Tipping the Scales on the Side of Work

It's okay to be working very hard and keeping very busy, but if we find that the scales are always tipping on the side of work, and we're feeling negatively about the work we're having to do, then we are not leading very balanced lives. Those negative feelings of overwork will have repercussions in every facet of our lives. And if there is a gap between what we feel is important for us to be doing in our leisure time and what we actually do in our leisure time lives, we may find that we're not as satisfied as we would like to be. Perhaps our lifestyle has simply become a workstyle.

Things can become problematic when we perceive or feel that we are losing our lifestyles to total workstyles. For example, do some of these activities indicate what could be described as a workstyle for you?

		going to work earlier, working lunch hours and leaving later to get the extra work done
		sacrificing evenings and weekends to meet work deadlines
		running from one activity to the next
		falling behind with one's household functions (cleaning, washing, cooking, doing yard work)
		feeling harried about getting ready for special family occasions such as celebrating birthdays and the holidays
		no longer feeling human because there's just no time for "self"

Do you find you have little time left after all the daily requirements of running a home, caring for a family and meeting other commitments? If you do manage to squeeze in some time for yourself, is it done at the same frenzied pace as everything else you must do? Is it as beneficial to yourself as you would like to believe? To truly enjoy and appreciate a leisure activity, we must not only have the time but also be positively involved.

To help us focus on what we want to do, first and foremost, we must have realistic expectations of ourselves. We mustn't drive ourselves crazy by feeling that we have to have perfectly balanced work lives and perfectly balanced leisure lives. The scales will tip back and forth between the time we spend at work and at play, and often tip more to one side than the other. We must be aware of those times and sometimes make some adjustments.

Finding Leisure in Today's Hectic World

Forecasts that we would spend fewer hours at our jobs and have more hours of leisure on our hands are not materializing. As the employment picture has changed dramatically with cutbacks in budgets and staff, company mergers and downsizing, the opposite situation has often been created.

The reality for many people is longer hours at their jobs and fewer hours of leisure. When employees are let go, the remaining staff are often left to face a greater workload. The uncertainty of one's job among today's workers has generated an obsessive need to prove one's worth by putting in those longer hours.

And for some people, part-time employment is the norm, not the exception. Economics have made it necessary for two or three part-time jobs to be held in order to survive financially. Running from one daily job location to the next within a limited time has made the logistics of just getting to work a true balancing act. Often there is even less leisure time to juggle when one must focus on several part-time jobs.

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