So today was work life balance day and I’m leading the revolution by writing a blog post at almost 10.00 pm on Friday evening of an almighty stresssy week. First – hands up – how many of us really believe that work-life balance applies to us?
My name is Sarah and I come from a family where work was life – my father was an artist, my mother founded (and still runs – at the age of 70 something) the Pine Forest Art Centre. Work was something that my parents were passionate about. Of the six of us, 3 run our own businesses, one works freelance, one works for two of her siblings and the last one is the black sheep – she’s studying to be a nurse in her early forties. Weird.
Me – I love my work (well, most of the time). I get a massive buzz out of having built a business from nothing that currently turns over a not insignificant amount of money, that provides software as a service that is loved by many, liked a lot by many more and which keeps 5 people in employment. What’s not to like? or even love? What could actually balance that out?
OK – so I would like to get out and walk more – I’d like to join Sigrid down in the Westwood seawater pool, I’d like to spend more time on design work and/or coding and/or coming up with new ideas and a hell of a lot less time with my nose stuck in Excel spreadsheets trying to work out what on earth a trial balance actually is. I’d love not to have days like today when our network manager resigned (hint for anyone who’s looking for a job, we’re looking for a new network manager).
But I love days like today on the other hand when one of my very favourite clients (Maeve, you know who you are! – Marie, don’t be jealous – not you either Dee & Donal or you Emer or you Louise or even Michael & Marion… she’s ONE of my favourite clients) let it slip that she reads this blog. Erk! Why is she one of my favourite clients? I’ve never met her, have only ever spoken on the phone and over e-mail. She beat me up over price but in return has been an absolute dream to work with. A real human being who treats her delegates and her suppliers with a huge amount of respect. I always get the feeling that she appreciates the work we do and that makes us want to work even harder for her.
What’s all that got to do with Work/Life Balance? I hear you ask… well, you know, if you pack up your bags at 5.30 and forget about work as you go off to life – what does that say about the people you are working with? Your customers and suppliers and colleagues? That they’re not real life? Some kind of second life, perhaps? How can you actually do a good job without caring about the people you are working with? I really don’t get it.
I’ve been sat down and given the lecture about how for 90% (or more) of people work is just a means to get money to live life. I understand it intellectually, but I just can’t feel it. That does make me difficult to work with, I suppose, and probably one of the issues for Grainne who resigned today. Grainne had the extraordinarily difficult job of managing the new events industry skillnet – a government funded training network which meant sitting between two camps: a steering group and promoter organisation who are hugely passionate about what we are doing and a government body who expect things like work life balance to be respected by passionate workaholics in the training networks. Disconnect City.
When you provide a service to people, I firmly believe you have to be passionate about providing that service and care about the people you are providing the service to. If you’re not, then they’re just not going to come back to you. If they realise that you care about them, they’re more likely to sing your praises to other people. That’s as much as you can do. Caring about the people that you’re providing a service to means that often you have to put their needs above yours. If you’re working on a production line or pushing papers in a big (I tried to write bureacracy but failed) and you have no contact with the people who use your product maybe you can be Work/Life driven. If you care about your pay cheque at the end of the month and not job satisfaction, maybe you can be Work/Life driven. But if you actually care about what you are doing, then this Work/Life balance stuff is a swizz… I have to tell you that Robert just asked me what was I doing – I told him I was writing a blog post. He said, so you’re having fun then? Of course I am! He’s watching the telly. I’m ranting. Who’s having more fun?
Sarah Says 