Balancing work with home life

There is more to work than just salary and perks when trying to integrate career and family

When is a job not a job? When it drains you of all your energy, leaving nothing left for family, friends and hobbies. In these days of almost full employment, finding a job that is the right fit for the person and the company has never been more important. Get it wrong and staff move on quickly. Get it right and you've got happy employees and a business functioning well.

Nowadays, employees and employers are much more aware of the so-called work/life balance. The term itself might be a misnomer when you consider that many people spend much more time with their office colleagues than they do with their partners and families.

However, that hasn't prevented people from aspiring to a better balance and feeling stressed if they don't feel they've somehow achieved it .

Brian McIvor, a career change consultant who also coaches interviewees and interviewers says: "In our workshops, we get people to look at the balance between four areas - work, learning and personal development, fun and giving, which can be giving to relationships or to the wider community.

"If there are no learning or fun segments, you will stagnate or go into burnout. Some people also get to the point of realising I'm never going to have this time with family again, realising that their three-year-old son simply doesn't understand the demands of the corporate life."

However, compartmentalising your life may not work either because finding a good work/life balance is also about being able to bring more of yourself to your job, and to your home and social life.

"People have got to ask themselves how they can integrate the dimensions," explains McIvor. So, for example, what opportunities are there to relax with people at work? What learning opportunities are there outside of work? How can I find more fulfilment in my home life?

Corporate responsibility programmes and in-service training opportunities can sometimes give people new insight into how they can work better and accept different styles of working in others.

This insight can also help them function better outside of work. McIvor says that people also need to learn how to set personal goals and review those goals.

It's important to realise what motivates you as a person. Some people are achievement oriented in a corporate structure, some are motivated by affiliation to their colleagues or company while others are more motivated by their need for autonomy.

"The latter will find themselves in conflict with an over-structured work environment where staff are micromanaged," warns McIvor.

Understanding your career anchors will also help you work out whether a job is suitable for you. So, for instance, is making a difference in the world important to your sense of job fulfilment?

Do you like to work in an area where a specific level of expertise and knowledge can be developed? Or, are you principally motivated by money, regardless of the job specification?

Knowing whether you enjoy working as part of a small team, independently or in a large organisation will give you a sense of how you will adapt to a working environment.

Work-related stress has become the biggest problem in this booming economy. It seeps into other areas of people's lives even when jobs are in and of themselves very fulfilling.

Dermot Rice of Priority Management works with groups of employees, training them with better time management skills to reduce everyday stress at work.

"We teach people how to get normality back into their lives. But, there are companies out that expect people to work 12-hour days, and you really should clarify whether a company is a high pressure working environment before you go to work for them.

"But, what we find is that people who stay in until 7pm are probably wasting two hours of their day somewhere, " says Rice.

Priority Management's work smarter programme aims to teach people how to get the same amount of work done in less time.

"You can still maintain your output, without long hours, if you do more with the hours you have available," he claims.

"We teach people how to make the right decision for their company at the right time. So if you have your boss, colleague and a client all needing you at the same time, you have to prioritise the most important task by asking yourself what would happen if you ignored it.

"Once, you realise which person needs your attention most for the sake of the company (ie which would lose the company business) . . . the whole thing will fall into place and doesn't become dependent on who is shouting the loudest," explains Rice.

All in all, what most people want from their jobs is colleagues they get on well with and a boss who gives them opportunities to improve in areas of weakness.

Regardless of whether you are the chief executive or the newest recruit, these basic human needs don't change. A fair salary and enough time off to enjoy family, friends and hobbies is also crucial. Now, that doesn't sound like too much to ask for, does it?