I am not interested in working 60 hour weeks with no lunch break. I am concerned that so many workplaces seem to expect this without question. My husband and I decided that we did not want to be like that before we even had our first jobs, and that we would do as much as was reasonably possible to guard against that. Here are things my husband and I do to keep from becoming the guy who is always at the office:
- We take our lunch breaks. My current job has no lunchroom so you have to eat at your desk if you need a table, but once I am done with my food I leave. Before gas went totally insane, I would go home for lunch. At one of my other jobs, I was so close to home I came home nearly every day!
- We take our vacations. We don't necessarily go anywhere, but we take all the time available to us. I know that we would burnout without it.
- We do not go into work if we're at death's door. I know that not everybody has paid sick leave, and this is a shame! If you have it, do not come to work with the flu! Some companies recently came out with benefits like "desk calls" from an in-house doctor. Um, if you're sick enough to need a doctor, shouldn't you be at home in bed?
- We don't allow work to cross over into home life. With rare exception, my husband leaves his work pager at work. He once had a boss call him at 3 AM to talk shop. Luckily he had been warned that this boss does this kind of stuff (I'm not sure this man ever slept) and he did something radical- he did not answer the phone! He just did not want to open the door to being available 24/7.
- When I taught college, I did bring papers home to grade except for midterms and finals crunch time. I graded at the office. I limited my "school e-mail" time to once check after dinner at home.
What are your (or your partner's) working boundaries? Have you(or they) ever been penalized for them? What things would you like to see corporations do to help facilitate a better work/life balance?
3 comments:
Our problem is that my husband is a professor. except for when he must be in class or hold office hours, his time is very flexible. This is very handy. But the flip side is, that his brain is likely to suddenly 'go to work' and he can be with us, but a thousand miles away. His thoughts are our income, and losing a critical bit of math he's just worked out in his head might take ages to get back to during 'working hours' so I hate to demand he return to here&now unless truly required at the moment. It's frustrating though, that although he can be physically present more than most husbands/dads, I can't count on him staying mentally present. (after 16 years, I don't expect much change, and afterall, his intelligence was one of the main attractors, so the absent minded professor bit is part of the package!)
I wasn't much good at leaving work at work. As an English teacher, I just had too much reading to do and writing to grade. I could only handle so much time under the fluorescent lights of the classroom.
Part of why I quit teaching was because I didn't feel as if I had a life. Work was always waiting for me. I envied my husband who could come home and do whatever he wanted.
In the beginning I ate lunch in the teacher's lounge, but later on I started eating in my classroom. Because I was surrounded by kids all day, I really came to enjoy that 30 minutes of peace and quiet without anyone around. I'd usually read a book or magazine that was not work related.
There are times in his career that he has to work insane hours, such as 30 hours straight. Those times are unusual, thankfully. His office has lots of "toys" for the workers, so he'll often spend lunch breaks playing Wii or XBox or watching DVDs with coworkers.
I think it's important to unwind a bit at work. It refreshes you a bit to be able to finish out the day.
I loved this article and sent it to my husband who was working overtime last night. I hope you don't mind, I added your link to my blog.
Kim
http://www.kimmiloo2.blogspot.com
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