We do not have healthy work life balance here in the West. Life often revolves around work and one’s definition of oneself is often defined by what one does for work. There was a time when work was part of life but now work is life. With the cost of everything rising and wages staying the same we are required to do more and more for less and less.
And this is through every part of society. We’re expected to work harder and pay more for food that is poorer quality, living spaces that are poorer quality, and neighbors that are poorer quality than ever before. This is expected of us, this is what general education has trained us for. Has prepared us for. At least five days of often mind numbing or back breaking work to be followed by a day or two or recovering so we can do it all over again.
Repeat until dead.
This is not the way that a human should live. It works great for people at the top but for the average person this is a ticket to a life of quiet desperation or worse. Many people look at this and throw up their hands. “Yeah I don’t like it but what else am I supposed to do?”. Avenues of escape seem few and far between.
And we keep grinding ourselves down, hoping for the best. Hoping that things will change in the future.
While there are alternatives if you have money or inclination. The fact of the matter is most of us are stuck in this…and therefore we need to figure out how to not let it destroy us.
Achieving A Semblance Of Work Life Balance
So how does one achieve work life balance or at least a semblance of it? There are a few things I’m going to recommend, hopefully which will be helpful to you. The first thing is to understand how to set appropriate and respectful boundaries. Understand what you will or will not do and try to have an open discussion with your boss about it if these are violated. Do so in a respectful way and come at in a collaborative manner. Now granted your boss likely won’t respond well and this could backfire so make sure you don’t make it confrontational but more like a discussion where you’re both looking for a win-win situation.
But there’s something even more important to do. And that is make sure that you are valuable. Here’s what I mean by this. Whatever your job is, make sure that you are doing it to the best of your ability. Make sure that you are valuable. Value is power. Make sure that you are the one that they think “Man, we really can’t lose him”. Granted these are also the people that generally don’t have the best work life balance as well. But even more than being good at your job, be good at politicking.
Politicking is an essential skill in any organization. When your boss and your boss’s boss likes you, you have a lot more leeway to negotiate things. A lot more leeway. Politicking is a skill that can be learned just like negotiation and sales, which are two other skills that you should invest time in. When the higher ups like you what you can do expands tremendously. Much more so than if you just produce good results which few really care about. Though they will care if your results are poor.
Alternatives…
Of course there comes a point where things might just not be worth it. Make sure that you are staying up to date on your skills and that your resume is never more than 6 months out of date. Always keep your ear to the ground for opportunities that are out there. The best bargaining chip for a current job is to have another job that’s offered you a position. That’s how many people get promotions, better deals, higher pay, and a whole heck of a lot more.
So always have an ear to the ground and learn how to apply to jobs and interview well. These are skills that will help get you leverage so that you can create the sort of work life that you want. The sort of work life that others can only dream of. It takes time, and effort, but in the end it is more than worth it.
Thanks for reading.
-Charles Sledge
