Work Life Balance

What does this even mean? My interpretation is don't work to enjoy the life you can afford, work for a balance to enjoy the life you have.

Transcript

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/09/dream-job-values-happiness/619951/?utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1ZcRSUlgtc048Rxp_UlzHW2mqYuRHljtQtusKuIgfIwvsFmyT29gN4oKo

Welcome back to my podcast, Scaling Out.

There was an article in the Atlantic titled “The Secret to Happiness at Work” where a professor shares the career advice he gave students. Essentially, money isn’t everything, while it pays the bills and gets you stuff, it only generates so much job satisfaction. Ultimately, job satisfaction is generated by the WHY. The key sentence was quoted:

“What matters is not so much the “what” of a job, but more the “who” and the “why”: Job satisfaction comes from people, values, and a sense of accomplishment.”

I remember being told to find a job that paid the bills. If I didn’t like it, that was acceptable because ultimately I was working in order to live the life I wanted. However that resulted in working all the time and being completely dissatisfied. So I wasn’t hating the job, but I was also not enjoying the life that the job afforded. I fell into the rat race workaholic mentality.

Now I like to work for balance, and working for a company that values work-life balance has helped me achieve that goal. I am able to take time off to take care of sick family members, vacations are true vacations disconnected from the office, and the team truly cares for one another, building a community that supports each other and lifts each other thru difficult work situations as well as during personal events. It is really hard to sell this idea to new hires, many are simply looking for that starting salary and comparing to other offers in straight numeric dollar figures. Hey that’s an easy comparison, but really, working for balance is priceless. From a mental health perspective, handling the work stresses is so much more difficult if the work community isn’t supporting each other. It might seem easier to handle that stress if you are getting paid 100s of 1000s of dollars, but at what cost? Your health, your family, your marriage?

When looking at the next opportunity, really consider whether you will find fulfillment from the “who” and the “why” that new company will offer.

 Thanks for listening again, until next time Stay Safe everyone!