Work/life balance? How about life/work balance!

Many people I meet struggle to separate out their work time from the time for the rest of life. The phrase work/life balance seems to get the order wrong: life is bigger than work, more than work, occurs before, during and after work. So I prefer to say life/work balance.

Especially with strongly empathic people, I notice a tendency to want to give, to please others, to become known as someone who’ll always be there for others. Without necessarily being conscious of it, colleagues and friends will allow empathic people to do more of the work.

Overworking is at chronic levels in Australia, worse than in other rich countries. The Centre for Future Week recently found people are working an average 4 hours 20 minutes per week of unpaid overtime.

While some of this can be put down to employer and supervisor pressure, many people simply don’t know how to say no, or believe somehow overworking is a marker of commitment and diligence and will be beneficial sometime in the future.

However overworking means less time and energy for yourself, less time and energy for loved ones, less time and energy for active leisure, less time for being lazy, less time for sleep, less time for fun.

Learning how to create stronger boundaries - including how to say no in a respectful way - is a core part of my work.

Remember, the most important person to respect is… yourself.

And finally, no one on their deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I’d spent more time in the office.’