The Importance of Balance for Work and Home

Career

Many people have stressful jobs. Many of them work long hours. Professionals in corporate America have a hard time leaving work at work. The stresses of deadlines, project completions, presentations, and interviews all are contributors as to why people bring work home. Having more time at home to prepare, to finish a chapter, to meet the deadline will solve the problems at work right?

Well, the fact of the matter is, more and more people are taking work home and having it get in the way of their personal lives. Certain jobs, such as portfolio managers, analysts, and investors who rely on the stock market all tend to have such problems. What could some of these problems be? The most common problems are related to stress, including stress induced health problems and insomnia.

I recently read a post entitled Napping at Work. They wrote:

Nowadays, a “bad day at the office” follows you home and taunts you with incessant bleeps and blinks. It’s no wonder we aren’t getting enough sleep. Employers and employees alike must decide for themselves when their individual work day ends and leave work AT work.

This is a conscious commitment you will need to make for your self, even if it is a highly stressful occupation that pays very well. You have to ask yourself, is it worth it. Here are some things that may happen if you decide to continue to bring your work home:

  1. Your significant other will feel neglected (this can be boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, cat or dog).
  2. You will lose sleep and go to work tired the next morning
  3. You will not be efficient at work because of your lack of sleep
  4. You may become caffeine addicted to artificially replace the energy 8 hours of sleep would bring
  5. Ulcers may develop
  6. Bags under your eyes (this one alone is why I try and leave work at work :) )

The bottom line is that you should find a way to have balance in your life. For you to be as efficient as you can at work, you need to be mentally, physically and emotionally charged and ready for the task at hand. The more rest you get, the more productive you will be. Imagine what would happen if you threw in a work out regimen…That might be a future post ;)

7 thoughts on “The Importance of Balance for Work and Home

  1. Sorry for not commenting before! lol I must have came by on blogmad or something.
    Anyways, about ulcers, lol definitely not fun. I much of a worrier myself, along with all the soda I would drink… those things are killer. Luckily there are medications to help you out now!

  2. I’m happy to say I haven’t experienced an ulcer before, but John may be able to speak to that

    1. Funny Jane! I “thought” I was getting an ulcer due to a 2 week period of high stress that caused stomach pains. Fortunately I went to the doctor right away, got a blood test and turned out it was not an ulcer. The key to this is to go see your doctor right away if you have symptoms because if they see it early, some anti-biotics should easily cure it.

  3. I’ve heard more and more American are going work from home, and some aiming for enterpreneurship. Btw, how true is the work from home, can make enough to survive? Work at corporates, no doubt is stressful. I think we have to keep on improving our skillsets in order to be more productive. There is always need some balance up between family and work. Just have to act fast and think fast

  4. I wonder if it is a matter of how we let it get to us? My uncle has been going on 4 hours of sleep since his teens, runs multiple businesses and is still, at 65 one of the sharpest people I know. He does pace himself and also keeps email under control instead of it controlling him.
    Whenever I am feeling any stress I will slow down my pace and find I work far more efficiently. It also helps to write things down instead of trying to have everything swirl around in your head.
    Even if I have several projects on my plate at once, I will make a manageable list and just roll up my sleeves and get to work, I find working on a project a lot less stressful than sitting around thinking about all the stuff I have to do

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