I Have Little Work-Life Balance

 

Today’s topic is, I have little work-life balance. I have little work-life balance. How sad is that statement? So I hear this a lot too much. I hear it probably three or four times a week from people I speak to in my private practice when I manage their career etc. So it is too much. You, you are in charge of your own career.

You are in charge of your own life. So why not decide after this? If this is a topic that’s very relevant to you, why not decide to take charge of your life? Take charge of your career. In essence, your employer doesn’t rule you. You are in control of your life. You only have one life. Make the most of it.

Yes, a career is a very, very important and integral component of your overall life, but it doesn’t consume you daily, every day, 24/7. 365, those of whom do get health problems and all sorts of other issues, and it causes lots of family unit issues where Ali could be totally avoided if you make that decision to take charge of your career.

So hopefully you’re gonna listen today on some topics about this, how to get it back, because so many people, sadly, their career, rules their life. Forget about their personal life, and they’re on duty virtually 24 7, 7 days a week. It’s quite outstanding. How many people are taken in by their employer?

There is some give and take. There may be some times when your employer really does need your unique skill set, and remember, every one of you listening today has a unique skill set, so make sure you understand that skillset. Oh, by the way, has anybody got any comments? If anybody’s got any comments, please put them in the comments below.

Not just related to today’s topic, but I’m more than happy to answer them as we go through. Tuesdays at two. Yes. So there might be some give and take. Well, there should be some give and take. So sometimes when there’s a bus, a real bad business need, you might have to work overtime and that’s fair enough, but you don’t have to work 24-7 365 all the time.

You need to take control of your career. So if there’s a particular project or your boss has handpicked you to do something and you need to, it’s deadline driven, time sensitive, perhaps you really need to do it. Burn the candle for a few weeks, maybe, maybe a month or so, but don’t let them take advantage of you after you’ve completed that project.

I see so many people, once they’ve completed one project and they’ve been asked to work extra hours, then their employer expects them to work those extra hours. That’s not the way your career and your life evolve. You need to have a break. You need to have rest. You need to have family time. You need to have it.

Work cannot not, is not always fun. It can be very stressful. You need to relieve that stress for your own, your own health issues. And we’re in a very fractured world right now. There’s so many things going on right now and that is harming mental health. So don’t let your employer. Put, put, put you in a position where you’ve got some mental health issues.

So yes, there is some give and take when there is a need. Maybe just temporarily, but not permanent. So there may be some special projects or assignments. . So what do you do? What do you do if your employer is consistently making you work, making you work at 24 7 365, and you have very little time for anything else?

You need to be tough. You need to make a decision. I am going to tackle this. I need to resolve this like a P. It cannot go on. I hear so many people where they get frustrated and that’s some of the reasons why they come to me, because they wanna leave. Even though they enjoy the work, it’s too much and they want to leave that employer because it’s just going on and on and on.

So you need to tackle it head on. Be bold. Be decisive. Get a fax based proposal presentation ready. Note things down, make it re, re rehearse what you are going to say, and then have a plan, devise a plan, and have facts. If you’ve got some facts on how many hours you’ve worked, or you’ve done this or you’ve done that, that is good.

Facts really help. So you need to have this facts based plan to tackle it, and then you need to go perhaps initially to human resource. And have what you would hope is a confidential meeting with them to discuss various options on how to go about it and whatever, whether they can tag with you and help you understand this or will understand this issue and then maybe resolve this issue.

they may have had it from many, many other people as well. So it may be a recurring issue that perhaps human resources need to deal with across the leadership of the management team. So think about going to HR initially and ask for a confidential meeting. Discuss it. Give them that fax based plan, and then hopefully you will come out with maybe a cheerleader, a supporter.

Then perhaps you need to go to your boss or your boss’s boss and then really tackle it head on. You’ve got that plan. You’ve got all those facts, you know, hopefully you got HR on your side. So you now need to go and be bold, be brassy, tackle it, head on. Because it cannot go on. If you don’t tackle it.

They’ll expect you to work 70, 80, 90, or even a hundred hours a week with and if you work that out, if you’re on salary, that could be a minimum wage when you’re working it out on salary. So don’t do it. Get, get to be bold and get out and prepare that plan. 

If all your team are doing the same, they’re working 80, 90, 100 hours a week, then you have a collective business proposition to put to your boss. More than one. It helps. So if you got five or six or seven or eight of you, hmm, that is a really good proposal because you’ve got a bulk proposal. You’ve got several people who are in support of you, but they’re also going through the same thing.

So think about maybe. If you are, if they’re also experiencing the same issues as you think about doing a proposal to your boss, because you know, if nothing happens and you all resign one day, they’re left in the lurch. So that could be major problems to the business operation, every resource, everybody listening today live and in the replay has a huge value.

You have a value, but that value expires when you leave. When you leave. Work that after so many hours, not after 10 or 15 hours a day, constantly, once in a while, yes. So if all the team are working long hours, then you have a good, in my view, professional view. You have a good business proposition. So collectively build a business case and see if you can tackle it head on with the boss and perhaps HR.

Then when you’ve exhausted all the other options and something doesn’t happen, no give, no take. You are willing to give, you are willing to take in certain situations. Then the other options are take control of your career and manage your career, and prepare your resume, update your LinkedIn profile.

And maybe hit the runway for a job search. So there are options. You may not want to do it, but as I said in the initial opening, don’t let your employer take advantage of you. So many employers take advantage of you and you can be. If you work a hundred hours a week, that could be very cheap labor. So don’t take advantage of you with no room for maneuver, then you do have other options.

And in hiring today, hiring is so robust. Recruitment at any level, any industry, any sector, any function across the world is the best I have ever seen in my 30 plus years as an executive career management practice. So wrapping up, anybody got any questions, any comments? I’m more than happy to answer them. If not, I’m more than happy to give you a free, no obligation resume critique.

I’m gonna put my email on the screen there. You can see my email. I have to give you 30 minutes of my time to go through your resume from top to bottom. But I do say it as it is cuz you only want one kick of the can. Or if you want a LinkedIn audit, I’ll go through your LinkedIn audit from top to bottom too.

So I welcome the opportunity to have a discussion with you and share my deep knowledge on executive career management. And then finally, I do have a YouTube channel. Extensive YouTube channel. Many, many videos. Many videos are coming up in the pipeline as well. I’m shooting on Thursday, so go to my YouTube channel and please press the subscribe button and the bell button where you will be notified about all the future videos that are coming down in the pipeline.

So hopefully those of you I’ve got who are working long hours and getting a little bit frustrated, a little bit down and perhaps affecting your health, and I’ve heard some terrible health problems from people recently. You need to really take some action, but it. You have to bite your tongue. You have to be decisive, but you have to have that plan.

So if your employer’s making you work long hours and it’s affecting your family unit, your daily life, your pleasure time, don’t let them rule it. You rule your career. Take charge now and then life will be far better after.