Savage counsel: tackling work/life balance
Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas in his weekly Encore advice column.
Hi Chris,
You’re a busy man. How do you make this work/life balance thing work and what advice can you give to the rest of us?
Crikey – I’ll tell you when I find out. It’s a huge question but I reckon I have something to share here. I am getting better at it. First, I don’t differentiate between ‘work’ and ‘life’. It’s all my life and I want it all to be great. I love work. I love challenges. I love working in the creative industries and working with young people. I’ve always worked extremely hard and persistently. And I have also managed to live a big life in my small world, filled with family, fun, adventure, experience, relationships, learning, mistakes, love and passion.
I like your analogy of the stove top burners. Time is really the limitation in that scenario. I think two of the biggest misnomers in workplace right now are a separation of life and work, and the idea of an 8-hour workday. First, people’s lives will follow them to work, whether it’s family or something as simple as getting the car serviced. People will need time throughout their day to address personal lives.
Also, many people are paid a salary to do a job. Not to work 8 hours a day. Why punish someone’s productivity, or potentially reward a lack of productivity by strictly adhering to an 8 hour day. Let people do their job in 6 hours a day or 4 days a week and have more time for health, family, and friends.