Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 2: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 2: tip is that as you are considering a new job
Speaker 2: or any sort of career move, consider the substance of
Speaker 2: the work first. Then you can address questions like work
Speaker 2: life balance. Balance is not a good in its own right,
Speaker 2: and if you seek out work for the schedule first,
Speaker 2: you can wind up board or unhappy, which won't help
Speaker 2: with your work life balance at all. Because I write
Speaker 2: about issues of work and family, I sometimes hear from
Speaker 2: people who are trying to find jobs that allow for
Speaker 2: what we often call work life balance. People want to
Speaker 2: be able to spend time in the evenings with their families,
Speaker 2: or to be able to drop kids off at school,
Speaker 2: or deal with the occasional during the work day personal
Speaker 2: event without it being a crisis. I totally understand this.
Speaker 2: Flexibility is a definite upside for me of running my own.
Speaker 1: Business, but I didn't set out to have a flexible business.
Speaker 1: I wanted to write about what I wanted to write about,
Speaker 1: and I know there have never been a lot of traditional,
Speaker 1: well paying jobs that would allow me to do that.
Speaker 1: The most profitable way to build my career was to
Speaker 1: go out on my own. Flexibility turns out to be
Speaker 1: a perk of my version of self employment, but it
Speaker 1: is not the reason for my job choice. Unfortunately, I
Speaker 1: hear from people who have gotten burned out in stressful
Speaker 1: jobs and they start hunting for anything that will provide
Speaker 1: more balance. And for a while, this can feel great.
Speaker 1: If you used to travel every week and have people
Speaker 1: call you at nine pm every night with stuff that
Speaker 1: has to be done before eight am in the morning,
Speaker 1: it is exhilarating to leave the office at four point
Speaker 1: thirty knowing that no one is going to bother you.
Speaker 1: You will glow with gratitude going to a school play
Speaker 1: at eleven am knowing that no one is going to
Speaker 1: give you grief about it, but and you knew there
Speaker 1: was a butt coming here. Often, that glow fades in time.
Speaker 1: You can't live on balance alone. Many of the people
Speaker 1: who started out in those more stressful jobs did so
Speaker 1: because they are ambitious people who like to be challenged.
Speaker 1: They also like to be paid a lot. Jobs taken
Speaker 1: primarily because they offer balance don't always meet those needs.
Speaker 1: People wind up unhappy because they are bored. They start
Speaker 1: feeling underpaid, then perhaps it's off to find a new job.
Speaker 1: But again, if it needs to have a strict definition
Speaker 1: of balance, this can cut off a lot of options.
Speaker 1: If you declare that you will never travel for work,
Speaker 1: that is going to limit you more than if you
Speaker 1: are open to traveling two to three days a month.
Speaker 1: If you declare that you will never take work home,
Speaker 1: that is going to limit you more then if you
Speaker 1: find a fascinating organization, or you can build a team
Speaker 1: that gets good work done on reasonable timeframes. So here
Speaker 1: is my take. I think it is best to focus
Speaker 1: on substance first and balance after that. Figure out what
Speaker 1: kind of work you'd like to do, or look for
Speaker 1: a job where the core of your work is something
Speaker 1: that excites you. Find colleagues who you find interesting and
Speaker 1: fun to work with, then negotiate the balance you want,
Speaker 1: or simply be bold and seize it. I have seen
Speaker 1: this be possible for all sorts of jobs as people
Speaker 1: gain seniority, and they might work in fields like law
Speaker 1: or medicine or consulting or tech that aren't exactly known
Speaker 1: for work life balance. But these jobs do tend to
Speaker 1: be interesting and highly paid, So folks who want to
Speaker 1: have a personal life figure out ways to keep working
Speaker 1: and advancing while doing what they need to or want
Speaker 1: to outside of work. You take an hour off in
Speaker 1: the middle of the day to go to a kid's class,
Speaker 1: but do a phone call at nine pm after your
Speaker 1: kid is in bed, and you just don't make a
Speaker 1: big deal about it. As you get more senior, you
Speaker 1: can do more and more of what you want, leaving
Speaker 1: in the middle of the day to meet a kid's
Speaker 1: bus and continuing to work remotely after that. For instance,
Speaker 1: if you are the top person on a team, people
Speaker 1: do often figure out where to accommodate you beyond that reality.
Speaker 1: I think the phrase work life balance is problematic for
Speaker 1: all sorts of reasons. First, people tend to use it
Speaker 1: to mean working less, but very few people spend most
Speaker 1: of their hours working. There are one hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: eight hours in a week. If you sleep eight hours
Speaker 1: a night, so that's fifty six hours per week and
Speaker 1: work forty hours per week, that leaves seventy two hours
Speaker 1: for other things, that's almost twice as much time as
Speaker 1: you are working. It's hard to see what's particularly balanced
Speaker 1: about working thirty hours and having eighty two hours for
Speaker 1: other things or working twenty hours and having ninety two
Speaker 1: hours for other things. Those may be perfectly fine setups
Speaker 1: for life, but they aren't exactly balanced. The phrase work
Speaker 1: life balance also implies that work and life are at odds,
Speaker 1: with the two on opposite side sides of the scale.
Speaker 1: I am not sure that is the case. I know
Speaker 1: that when I am working on something really exciting and
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm winning at work, I have more
Speaker 1: energy for everything. There's also nothing particularly balanced about tolerating
Speaker 1: your work and even counting the hours until you get
Speaker 1: to life, even if there aren't as many hours to count.
Speaker 1: I suspect that a lot of people would be happier
Speaker 1: working forty to forty five hours a week in work
Speaker 1: they love than thirty five hours a week in work
Speaker 1: where they'd feel bored and underpaid. Now, of course, if
Speaker 1: the forty hour work week was also boring and underpaid,
Speaker 1: that would be even worse. But when you like the
Speaker 1: substance of your job, that is probably not going to
Speaker 1: be the case. Substance first, balance, After that, that's the
Speaker 1: recipe for a happier life and career than seeking out
Speaker 1: balance above everything else. In the meantime, this is Laura,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our times.
Speaker 3: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 3: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
Speaker 3: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before
Speaker 3: Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod.
Speaker 3: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 3: Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 3: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I
Speaker 3: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
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