WEBVTT - Try a split shift

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:06.279
<v Speaker 1>Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:10.320
<v Speaker 1>Today's tid is to work what I call a split shift.

0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.319
<v Speaker 1>So my kids have never been huge fans of sleep,

0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.239
<v Speaker 1>even when they were babies. They seem to need a

0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.560
<v Speaker 1>lot less sleep than other kids. But many babies and

0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.119
<v Speaker 1>toddlers do go to bed relatively early, and this causes

0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:26.960
<v Speaker 1>one of the first dilemmas that many new working parents face.

0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:29.360
<v Speaker 1>You need to put in a good chunk of ours

0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:31.800
<v Speaker 1>to do your job, but your kids go to bed

0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:34.880
<v Speaker 1>by seven thirty pm. If you work until six thirty

0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.920
<v Speaker 1>pm and then have a half hour commute, you barely

0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:39.839
<v Speaker 1>have time to run in and kiss them good night.

0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.080
<v Speaker 1>This evening dilemma can be a challenge for people without

0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:45.879
<v Speaker 1>kids too. I mean, maybe you'd like to volunteer one

0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.480
<v Speaker 1>night a week, or join a softball league that practices

0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.520
<v Speaker 1>on Tuesdays and Thursdays at six pm. Then you talk

0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:53.840
<v Speaker 1>yourself out of it because you need to work fifty

0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:57.040
<v Speaker 1>hours or more per week. But before we start worrying

0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.200
<v Speaker 1>that no one can have it all, I think that

0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:01.960
<v Speaker 1>in many jobs this isn't the right way to view

0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:06.240
<v Speaker 1>this choice. You can definitely work fifty hours a week

0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.640
<v Speaker 1>and still have a good personal life. The key is

0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.880
<v Speaker 1>realizing that you really have two choices. One is the

0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:15.440
<v Speaker 1>most obvious one. You just keep working until all the

0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.399
<v Speaker 1>work is done. Then you go home too late to

0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:22.240
<v Speaker 1>do anything except watch TV, and then you can feel sad.

0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.360
<v Speaker 1>But if you have a little bit of flexibility in

0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:27.959
<v Speaker 1>your work, you could instead work what I call a

0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:32.360
<v Speaker 1>split shift. Here's how this works. Rather than leave the

0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.119
<v Speaker 1>office at six thirty, you leave much earlier, let's say

0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:41.039
<v Speaker 1>five pm. You get home five thirty. Now, instead of

0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.160
<v Speaker 1>thirty minutes with your kids, you have two hours before

0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.280
<v Speaker 1>they go to bed. This is a much more substantial

0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:51.680
<v Speaker 1>chunk of time. Of course, the work did not magically disappear.

0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:54.880
<v Speaker 1>But here's what happens. After the kids go to bed

0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.560
<v Speaker 1>at seven thirty, you hop back on your laptop or

0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.080
<v Speaker 1>phone and do whatever you didn't do from five to

0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.040
<v Speaker 1>six thirty PM. You return those emails, You plan tomorrow's meetings,

0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.160
<v Speaker 1>You finish that report. You stop at nine pm and

0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:10.560
<v Speaker 1>still have some time to relax before bed. By splitting

0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.560
<v Speaker 1>your shift, you are trading off work time for TV

0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:18.520
<v Speaker 1>time instead of work time for family time. If kids

0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:20.840
<v Speaker 1>aren't the issue for you, you can substitute whatever it

0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.919
<v Speaker 1>is that you'd like to do in the evenings, leave

0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.640
<v Speaker 1>the office at five pm, go practice with your softball team,

0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.200
<v Speaker 1>then hop back on the email after you've shown everyone

0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.120
<v Speaker 1>how well you can pitch. It turns out this is

0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.119
<v Speaker 1>a choice a lot more people are willing to make.

0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:37.760
<v Speaker 1>A few years ago from my book, I know how

0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.720
<v Speaker 1>she does it. I collected time logs from women who

0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.720
<v Speaker 1>had big, demanding jobs and who also had kids at home.

0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:46.519
<v Speaker 1>I found out that about half these women work to

0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:48.920
<v Speaker 1>split shift at least once during the week. They tracked.

0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.320
<v Speaker 1>This is how they were able to work jobs that

0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.120
<v Speaker 1>required long hours while still spending quite a bit of

0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.160
<v Speaker 1>time with their families. Since I wrote that book, I've

0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.680
<v Speaker 1>done some additional research, finding that many men do the

0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.120
<v Speaker 1>exact same thing. Now. I know this sounds like working

0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.120
<v Speaker 1>a split shift means you could never relax. But no

0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:08.880
<v Speaker 1>one worked a split shift seven nights a week. No

0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.880
<v Speaker 1>one even worked at five. But by opening up the

0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:14.120
<v Speaker 1>evenings after their kids went to bed two to three

0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.880
<v Speaker 1>nights per week, these parents were able to advance at

0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.680
<v Speaker 1>their jobs and enjoy family life too. It really is

0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:24.080
<v Speaker 1>the best of both worlds. Now, not all jobs can

0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:25.839
<v Speaker 1>do this, and maybe you work in an office where

0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.160
<v Speaker 1>you can't choose when you leave. But I found that

0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.000
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people have more flexibility than they might think.

0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.799
<v Speaker 1>So if you do have some flexibility in your job,

0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.320
<v Speaker 1>figure out if a split shift might work for you.

0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:39.760
<v Speaker 1>Maybe you're not sure, but you know what, I bet

0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.560
<v Speaker 1>you some people in your office are already doing this.

0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.720
<v Speaker 1>Anytime you get an email from someone at nine pm,

0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.600
<v Speaker 1>there is a good chance they're working that split shift.

0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.480
<v Speaker 1>You just don't see the two hours they spent with

0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.160
<v Speaker 1>their families before they sent those emails. They probably aren't

0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:58.960
<v Speaker 1>going to tell you about it either. I wish they would,

0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.280
<v Speaker 1>but that's a more complicated subject for a different time.

0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.400
<v Speaker 1>I do know that putting in a split shift means

0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:10.760
<v Speaker 1>I can work long hours and still have dinner with

0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.040
<v Speaker 1>my kids and put them to bed too. It's a

0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:15.480
<v Speaker 1>key part about how I have it all, and maybe

0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:17.920
<v Speaker 1>it can be for you as well. In the meantime,

0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.400
<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:28.880
<v Speaker 1>the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.880
<v Speaker 1>hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.720
<v Speaker 1>or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:41.320
<v Speaker 1>and Instagram. At Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,

0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.359
<v Speaker 1>then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me

0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:49.280
<v Speaker 1>an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot

0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:52.280
<v Speaker 1>com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:54.960
<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.