Before starting and while I know it sounds like a broken record, let me say thanks again for all the emails and support with Keena. She came home yesterday and is doing pretty well considering… She’s got a lot of pain, but thanks to some nice meds, she’s not feeling everything she should. She’s happy as anything to be at home finally and is looking forward to getting better day after day after day for the rest of her life!
While Keena is recouping nicely, I’m tired as I’ve ever been. Between Keena, Addie, running errands, cooking, cleaning, getting up with whichever is having the current problem, I’m just beat. I took “vacation” for this time…but to call this a vacation would be like calling Long John Silvers a gourmet seafood restaurant. This does, however lead me to my blog this week.
Work / Life balance has been talked about for decades. The first time I really remember thinking about it was after reading Jack Welch’s book. The former GE CEO makes the point that this is a manager’s toughest trial throughout the year. People more and more are being selfish with their time, not wanting to spend any extra time at work if at all possible. Interestingly, he also mentions that managers and executives who want to do anything with their careers need to be exactly the opposite. They need to take work home every night to get a jump on the next day, the next week, the next project, the next…whatever.
I can say as a manager, I realize this is very true. About 75% of my employees are overly eager to head home, leave early, and never worry about a thing over the weekends. (And you should see the empty spaces in front of my desk around the holidays…I’ve got most of my team saving up their two weeks for Christmas time leaving few or nobody to handle issues and work that comes up!)
At the same time, I work my tail off for eCollege. I’m putting in 50-70 hours a week PLUS my doctoral work PLUS my adjunct teaching load. My days are spent at work until 5pm when I rush home to get some quality time with Addie & Keena before my little girl goes to bed at 7:30. Then, it’s on to my computer to teach classes and write mostly meaningless papers for my doctoral program (I’ll do a blog about academic hazing later). Finally, I check my work email one more time only to find fifty to one hundred new emails to get through before bed. (I get about 600 emails per day.) Work / Life balance? What balance?
As much as I love technology, I do have to admit that it’s created the ability to work from home WAY too easy. Madeleine Bunting in her book, “Willing Slaves – How the Overwork Culture is Ruling our Lives”, says that from 1977 to 1997 Americans working full time have increased their average working hours from 43.6 hours to 47.1 hours each week. (Not including time required to travel to and from work).
I believe this. Although I didn’t always. When I was a college professor, I really didn’t have to worry much about work / life balance. I realize people don’t like to talk about it, but college professors have it pretty easy when it comes to time. I had worked my way into a coordinator position, so I could choose from a MWF or TTH schedule. I could choose late afternoons or early mornings to suit my tastes. Sure, I had some advising and some office hours, but if I wanted to, I didn’t have to be on campus but 20 hours any given week. Sure, I graded papers at home, but when all was said and done, I can say that my balance of work and life was just golden!
Of course, my bank account showed this as well. And there is the rub, right? I’m making 3 times as much now as I did then, plus bonuses (that don’t exist in a college system) and with every promotion / raise, comes the expectation of more time and responsibility taken away from home. Ugh. (Try this work – life balance calculator!)
Yes, I know the studies that show how employees who actually take time off are more productive. I know that companies who help employees manage their personal lives effectively are consistently rated in the top 100 companies for both satisfaction AND productivity. But I also know that 99% of Presidents and CEOs don’t buy any of it. The majority of HR studies that show the effectiveness of working less never even make it to their desks. After all, these executives are Type A personalities who don’t need extra motivation to work 60 hours a week…why should anyone else? (Hopefully this sarcasm translated…)
So, here I am – left with some major decisions in my life. Do I work like a dog now and reap the benefits later with a solid retirement and nice home and the ability to do nice things for my family. Or, do I go back to teaching, spend a lot more quality time with my family now, but not really have the ability to provide like I want to? I have to say, I used to be the guy who did the latter and it came back to bite me several times. When Keena first got sick, we didn’t really have any “extra” to work with. I didn’t make enough to really go on nice vacations or buy special things for anyone just because. The purchase of a car was a major life consideration and I could never really afford what I wanted, having to settle for what I could afford. That’s not how we live now…
Please hear me! I have talked this over with Keena several times. We both have goals for our family and we both understand (most of the time) the sacrifices it takes now. I realize there are plenty of husbands out there who work their tails off including as much travel as possible so they don’t have to be near their families. I have worked with a few in my time. But I’m not that guy – I actually like my wife and enjoy my daughter. I’m the ultimate family man who happens to be lucky enough and (hopefully) good enough at what I do that my services are in demand but unfortunate enough that it means working like I do.
So, until an agent or publisher actually takes a chance and reads my novel (which should easily become a screenplay…come on – it’s silly to get the same form letters back saying you’re not currently accepting new authors!), I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. I do enjoy it and it suits me. And as long as people keep telling me that I’m good at it, there’s no other reason to quit! Maybe technology will begin to actually help us NOT work so much! Now there’s the web 2.0 site that I want to be a part of!
Are you a publisher looking for the next best seller? Are you an agent needing to find the next Lee Child, Stephen Hunter, or Greg Iles? You HAVE to contact Jeff Borden and ask to read the first 3 chapters of Judge & Jury! Remember, Jeff gives seminars on effective storytelling…Check out this query:
Judge & Jury : When a vigilante violently takes the law into his own hands, Detective Paden Campbell is tasked with his capture. But as the citizens of Denver, Colorado start to embrace and replicate the practices of the “Judge and Jury” killer, Paden is forced to come to terms with his own sense of justice. In a race against time, Detective Campbell must stop the killer before the city tears itself apart.
