This is the Business English Podcast, episode 96.
Do you love your job? How to find out. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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Hello, Lindsay. How are you? Hey there, Michelle.
I'm doing great. How's everything in your world today?
Everything is good. I'm glad to be recording.
Lindsay, you've mentioned that you really love your job.
And I know that because you always say, oh, you don't get the Sunday scaries.
No, I of course love my job. Absolutely.
I have a lot of passion in what we do here at All Ears English.
And I honestly don't get the Sunday scaries.
I don't. That's good. That's good. Yeah.
I mean, I love doing this as well. So I'm always excited to jump on the mic and do things.
So that's great. Do you think that it's easy to know if you like your job?
Like, is it just like, oh, you just feel happy and that means you like it?
Or do you think there are some kind of hidden ways to tell if you like it or not?
Well, I think usually it could be a more of a gut feeling.
And the Sunday scaries are a good indication.
Yeah, right. If the job is maybe not good for you, quote unquote, you will get the Sunday scares.
And let's just let our listeners make sure our listeners Yeah, by the sun.
What does that mean? The Sunday, that sinking feeling on Sunday night or Some people might get the Sunday scaries like all day Sunday.
And that's sad because that ruins a whole day of the weekend, right?
Like if you're just anticipating Monday, I can be guilty of that.
Not for this, like not for work, actually.
I think I get it like as a mother. Because then I like, you know, there comes the...
Taking them to school, like figuring out schedules, like all that stuff, like not having Dan home during the day.
It's harder. So I think I get it that way.
You know, that feeling like, oh, God, oh, God, it's so nice to be, you know, to have more health and things like that.
But the Sunday scary is that feeling of dread for the start of the new week.
I like the words you used there, Michelle.
Those are great bonuses for our listeners today.
Sinking and dread. A sinking feeling, a feeling of dread.
I used to get the Sunday scaries for school, actually.
Oh, me too. Yeah, I think we were probably both very conscientious students.
And I would get very stressed out for school.
But we used to go skiing every Sunday. So that really helped, right?
So I wouldn't be kind of sitting around worrying about school on Mondays.
I would be skiing with my family. And it would just come more Sunday night, but it helped us.
So I think having an activity really helps.
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's true. Like even, even if it's like a special show, a special meal, something that you can look forward to on that day, or sometimes people like to do something special on Mondays, like Monday night meal or something to like look forward to the Monday, you know? how about both right a sunday how about both monday night meal or something yeah that's right so lindsay i read this interesting article um on forbes.com and i wanted to share a point uh that I thought could be a great conversation.
So but before we get to that, I want to direct our listeners to episode of all ears English, which is episode 1015.
And that was what would make your day how to use this phrase to describe what brings you happiness.
Oh, so good. Make your day. Guys, go over and check out that episode to find that one.
If you're not following All Ears English, which by the way, we get 8 million downloads a month on that show.
It's absolutely huge. There are so many listeners.
Go and become one of them. Type in All Ears English and scroll down to find 1015, episode 1015.
Okay, good. Hit follow on that show. Yeah.
Yes. All right. So this article is called three ways to tell if you are truly enjoying your job, according to a psychologist.
And this was from February 2nd, 2023 by Mark Travers.
So we're going to discuss just one. Guys, you can look up that article if you want to see the other ones.
But I thought that this was really something we could dive into.
So we have the quote and the whole first part.
Lindsay, would you mind reading it for us?
So this is from the article. okay so the number one of one of the things that he said he said other ideas and we're gonna add our two cents here of course but the one of the things he said the way we can tell if we actually enjoy our job this is kind of counterintuitive michelle i think yes right it's it's that you find yourself interested in things other than your work Right.
Yes. So it's very that's a perfect word.
Counterintuitive. Yeah. Counterintuitive.
Do you want me to read? Is this from the article a quote?
Do you want me to read this little quote?
I think it'd be helpful. OK, this is a quote from Mark Travers, again, a contributing editor from this article. episode and we'll link to this article when you enjoy your work you tend to have a healthy balance between work and other aspects of your life you may find yourself devoting more time to hobbies and activities outside of work these extracurriculars can bring a heightened sense of joy and fulfillment to your life and can help you maintain a healthy work-life equilibrium great word equilibrium.
Yes, lots of good vocab in here, guys. So I thought this was so interesting.
What do you think about that? That's really interesting.
