How does the average person cope with
commitments to God and family compared to others who are far more capable or
talented? Don’t average people need to work even harder to be great
employees, making achieving balance impossible for the average person?
Balancing
between work life, personal, and spiritual lives is challenging I would say. It
is not easy to divide one’s time given a hectic schedule at work and at the
same time attending to your personal responsibilities and obligations at home,
in the community and to God. An average person, if I may define it, is someone
who works 8 hours in a day, 5 days a week, gets paid for work done, someone who
meets business expectations – the typical person you see coming in and out of
an office building. In an organization you would have average Joes and
Superstars. Superstars are those who are regarded as talented and have proven
their capability on their professions. In my 10 years of professional life, I
have proven myself that one does not necessarily need to be talented,
intelligent, or even more capable than average employees in order to strike a
balance between work and personal. I have seen a number of successful
individuals who are successful on their career, yet had failed marriages. I’ll
probably cite a former colleague as an example. I admire him for being intelligent
and passionate on what he does. I cannot say anything about his commitment to work,
and how he pushes everyone to succeed on his or her own capacity. In fact, I
owe him a lot for helping me grow professionally from a Senior Supervisor to a
Manager and for getting the experience of handling almost all functions within
the Company. He is an achiever ever since. He graduated with honors and even
pursued higher studies. He held key positions and had impressive credentials.
In fact, he had established several Companies and Business Units in the past.
Something an average person will not be able to do easily. Despite of his
successes, he had a lonely personal life. He married and had 2 wonderful
children. After some years, he and his wife decided to part ways primarily
because of his busy schedule. He was on the peak of his career when he got
married. He goes home to his family after office but continues to work at home.
He cannot stop working because of his responsibilities and the demands of the
Company. This started a regular fight between him and his wife. His wife
constantly tells him that she envies his work laptop because it seems he spends
more time on it rather than with the family. He constantly explains that he
needs to do it for them and it is the nature of his job. After a while, both
decided to separate to avoid worsening their situation.
Work
life balance, for me, is a matter of choice and does not necessitate and amount
of talent, capability, or greatness. You may be successful in your career, just
like the example cited above, but may have difficulty juggling time with family,
community, at times, God. On the other hand, an average person may not be that
successful or may not hold a key position, but had made a commitment to devote
time to their family after office hours and during weekends. Before, when I was
starting to see a progression on my career, I believed that there is no such
thing as work life balance. You need to make a choice between the two. I used
to drown myself at work and spend more than 12 hours in the office and
sometimes give up my rest days and leaves to finish some deliverables. I
literally go home only to sleep, bathe, and change clothes. I believed that I
needed to do it for me to progress quickly and for me to succeed. I am happy
that what ever I did before paid off. I am on a Managerial position at the age
of 25. I was happy and fulfilled not only because I was successful but I served
as an inspiration to others. Years passed by and there is one instance when I
had a realization – I was not happy, something is lacking. All I do is work,
nothing else. Probably I came to the point that I wanted do other things apart
from working. Maybe I have burned my self out already, as I felt quite
exhausted. So I thought about things and had a realization – THERE IS LIFE
OUTSIDE WORK. From then on I made a choice and a commitment to myself. I need
to make time for myself, for my loved ones, for my community and God if there
is an opportunity. After that realization, I decided to engage myself in
Photography. I enrolled in a short course and applied what ever I learned every
time I travel which I also regularly do. I started running too to get into a
better shape. I committed myself to this activity so I can force myself to get
off from work on time. And to my surprise, running is a great stress reliever!
Lastly, I decided to pursue MBA which was my goal when I graduated from
College. I told myself I need to pursue this now. It’s long overdue! In fact I
had enrolled myself for a Masters degree in UPLB back in 2005. After earning 21
units, I decided to postpone it because of the demands of my job back
then.
At
the moment I would say that I am still at the height of my career, though this
time around I tend to take things lightly and easily. As much as possible, I go
home after rendering 8 hours of work and extend only if there is an urgent
need. I still see to it that I make time
for myself, see my loved ones every weekend, and go out with my friends every
now and then. Hopefully, later on, I can find time to engage on activities to
give back to the community and to God.
How do you know if you are in the right
profession? Could the struggle be
because you are doing the wrong thing?
For
me, the indicator that you are in the right profession is that you find
happiness and fulfillment in what you do no matter how difficult and repetitive
it is. Finding one’s right profession is not easy. Sometimes, you have to jump
ship and shift careers several time to find the right profession. When I got
out of College back in 2003, I had a dilemma. I do not know exactly what job I wanted.
I tried my luck with several companies. I thought I am the person who will
thrive working alone and doing pure desk job. After 5 months of job-hunting, I
landed on an Analyst post for a fast food chain. I was excited because I will
be part of a well-known Company. After 2 months I decided to quit. I was not
happy because of the nature of the job. It’s not my cup of tea, I told myself.
So I moved on and landed on another Analyst job in one of the largest local
Banks in the country. After 7 months, I again decided to quit due to several
factors – I do not see myself growing with the type of job I had, I do not like
my boss and the way feedback is provided, and compensation is too low that I
cannot save up for my future studies. Since my ultimate goal then was to go
back to the Academe and purse graduate studies after 2 years of graduating from
College, I decided to get my self a job that will pay well and allow me to save
up. I turned to the Call Center Industry which is known for giving above
standard salary. I didn’t mind of the fact that I will not be able to apply
what I learned in College and the fact that I will be performing the same job
that is done by some people who never finished half of their collegiate
studies. Initially, my goal is to stay only for 6 months to 1 year at most.
Once I have enough savings, I will quit and study. Months passed by and I
realized that the job was not easy. You wake up at 12 am and travel to the
office when everyone else at home is sleeping. You talk on the phone day in day
out. You get cursed as if you are a slave bought by those people calling. I get
praises, commendations, and appreciations from callers who were satisfied on
the service I provided them. I worked in a team and made new friends. I get paid well and I am able to save up.
Overall, I was happy and satisfied. I suddenly forgot of my objective of
staying only for 6 months to at most a year. After 6 months, I got a promotion
from Tier 1 to Tier 2 representative. After a month, I got a promotion again.
This time around I was given the opportunity to supervise a team. I started
managing people. A lot of challenges came along. A number of agents under my
Supervision had to go due to a number of reasons (performance, attendance,
etc.). After a while I was able to stabilize my team. I was able to develop
each one of them to be proficient and passionate on what they do. I helped them
progress and become better individuals. They succeeded as a team and received
awards and citations from the Management. I was again happy and found
fulfillment on what I do. So I continued on this line of work and up until now
I am still a people manager.
Every
time I look back and recall my fresh grad days, I cannot avoid but think that I
was able to prove myself wrong. I am not for a job that will limit me to
working alone and doing pure analytical work day in, day out. I later on
realized that I needed to work in a team and handle people eventually. Maybe my
calling is to manage people and help them become better professionals. The 1st
year of my professional is a struggle mainly because I was on the process of
finding the right profession. I tried venturing in to my ideals but failed,
only to find out later on that the track that I thought was not for me is
actually the one that is meant for me.
Photo sources:
http://www.ncacpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/WorkLifeBalance_blog.jpg
http://planyourmeetings.com/wp-content/uploads/Work-Life-Balance-Sign-post-by-Stuart-Miles.jpg
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