Posted on 07/03/2006 7:06:18 AM PDT by Joe Republc
My career has lasted twenty years and will roughly last another 20 more. Although a number of the ‘big’ questions / issues in my life – God, country, family, and home – are settled pretty well for me, work / life balance has not.
I find it very difficult to find a position and company that strikes a good balance between work and the rest of life, while still paying reasonable well for my skills.
Currently, I’m in an IT consulting company. They are doing well and growing. Although HR says it is trying very hard to have work / life balance and retain more of their people, I observe the following:
- My project manager working many hours, including nights and weekends, on a consistent basis.
- Most, if not all, women working here are single moms, or have never been married.
- Emails from top mgt. are not infrequently issued very late at night.
I’m at the point where I’m ready to give up on having work / life balance *and* a very good salary. My family and my sanity are too important. And I’d like to have some room in my life for volunteer work at church.
Your thoughts much appreciated on how you manage this… and if you’ve drawn conclusions similar to mine.
Happy Independence Day,
-- Joe
I had to work late one weekend and my girlfriend of 2 months thought it was bs ,that I was seeing someone else. Things went downhill from there and we broke up. Now I am depressed.
o yeah, she was too suspisious, but I still liked her. She was awesome. It seems like the ones I like take off and the ones I don't never leave. Sad.
I deal with with the help of beer.
Work your fingers to the bone. Whatta ya get? Bony fingers.
Where's your link to the original article?
Took a corporate buy-out, got my teaching cert, and am now living a simpler lifestyle.
We're not big on ambition in our house, and yet we've usually had what we really ~needed~ to have the life we want. Life is not work. Work is what we do to be able to afford the ~life~ we want.
You know the cliche, on your death bed, you will not likely say "I wish I'd spent more time at the office"
Good luck :~)
Maybe you just like the wrong type of women. I'll take a 5 that trusts me and has a good attitude over an insecure, bitchy 10.
yeah, thats what I keep telling myself. just sucks looking for another one when I thought I had one. women.
Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. If you want the big bucks (depending on what constitutes "big bucks" to you), your choices are limited. Without knowing a lot about you, your background, or interests, I might suggest investigating one or more of the following:
1) Can you work for yourself as a consultant in the same field?
2) Would you be interested in working developing online training courses? There are any number of companies doing this - it pays relatively well and, typically, involves fewer hours.
3) Can you consider a career field change that allows you more family/personal time?
4) Do you have enough money/time/interest to potentially become involved in real estate? Pays well and allows you to set your own hours if you are successful at it.
5) Are you in a position to go back to school for more education that might open up new job possibilities for you?
These are just some things off the top of my head.
Your situation is difficult. However, you could start by just working your 40 hours and what ever is not done will have to be done tomorrow. Now of course, your boss may not be happy with that so you could jeopardize any bonus' and pay raises. However, if you find that your homelife is working with the 40 hours (only) and you are getting your true requirements done at work that could work. Maybe you could eat at your desk in order to leave at 5 or something like that. Good luck. This is something that everyone has to figure out and it is not fun or easy, but in the end if you can find a plan that works you will be happier.
There's a lot of that going around these days. Just remember nobody gasps "I wish I had spent more time at the office" on their deathbed.
PS: HR is universally a bunch of lying snotrags in my experience. What the hell would they know about hard work?
There are many companies out there who promote work/life balance and pay well. You just have to find them. They have surveys in each state which will show what companies place in the top 25 great places to work. Try finding those surveys and you should find a potential new employer.
"Evil HR" seems to be a universal truth. I grew to hate them when I went through a "downsizing" and had them smugly offer advice about finding a job when they were keeping theirs. Bunch of leeches, at least I actually worked on something that a customer bought and paid the company money for.
Bill Clinton probably will...
A topic very near and dear to my heart. Read comment later
Hit the lottery...
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