I never thought of it that way. I think a lot about how balancing my life with other things could help me in my work life.
But I never thought of it as being interested in other things could be an indication that I actually like my work.
Why do you think that is, Michelle? I guess that you're able to enjoy things outside of work.
You're not sitting worrying about work or you're not miserable in other aspects of your life because that area of your life is kind of like good.
So you have the chance and the time that you can enjoy when you're not at work.
It is totally counterintuitive though. Yeah, because I think at least in our culture, we think about we love something, we should be obsessed with it, right?
It should be our whole world. We're a real all or nothing culture, I think, American culture, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's an interesting idea to think, oh, that if you like your job, you might be able to separate from it more easily.
And then I thought, you know, we could talk about this expression, guys.
We always say work-life balance. You'll hear that all the time.
I mean, what does what does that mean, Lindsay?
There's so much out there. I want to come back to this in another episode.
There's a lot of controversy around this phrase because a lot of people will say that it's just a loaded phrase right now in pop culture.
If you Google work life balance, people have a lot of opinions. uh you know some people saying like it's not about a balance it's about you know a negotiation uh but the the basic idea of it is just it's exactly that michelle it's having a balance between your work and your your your personal life outside of your career Right, right, right.
Yeah, it's that I think of the expression that happy medium between happy medium working and also enjoying a personal life.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. Okay, Michelle.
So what's next here? Well, what do you make sure, Lindsay?
What do you make sure to make sure you have a healthy work-life balance?
Oh, my partner keeps me pulled out of work.
Thank God for my partner. It's being outdoors is my best counter to, you know, like when I... want to get away from work or need to get away from work, I need to do something that is completely opposite of work.
And being outdoors in the woods is the polar opposite to being inside in front of a laptop.
So language learning is also lately, we just did an episode on All Ears English about my Arabic lessons, right?
Because I'm going to Egypt. Um, I actually, when this comes out, I might be there now.
We'll see. I don't know. I don't know the dates, but anyways, going to Egypt.
And so learning a language is another great way that I like to do that.
However, I am in front of my laptop learning that language, right?
Not as good as being in the woods. What if you bring your laptop into the woods?
Terrible idea, Michelle. What about you?
What do you do to have a healthy work-life balance?
Um, well, I think it's not something that I have to like, it's, it's not something that I try for necessarily.
It's just something that happens. And I don't really have time to think about it.
But like, you know, I'm with my kids so much.
I'm also just trying to like, I just want to make, I think with the pandemic, it was very hard for me to have that because everything was all together.
You know, I would be trying to record an episode and at the same time putting my baby at the time, now he's four, down for a nap and hoping that he would nap.
And Lindsay, we had backup times and this and that.
Oh my gosh, so challenging. Yeah. And that was hard, like, because I couldn't, I was so like nervous about, oh, how will I fit my work in?
And like, I didn't really like then, you know, I wasn't like as present in the moment.
But I think that many parents went through that with the with the global health crisis.
So that's not a foreign idea that that's what people went through.
And now I sometimes I try and really be conscious of like, let me enjoy this moment.
With my children. I mean, I like to do tons of things outside of work, exploring the city, lots of things.
But yeah, I would say it's not something that I think about like too much.
Like, how do I maintain this work life balance?
Yeah. yeah i think this is yeah for sure for sure this is bigger for people who are working full-time right working 40 50 60 hours a week if you are you're in law school or you're a lawyer this is something i know a lot of lawyers can struggle with because they just work so many hours i mean oh god just that kind of that kind of thing for sure um what else michelle what else Well, yeah.
So I just wanted to give a couple of vocabulary words that I feel go along with this topic.
So the first one is priorities, right? Yeah.
Why does priorities go along with this? So, well, I think that, you know, we have to have priorities in life, obviously.
Yeah. And so when it comes to deciding what we want to do with our work, how much work we want to take on, we have to set our priorities.
It's not easy, right? Because once you're in a job, you obviously have to get your work done, of course.
But it's, yeah, I think it's what we choose, what path we want to go down can be a real challenge sometimes.
Yeah. Right, right. Guys, and the next word is boundaries.
And that one is very important. And, you know, Lindsay, I think you're really good about this.
Yeah, you know, because I'll notice, you know, you'll have your, you know, message up during the weekend, like I'm not in the office.
And like, I know you've said you try not to check your email, things like that, right?
