 of her kids and even now only does a little more book keeping rather than go back to the rat race.
(2b) Another woman who was a fully qualified accountant, good job. Newly married, gets the feeling that it is not her. She wants to retrain as a speech therapist. She checks with her husband to see if they can afford it. They decide they can, she retrains for four years and now owns a top speech therapy clinic with several therapists, she has never been happier.
(2c) My last story is a friend who graduated with a marketing degree then decides it is not for him. He wants to be an artist and work in his mother's coffee shop in the city. Over the years he bought into the coffee shop. Eventually able to sell his share of the shop, he opened another shop in the country with his young family while his wife retired early from the bank to help in the shop. As with the others, never been happier.
(2d) I, myself was doing an Economics, English and Anthropology degree, I got a bit bored in the final year and took a full time job in the civil service in early March. I went back and did the exams in May, graduating. How much have I used that degree, not for one second. In fact I ended up in the IT area of my government department years later because I didn't like where I was at the time. I did the IT exam and I know nothing about IT. I just know what I am supposed to be doing and learn that to do my job.
(3) Make Plans: I suppose the next stage is to analyse what is going on in your life, to make plans in your life for the short term (Present), mid term (Next few years) and long term (Where you want to end up).
(3a) Expenses - Unfortunately nothing in life is for free. List what you think your financial outlays are going to be, think about what is absolutely necessary regarding bills etc. A bit of advice here that I learnt later in life only get loans for concrete things like a mortgage or a car (hopefully you have enough to get by but don't get loans for things that are not necessary), pay your credit card straight away, the interest after one month is horrendous and interest starts straight away on cash withdrawals on a credit card.
Again have a serious think about what do you need to spend your money on, think about what things you could do without. Then think how much savings you will need for various stages of your life. These plans will always change but it gives you an idea of how much money you need and anything beyond that is a bonus. It effectively gives you your "Wriggle Room", I need a salary of X to get by so if I don't feel like it, I don't have to work extra just to get beyond X.
(3c) Look At The Conditions: Have a think about the environment your job is in. Is it safe and healthy? - How much time does it take up, if you work 8am to 5pm, the commute is an hour each way, you wake up at 6am and go to bed at 11pm. By the time you have your dinner when you get home it is 7pm. That means you only have 4 hours a day to yourself, 7pm to 11pm. Is there flexitime or working from home to negate the rush hour commute?. Use your days off wisely - Use your flexitime for long weekends and your days off for proper holidays. My motto is "Do Your Work Well But On Your Terms" (If you can, as I alluded to throughout take, some don't have choice)
(3d) Any Changes Or Promotions - If any change comes about, weigh up the pros and cons of the new prospect. Do what is best for you not what is best materially, they are not always the same thing. If it is money you don't need for a whole lot of extra stress, what is the point?.
Conclusion:
Just to reiterate that not every person is fortunate to have the "Wriggle Room" to think about their Work/Life balance plus there are those who enjoy the cut and thrust of professional life but those who are left with a little "Wriggle Room", I urge them to think in terms of 99% Life and 1% Work. The questions to ask yourself (1) What do I absolutely need financially? (2) How much do I really want to go beyond that? (3) Am I happy in work? (4) Is any change in work that you volunteer for really worth it?
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