Labor Day; A celebration of our balanced lives?
In planning the launch of this new blog on PennEnergyJOBS, I thought, what better time to launch a blog on workforce related topics then during the week when working men and women around the world celebrated a day off!
A quick history lesson:
Countries around the world celebrate Labor Day on different days of the year; however the majority celebrates it on either May 1st or on the first Monday of September. Labor Day celebrations date back to the 1800’s as a celebration of the economic and social achievements of workers. It is considered to have its origins rooted in the eight hour day movement which promoted eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation and eight hours for rest.
The Situation
I would assume that this describes the epitome of a balance between work and life. It seems to be what we are all searching for, that harmony between what we do for fun and what we do to afford our fun. Most of us are preoccupied to some degree with achieving that perfect balance in our lives, however we face so many obstacles in our path preventing us from getting there.
In today’s hectic society where 24/7 access is almost expected of us, it becomes nearly impossible to create these separations. Think about it… when was the last time you worked a 40-hour work week? What about a weekend where you didn’t once think about work? For many of you with Blackberry’s (or other similar devices), do you put them away when you get home after a long day at work? Of course not, today’s workforce is expected to be available and to respond instantly to emails and text messages regardless of your location or present situation. What about holidays? How many of you bring your laptops along for the ride… just in case? How can that be considered healthy? Aren’t vacations by definition supposed to provide us that separation from work?
If you look just within our industry, many professionals including Rig Workers are expected to work 12 hour shifts. Also, because of the locations of many of these job sites, employees often need to put in commutes that could be as long as two hours each way. With 12 hour work days and 4 hour commutes, we’re only left with 8 hours for the recreation and rest side of the work / life balance equation.
Our Pursuit
Obviously, each of us is in a unique situation. We need to look closely at our own work / life construct to determine where the boundaries of our own balance lies. And that is the point. Most of us do not have the luxury to define the number of hours we work in a given day, the location of our employment nor the ‘extra’ responsibilities that go along with our roles. However, each of us has the ability to make choices when it comes to our careers and how we plan to live out the balance of our lives. With that I urge you to look at your own work / life balance and strive to make small differences that may promote a larger impact on your daily life.
Things to think about:
- Can you spend more quality time with your family?
- Do you have hobbies that you enjoy outside of work?
- Do you volunteer your personal time to organizations or causes?
- How do you relax and decompress outside of work?
- Are you able to “turn-off” work in the evenings and on weekends?
- When was the last time you took a vacation where you were completely disconnected from the office?
- Do you enjoy what you do for a living?
- Can you find ways to work more efficiently at work in order to work less hours?
Feel free to share your own personal stories and situations…. Tell us about your pursuit for work/life balance.
This new blog is dedicated to you - the energy industry’s career-minded professionals. Let this be our forum to share ideas and opinions. Stay tuned for more.
Tags: Labor Day, Quality of Life
September 4th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Finding work/life balance is indeed difficult, because both forces (home and office) expect a greater-than-full time commitment. Leisure activities almost always come with some time checking email or speaking with co-workers. But then, it is impossible to extract personal time from the work day. Calls and emails from friends and spouses take up time that could then require more work time after hours. I think most people probably lose sight of how much time can be consumed during the work day with non-worked-related tasks. So, this needs to be remembered in striving for balance. Some level of personal time during work and work time during non-working hours is the norm today. It is part of the information age in which we live.
September 30th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Mark is right in saying that we will definitely have some personal time during work and some work during our personal time. I mean, if we all look at our normal 8 hrs job, just try having an observation that how many time we chit-chat with colleagues (generally), open personal mail accts, can’t wait 2 open those fwds (from frnds) and what not!