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Today's tip is powered by National University.
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If you are thinking about going back to school, you're probably wondering how to fit it all in.
National's flexible online formats, four- and eight-week courses and monthly class starts help you begin your degree sooner, finish faster and do it all on your own schedule.
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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeart Radio.
Good morning.
This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is that, as you are considering a new job or any sort of career move, consider the substance of the work first.
Then you can address questions like work-life balance.
Balance is not a good in its own right.
And if you seek out work for the schedule first, you can wind up bored or unhappy, which won't help with your work-life balance at all.
Because I write about issues of work and family.
I sometimes hear from people who are trying to find jobs that allow for what we often call work-life balance.
People want to be able to spend time in the evenings with their families, or to be able to drop kids off at school or deal with the occasional during-the-workday personal event without it being a crisis.
I totally understand this.
Flexibility is a definite upside for me of running my own business.
But I didn't set out to have a flexible business.
I wanted to write about what I wanted to write about.
And I know there have never been a lot of traditional, well-paying jobs that would allow me to do that.
The most profitable way to build my career was to go out on my own.
Flexibility turns out to be a perk of my version of self-employment, but it is not the reason for my job choice.
Unfortunately, I hear from people who have gotten burned out in stressful jobs and they start hunting for anything that will provide more balance.
And for a while, this can feel great.
If you used to travel every week and have people call you at 9pm every night with stuff that has to be done before 8am in the morning.
It is exhilarating to leave the office at 430 knowing that no one is going to bother you.
You will glow with gratitude going to a school play at 11 am, knowing that no one is going to give you grief about it.
But, and you knew there was a but coming here, often that glow fades in time.
You can't live on balance alone.
Many of the people who started out in those more stressful jobs did so because they are ambitious people who like to be challenged.
They also like to be paid a lot.
Jobs taken primarily because they offer balance don't always meet those needs.
People wind up unhappy because they are bored.
They start feeling underpaid.
Then perhaps it's off to find a new job.
But again, if it needs to have a strict definition of balance, this can cut off a lot of options.
If you declare that you will never travel for work, that is going to limit you more than if you are open to traveling two to three days a month.
If you declare that you will never take work home, That is going to limit you more than if you find a fascinating organization where you can build a team that gets good work done on reasonable timeframes.
So here is my take.
I think it is best to focus on substance first and balance after that.
Figure out what kind of work you'd like to do, or look for a job where the core of your work is something that excites you.
Find colleagues who you find interesting and fun to work with.
Then negotiate the balance you want or simply be bold and seize it.
I have seen this be possible for all sorts of jobs as people gain seniority.
And they might work in fields like law or medicine or consulting or tech that aren't exactly known for work-life balance, but these jobs do tend to be interesting and highly paid.
So folks who want to have a personal life figure out ways to keep working and advancing while doing what they need to or want to outside of work.
You take an hour off in the middle of the day to go to a kid's class, but do a phone call at 9 pm, after your kid is in bed, and you just don't make a big deal about it.
As you get more senior, you can do more and more of what you want leaving in the middle of the day to meet a kid's bus and continuing to work remotely after that, for instance.
If you are the top person on a team, people do often figure out ways to accommodate you.
Beyond that reality, I think the phrase work-life balance is problematic for all sorts of reasons.
First, people tend to use it to mean working less, but very few people spend most of their hours working.
There are 168 hours in a week.
If you sleep eight hours a night, so that's 56 hours per week and work 40 hours per week, that leaves 72 hours for other things.
That's almost twice as much time as you are working.
It's hard to see what's particularly balanced about working 30 hours and having 82 hours for other things, or working 20 hours and having 92 hours for other things.
Those may be perfectly fine setups for life, but they aren't exactly balanced.
The phrase work-life balance also implies that work and life are at odds with the two, on opposite sides of the scale.
I am not sure that is the case.
I know that when I am working on something really exciting and I feel like I'm winning at work, I have more energy for everything.
There's also nothing particularly balanced about tolerating your work and even counting the hours until you get to life, even if there aren't as many hours to count.
I suspect that a lot of people would be happier working 40 to 45 hours a week in work they love than 35 hours a week in work where they'd feel bored and underpaid.
Now, of course, if the 40-hour work week was also boring and underpaid, that would be even worse.
But when you like the substance of your job, that is probably not going to be the case.
Substance first, balance after that.
That's the recipe for a happier life and career than seeking out balance above everything else.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Hey, everybody.
I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at beforebreakfastpod.
That's B-E, the number four, then breakfast, P-O-D.
You can also shoot me an email at beforebreakfastpodcast at iheartmedia.com.
That before breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much.
I look forward to staying in touch.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Radio.
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey listeners, today's tip is powered by National University.
Before breakfast.
You know my goal is to help you make the most of your day without sacrificing work or family time.
That's why I'm so happy to introduce an institution that shares the same values.
If you are thinking about going back to school, you're probably wondering how to fit it all in.
National's flexible online formats, four- and eight-week courses and monthly class starts help you begin your degree sooner, finish faster and do it all on your own schedule.
So you have more options for managing work, family, and school.
With over 150 degrees, credentials and certificates to choose from, they have a program that fits your career goals.
Learn more today at nu.edu.
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