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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 2: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 2: tip is that as you are considering a new job

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Speaker 2: or any sort of career move, consider the substance of

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Speaker 2: the work first. Then you can address questions like work

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Speaker 2: life balance. Balance is not a good in its own right,

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Speaker 2: and if you seek out work for the schedule first,

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Speaker 2: you can wind up board or unhappy, which won't help

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Speaker 2: with your work life balance at all. Because I write

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Speaker 2: about issues of work and family, I sometimes hear from

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Speaker 2: people who are trying to find jobs that allow for

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Speaker 2: what we often call work life balance. People want to

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Speaker 2: be able to spend time in the evenings with their families,

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Speaker 2: or to be able to drop kids off at school,

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Speaker 2: or deal with the occasional during the work day personal

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Speaker 2: event without it being a crisis. I totally understand this.

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Speaker 2: Flexibility is a definite upside for me of running my own.

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Speaker 1: Business, but I didn't set out to have a flexible business.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to write about what I wanted to write about,

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Speaker 1: and I know there have never been a lot of traditional,

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Speaker 1: well paying jobs that would allow me to do that.

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Speaker 1: The most profitable way to build my career was to

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Speaker 1: go out on my own. Flexibility turns out to be

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Speaker 1: a perk of my version of self employment, but it

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Speaker 1: is not the reason for my job choice. Unfortunately, I

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Speaker 1: hear from people who have gotten burned out in stressful

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Speaker 1: jobs and they start hunting for anything that will provide

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Speaker 1: more balance. And for a while, this can feel great.

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Speaker 1: If you used to travel every week and have people

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Speaker 1: call you at nine pm every night with stuff that

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Speaker 1: has to be done before eight am in the morning,

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Speaker 1: it is exhilarating to leave the office at four point

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Speaker 1: thirty knowing that no one is going to bother you.

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Speaker 1: You will glow with gratitude going to a school play

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Speaker 1: at eleven am knowing that no one is going to

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Speaker 1: give you grief about it, but and you knew there

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Speaker 1: was a butt coming here. Often, that glow fades in time.

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Speaker 1: You can't live on balance alone. Many of the people

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Speaker 1: who started out in those more stressful jobs did so

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Speaker 1: because they are ambitious people who like to be challenged.

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Speaker 1: They also like to be paid a lot. Jobs taken

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Speaker 1: primarily because they offer balance don't always meet those needs.

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Speaker 1: People wind up unhappy because they are bored. They start

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Speaker 1: feeling underpaid, then perhaps it's off to find a new job.

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Speaker 1: But again, if it needs to have a strict definition

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Speaker 1: of balance, this can cut off a lot of options.

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Speaker 1: If you declare that you will never travel for work,

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Speaker 1: that is going to limit you more than if you

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Speaker 1: are open to traveling two to three days a month.

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Speaker 1: If you declare that you will never take work home,

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Speaker 1: that is going to limit you more then if you

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Speaker 1: find a fascinating organization, or you can build a team

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Speaker 1: that gets good work done on reasonable timeframes. So here

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Speaker 1: is my take. I think it is best to focus

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Speaker 1: on substance first and balance after that. Figure out what

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Speaker 1: kind of work you'd like to do, or look for

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Speaker 1: a job where the core of your work is something

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Speaker 1: that excites you. Find colleagues who you find interesting and

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Speaker 1: fun to work with, then negotiate the balance you want,

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Speaker 1: or simply be bold and seize it. I have seen

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Speaker 1: this be possible for all sorts of jobs as people

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Speaker 1: gain seniority, and they might work in fields like law

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Speaker 1: or medicine or consulting or tech that aren't exactly known

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Speaker 1: for work life balance. But these jobs do tend to

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Speaker 1: be interesting and highly paid, So folks who want to

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Speaker 1: have a personal life figure out ways to keep working

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Speaker 1: and advancing while doing what they need to or want

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Speaker 1: to outside of work. You take an hour off in

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Speaker 1: the middle of the day to go to a kid's class,

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Speaker 1: but do a phone call at nine pm after your

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Speaker 1: kid is in bed, and you just don't make a

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Speaker 1: big deal about it. As you get more senior, you

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Speaker 1: can do more and more of what you want, leaving

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Speaker 1: in the middle of the day to meet a kid's

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Speaker 1: bus and continuing to work remotely after that. For instance,

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Speaker 1: if you are the top person on a team, people

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Speaker 1: do often figure out where to accommodate you beyond that reality.

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Speaker 1: I think the phrase work life balance is problematic for

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Speaker 1: all sorts of reasons. First, people tend to use it

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Speaker 1: to mean working less, but very few people spend most

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Speaker 1: of their hours working. There are one hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: eight hours in a week. If you sleep eight hours

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Speaker 1: a night, so that's fifty six hours per week and

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Speaker 1: work forty hours per week, that leaves seventy two hours

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Speaker 1: for other things, that's almost twice as much time as

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Speaker 1: you are working. It's hard to see what's particularly balanced

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Speaker 1: about working thirty hours and having eighty two hours for

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Speaker 1: other things or working twenty hours and having ninety two

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Speaker 1: hours for other things. Those may be perfectly fine setups

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Speaker 1: for life, but they aren't exactly balanced. The phrase work

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Speaker 1: life balance also implies that work and life are at odds,

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Speaker 1: with the two on opposite side sides of the scale.

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Speaker 1: I am not sure that is the case. I know

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Speaker 1: that when I am working on something really exciting and

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Speaker 1: I feel like I'm winning at work, I have more

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Speaker 1: energy for everything. There's also nothing particularly balanced about tolerating

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Speaker 1: your work and even counting the hours until you get

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Speaker 1: to life, even if there aren't as many hours to count.

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Speaker 1: I suspect that a lot of people would be happier

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Speaker 1: working forty to forty five hours a week in work

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Speaker 1: they love than thirty five hours a week in work

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Speaker 1: where they'd feel bored and underpaid. Now, of course, if

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Speaker 1: the forty hour work week was also boring and underpaid,

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Speaker 1: that would be even worse. But when you like the

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Speaker 1: substance of your job, that is probably not going to

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Speaker 1: be the case. Substance first, balance, After that, that's the

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Speaker 1: recipe for a happier life and career than seeking out

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Speaker 1: balance above everything else. In the meantime, this is Laura,

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our times.

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Speaker 3: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can

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Speaker 3: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just

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Speaker 3: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before

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Speaker 3: Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod.

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Speaker 3: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 3: Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled

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Speaker 3: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I

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Speaker 3: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 3: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

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Speaker 3: favorite shows.

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Speaker 1: They ga