In this current age, no matter where you are, people are more prone to work longer hours than in the past. In 2013, there is an article that says Netherlands is the country with the lowest working hours (about 29 hours per week), followed by Denmark (33 hours per week). How about Asian country? I saw another article in 2013 that summarize the average working hour per year. In this data, Korean works the longest compare to all. Considering about 50 work weeks and 5 days a week, in average, they work about 44 hours a week. Not too bad right? I know some people from another country that they work for 14-16 hours a day and 6 days a week, totaling 84 – 96 hours a week. Even though sometimes, it’s not directly correlated the life satisfaction with the number of hours spend in working, it does affecting how your psychological well being if you spend a lot of time in the workplace. I’m not sure whether it’s for everyone, but I felt that way when I spend more time at work. it ruined my health, my relationship and my productivity at the workplace.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing to work long hours, but if you keep up with work, do you realize what things you sacrifice? In today’s blog, I want to argue that we are a social being. Working for a long hours, even though we might be socializing in the work place, make us not having satisfaction in life. Some people say, if you’re working the job you love, you won’t feel burdened by the job and feel that you are more alive than not working. But you are sacrificing time with your family and friends. At the end of the day, have you ever think, why do you work really hard for this? If you’re saying that you are doing all this to support your family, do they appreciate what you do and what kind of impact that you leave to your family?
I’m not saying that you should not work hard on your job. If it’s really required, then spend more time to finish your job. But then, there’s always something that you need to do at the workplace. So, how to know enough is enough?
There are 3 things that I want you to do in terms of working:
1. Prioritize
I’m sure everyone in your life will set their priority in your life. Your parents, your spouse, your boss, etc. Do you want that to always happen? Of course, they have thought what’s best for you, but there’s time when it will be conflicting with each other. Have you ever experience that? your project at work is important, and your family is also important. When the request collide, which one do you choose? I let you and myself answer it with our action. For me, I can think of excuses or seems the right thing to spend time at work. I still need to learn more on this. I don’t remember where I heard this, but people who spend most of the time at work, thinking that they are doing this for their family, are not bringing any other impact to the family other than bringing money for the family. But is that enough?
Some research mentioned in 2011 and 2012 that people who lost their father, are more likely to end up doing and experience bad things because of their lack of role model from their father. Are you one of them? Are you the one that spend most of the time molding your kids into one of the future problem unintentionally? There’s might be an outliers in this research, but it’s better to invest the time in the family while you can before it’s too late.
In this current age, for most people, it is not possible for them to not working. I know the importance of it. But regardless the situation, spend some time at home and be present for your family. We need to spend quality time with our family. It’s good if you can spend quantity time with them also, but if it’s really not possible, spend your precious time together. I know the feeling of being distanced with family. In the past, the long hours has almost taken it’s toll. It made me to lost connection with my spouse and parents. Spend more time with your love ones while you can, before other people with bad intention and more time spend their time with them.
2. Set your working time
I think, most men will have problem with this, because we like to feel good by accomplishing something. And doing well at our work place is one of them. Sometime it is not possible to set a limit in your working time due to your working nature. Being in an emergency line such as police, nurse, fire fighter, etc might cause you not to have the flexibility. Or even for IT support on weekly shift rotation, fisherman, or oil rig worker, might be hard to do that.
I don’t know how you cope with your work schedule. But currently, I’m learning to set a limit in my work schedule and I’m trying to set my annual leave when it’s possible. Being a programmer who mostly works in project based job, my time will be based on project schedule. Even though it’s a good thing to be busy in projects, but at the end, I’ll be moving from one project to another without any break. Most of the time, it is hard to adjust the time, but I don’t want this to be the norm. I hope I can give my plan first, so that the company and I will be able to work and manage better the project. It might not be relevant for everyone, but if you can, do it.
3. Leave work in your workplace
This is still true even if you’re working from home. Set a boundary where you think about work in your workplace. While you’re at home, remember to be present. It is good when you are able to be at home, but it is useless if your mind is wandering away.
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If you are working at home, make a room or location as your working space only. Try not to mix the function with other things. For example, where ever possible, don’t mix with your living room, dining room, especially not your bedroom. I’ve read it somewhere, at least about bedroom, that it makes your brain confuse. In the sense that it will reverse your mind. it might be that your mind tell you to sleep while you’re working, or tell you to work while you’re going to sleep. It’s not a good thing to mix.
There are many suggestion about working and your time with family out there. I hope we can start making a different by doing what it is suggested. It might not work for everyone, but if it’s working for you, then let us do it. The end goal is to have a work-life balance. By doing that, it eliminate or reduce the chance of you getting sick physically and mentally. So, now, Work vs family, which one do you choose?
I’d love to hear your suggestion on what to do to make spending time more with family. or any other comments about this topic that you might have.
“Spend time with your loved ones before someone else does”
Proverbs 22:6 Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
