Do you think you have a good work/life balance?

[Labradabradorable]

And if yes, how many hours/ days do you work? What help/support do you have? How would you change things if you could?

Like lots of people, the demands of lockdown, running a business, running a home, looking after family has been hard. I've decided to use the return to normality to try to find a better balance, even if we'll take a bit of a financial hit. Kids are older primary age, but ideally, I'd love a day off in the week to get some admin done, and to exercise my increasingly creaky joints. I also want to be there more for the kids after school (actually there for them, not working on the computer in the same house as them).

I'd love to hear people's experiences.

I work 17.5 hours in my day job and run a small business, sometimes working in the evenings. One of my D.C. has complex needs so the flexibility of part time plus business gives me space for health appointments etc. I’m not sure the balance is wholly right (and I’m a bit in the doldrums career wise), but it works for us mostly. The kids go to aftercare 3 days a week and have after school activities 2 days a week and a tutor once a week. My work pattern means I can take them, supervise homework etc. I also have a cleaner once a week to help keep on top of things.

It’s a juggle but works well. Older primary age kids here too.

I have

Thanks Jellycats My 'new' pattern looks like it will be 3 working days (with after school care for two of those days) and a morning to catch up with admin. I really struggle to work in the evenings, although when I get going I'm quite efficient. I sometimes take a couple of hours at the weekend to catch up on accounts etc. Like you, I'm not sure my career is flying high, but I'm doing okay.

I think the reality is that something has to give and for me it means staying out in my career just now. Luckily I had built a good career before kids, so I’m in a well paid, secure job, I’m just a bit bored with it.

I tend to do admin during the day when kids are at school - I aim to have one clear day in my week for whatever needs doing, this week it’ll be sorting out summer childcare. My evening work involves meeting clients, which I can find more motivation for than doing paperwork at night. It’s definitely a juggle but I wouldn’t do a full time, higher pressure job at this point because that would affect my work life balance and would also impact the kids and my DH in terms of their balance too. I’ll see how things look when the kids move to high school.

I'm grappelling with this. Have gone part time but am ending up very stressed as work needs doing on non working days. I recommend thinking carefully about whether going part time really gives what you need. I also compress some time working 4 days in 3 but in reality I get very little uninterrupted time to deal with life admin!

I think I do, I work 22.5h across 3 days, wfh atm but should be going back to the office one or two days a week in June.

There's more than 1 of us that can do my role and the tasks don't tend to carry over to the next day (lots of short adminy things) so I don't think about it all on my days off. I think that makes a big difference.

On my days off I try and catch up with housework, play with the baby, and visit my DM.

I would like our flat to be a bit cleaner (we keep on top of the day to day stuff but rarely manage a deep clean) but we are saving for a deposit so can't really justify a cleaner. Hopefully we'll get one when we move.

Work spilling over into non-work days has been a big issue for me, and part of the reason I am looking to make a change. I feel so much better even after a day completely 'off'.

I do have a cleaner. She has been here all day today, and hasn't stopped, while I have been working. I guess if I didn't have her, either the house would be much grubbier and less organised, or I'd have to find time to do those tasks in the evenings and at weekends (I feel like I do quite a lot of housework then anyway!)

I work full time but work flexibly and from home (outside of Covid too). This gives me all the balance I need tbh. It pays enough that I can afford a cleaner so don't have to worry about that and have the financial freedom to live life (mostly!) how I'd like to, also have the security to know I can support myself and have an excellent pension.

But I still take the kids to school every day, only use after school club a few nights a week, pop a load of washing on in the mornings, empty the dishwasher at lunch (when DH isn't working away, when he's around then he usually does laundry and dishwasher tbh! I cook and do the shopping-online ) and I usually do some exercise at lunch too. Working flexibly enables me to attend anything I need to in the week such as school assemblies when such things existed. I used to be part time, but genuinely feel very comfortable with the balance I have and don't know what I'd do with a day off, I worry I'd just eat ha!

My WLB is pretty good.
Our service is open from either 7.00 or 8.00am depending on the day and shuts between 10pm and 11pm depending on the day.
It's shift work and I like that. I don't want mon to Friday 9/5.
What's good about it is that we are rota 'ed in for a certain amount of hours where we are expected to be on duty and deal with any emergency situations. The rest if the week you make your hours up depending on what you want to do/ what meetings you have / what training you are doing.
I often do 10 hour days so that I can have 3 days off a week. Sometimes I may do a split shift and do a few hours in the morning, meet my friends for lunch and work from home for a few hours.
As long as you let the person on the duty shift know when you are working and keep Outlook calendar updated it's fine.

You can always requested a particular night iff if it clashes with a personal engagement if the rotas have already gone out someone will usually do a swop with you.

A few other departments also work this way so I can synch with my friends in other teams to meet up socially.

Some staff want a more structured and management have been able to do this. Some staff want their work hours over 5 days and that is fine as well. They are able to dro their kids at school, work do the pick up and make any hours owing up at some point in the week.
As long as you are available for your duty shift, attend relevant meetings and training and plan your work everything is ok.

Christ, no. I work way too many hours. Take the dc to the school bus at 8, log on by 8.20, work until 7-8pm, put dc to bed, log on again until midnight. We have no staff and the work is endless. I'd love to just stop when my hours end but am a CAMHS nurse so would be letting people down.

@Stompythedinosaur Wow, that's some schedule. I did a stint in CAMHS in the dim and distant past (I'm a psychologist) and can't imagine how emotionally exhausting that workload must be. I'm in private practice now, and something I've had to put work into is having other psychologists to refer on to, as I can't just say no (I've also had to work on just saying no, with the help of my clinical supervisor, but with way less success!).

Yes I do, although I work full time it’s 35 hours a week from home and tbh so long as I get everything done I still manage to finish early, start late, basically work around my own life.

I am extremely lucky to be in this position and tbh although my job is boring I’m not willing to change it because of the convenience.

3 days a week with school holidays off. Yes I have a good work life balance.

I think private practice is particularly challenging for work life balance, especially if you work out of home. My business is a private psychotherapy practice and it’s a constant balancing act to keep a good level of clients, enough money coming in and enough headspace. Being able to refer on is absolutely essential.

Jellycatspyjamas I agree. I don’t do therapeutic work, but do quite a bit of consultation work, which can get very stressful and ‘bitty’ from an admin perspective. And it’s so easy to say yes to a ‘quick’ consultation now I can do it via Zoom, but I then have to write up or it’s sitting in my shoulder for the rest of the day. Also, I forget to put time aside for CPD and supervision ( an hour a month and a full day five times a year for peer supervision). Then I end up playing catch up. I must be more boundaried with days off, that would make a big change for me.