And so it happens that this week turned out just the way I think every week should – a three-day weekend, followed by a three-day working week, followed by a three-day weekend.
The real work-life balance.
If you have read some of my earlier posts about work-life and balancing it you will know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t, hop over to those posts right after this [links served at the end of this one] .
The reason I take a helluva objection to the whole debate is, hell, why are we even talking about balancing our personal life and work life? It’s not two things. It’s life. And to live it in a certain way we envision it, we work.
And what happens slowly and silently without us even being aware of it?
Work gently eases in and seeps into every corner, takes hold of our thoughts and actions and finally like cancer consumes our whole core of existence, creating more and more room for itself and less and less room for us to live the life we envisioned for ourselves to start with.
And then we create professionals who come in and train us on finding the work-life balance. Irony of it all, is these people have chosen that as a profession. It’s suddenly their work to help us find that work-life balance.
And so they work through the night to prepare power point presentations to deliver their training.
People, we are all sheep on a hillside, hopelessly lost, refusing to see it, hating to admit it.
The links I promised – It’s Not What You Think and Words of Wisdom! | !modsiW fo sdroW
7 responses so far ↓
Valuable Internet Information » The Week That Just Was: Perfect Work-life Balance! // October 5, 2009 at 8:04 pm |
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Ramki // October 6, 2009 at 4:54 pm |
Sad, but quite true and we are not realizing it. The people who have realized cant do anything about it.
JustPathe // October 12, 2009 at 9:45 am |
Yes. Very true. Awareness only means some of us do our work like zombies. But what to do? I think it needs to slowly become a movement. See Karthiks comment I think he has a very valuable point on this.
K // October 12, 2009 at 7:54 am |
Machan, as I am waiting for the Harley video to load, I thought I’ll share with you my mildly-solicited gyan on life and work – Look around you. Isnt it amazing that the entire world has reconciled itself to a monday – friday (forget the call center guys and the middle east ), 9 AM – 5 PM regimen, for no earth-shattering reason? Do you know of a company that works 3 days a week? or on alternate days? There is no theory (to the best of my knowledge) that proves that the 5 day week is the most productive schedule. Yet we follow it. More people follow this than islam or christianity. Its our religion. Yet, it is only in the mind. You can actually break out, if you really want to. OK….the video has loaded!
JustPathe // October 12, 2009 at 10:01 am |
Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana, Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani[You have a right to perform your prescribed action,but you are not entitled to the fruits of your action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results your activities,and never be associated to not doing your duty]
I dont know about religion etc. But I guess culturally we have been thinking of work as progress to a great state of mind, duty etc. Which is all fine, but no one said you need to get suffocated, overwhelmed engulfed and smothered by your work, fight with your spouse, raise children that turn out cranky, selfish, obsessed and obnoxious (oh so cute) and even mentally unstable because you were doing your work-worship with more dedication than giving your child the time it needed to be raised. You neglect your health, slip into a sedentary desk job, put on weight , get your arteries clogged, overlook your little joys, give up your fancy for music just to work a few hours more,…..a cause that is not even yours to begin with.
I want an alternate working day. I want a 3 day week. i want to chose it the way i want. I want work to be a pursuit of higher state of mind and incidentally give me the ‘duddu’ to buy the silly foodu and the shelter and the fabric so I will continue to have private parts instead of public parts.
Savannah // October 17, 2009 at 6:30 pm |
Awesome blog!
I thought about starting my own blog too but I’m just too lazy so, I guess I‘ll just have to keep checking yours out.
LOL,
P3 // October 22, 2009 at 2:48 pm |
Great eye opener this one. Nobody forces us to work extra. We do so because we wish to. If I do not, someone else will, and get that promotion, and hence I do. But is this achieving what I am aiming for in life? Am I at all aiming for anything?
The point about raising cranky and obnoxious children. This is so serious. Do we realize that if this is it then what is the future generation looking like? Kids who are devoid of values, thanks to the free knowledge distributed on Television and even Newspapers. Kids are pampered because the guilty conscience of the parent tells him or her “Atleast let me spend money on them if I can’t spend time”.
Hey, and no amount of tuition is going to teach them to be good citizens and kind human beings!! I think we all owe the society to bring up children such that they can face the world of tomorrow with grace and humanity. If nothing else, this is what we need to give back to humankind. And this is a choice we have to make for our own child’s secure future. All the education and life plans and savings we do for the apple of our eye will be worthwhile only if the world has some good considerate and thoughtful people around then when we aren’t, and we need to ensure that we create those.
I remember the quote of William Wordsworth ‘The child is father of the man’. It is necessary to groom children to adopt healthy attitudes and positive traits so that they grow up to be balanced individuals for the world of tomorrow. And for this we have to invest time, period!!