So these are boundaries that you're putting up.
Yeah. And sometimes, honestly, it can be as simple as just not having your work email on your phone.
So for a bunch of years, I did have my work email on my phone.
I actually just had to put it back on because I went to a conference, but I need to now take it off because when it's on my phone, I will check it on the weekends, but I'm not going to go to my laptop and start working unless there's an emergency like our app breaks or something.
I will work in that case. But generally, if you don't check something, you don't, it's, you know, what do they say?
Ignorance is bliss. So how would, how are you alerted in an emergency? i might get a text message for like if um our develop like for example if the app goes down if our developer notices it or see something going on like it's an alert from google he might text me and then i would this has happened a few times in the last four years or so it apps break technology breaks and sometimes they break on the weekend yeah um so we do our best we have we have our panic moments sometimes but generally i if i don't check my email on the weekend i it's just better right Are you able to, like, do you have like an itch to check it?
Are you like, oh, I wonder what's going on?
Or are you just like, no, I'm good? Well, I have an itch more so if I know I can.
So that's why it reminds me that I need to take that icon off my phone for this coming weekend.
Because if I don't, if I can't check it, like if, because we go away a lot, like we go to the mountains.
Yeah. I don't have a laptop. If it's not on my phone, I literally can't check it.
Therefore, I don't want to check it. But if I can check it, it's as simple as going to my phone and tapping that button.
Let's just see what's going on. Because there is something in the human brain, Michelle, it's triggered.
There's a dopamine hit. I mean, scientists have studied this.
When a new email comes in, we get a dope, even if it's not good for us, even if it's not something we want to see or want to do, we get a dopamine hit.
It's weird. It's kind of messed up. It is.
So it's good. It's good. I feel like you're a good example of how to put up boundaries and make sure that, you know, you have important, make sure your personal time is personal.
Yeah, because the human brain is just, it's like the animal brain, right?
It's true. It's like it's through years of evolution.
It's just science, psychology, hormones, right?
It's chemical in our brain firing. So what we have to do is set up a system to counteract that.
So smart. Right. Yeah, right. Definitely.
And one last expression is have it all. This is one that you'll hear people use a lot about the workplace and work life balance.
Right, Lindsay? Yeah, exactly. Oh, man. Michelle, you're opening up a can of worms here. i know we could do a whole episode on each of these we could do a series of episodes on each of them right the whole have it all concept right this also mixes in with the with gender right women like can they have it all can they not like it's oh my gosh okay i don't even know where to start that's true because we don't ask we don't i don't feel like we say that about men Well, exactly.
Exactly. I was having that thought this morning.
Yeah. Yeah. Should I, should I save that for a future episode?
Sure. Let's come back to have it all. Let's come back to have it all.
You know, and for our listeners to get ready and warm up for that episode, just type in your browser and type in like, can women have it all in the workplace or in their careers?
Right. Can they have it? And you'll see everything that's been written.
It's a hot topic. Yes. So we're gonna we're gonna there's another expression, put a pin on this.
And then we can come back to that and have a whole discussion.
Lindsay, I know we're getting, you know, a lot of a lot of time has passed since the start of this episode.
Should we wrap it up? Yeah, let's wrap it up.
Let's leave our listeners with one key thought.
What should they keep in mind today? Well, keep in mind that you should look for things to enjoy outside of work.
And think about do you have something that you enjoy outside of work?
Are you mostly worried about work all the time?
And it doesn't need to be like a big thing.
Like you're like, you know, out like flying planes every weekend.
Like maybe it is just enjoying your children.
Maybe it is just like you realize that you're able like like for me, like it's just family time, honestly.
Like, yeah, you don't need a thousand hobbies.
Yeah. Right. And we've talked about hobbies, too.
So don't think, oh, no, I don't. I don't like, you know, do like I don't ride horses on the weekend.
I don't have a specific hobby. Like, I must hate my job.
Like, it's not that. Just just can you enjoy your time outside of work?
I think that's kind of the question. Yeah, build out your life and have people in your life that pull you away from your work and make sure, you know, that help you balance out your work.
It's really important the people in your life and the example they set for you, right?
And appreciate those people that help you with that.
Definitely, definitely. All right, Lindsay.
Well, this has been fun. Thanks for chatting with me today.
All right. Talk to you soon, Michelle. Take care.
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