19 Aug 2007, ST
By Mathew Pereira
Ten years ago when I was working as a sub-editor at the Foreign Desk of this newspaper, I started asking myself if a career in journalism was what I really wanted.
Work started at 3pm and except for a slight lag in the first hour or so, the constant updates to make sure readers got the latest in international news meant that work was relentless and the pace hectic. There was little time for chit-chat with colleagues.
Because of the workload, we would step out only to buy dinner and have our meals by our computer terminals while we worked.
It would be 2am by the time I got home, and my family would of course be asleep. By the time I woke up, the family would be out at work or in school, and I would be out of the house again before they got home.
Weekends weren't great either. I would have to work either on Saturday or Sunday. This meant that one of my rest days would fall on a weekday when my wife was working and kids in school. In effect, there was only one day in the week that I could spend with my family.
I did not want my kids to grow up with me out of the picture, so I decided I would get up every morning at six to catch them at breakfast and drive them to school just so I could have 30 minutes a day with them.
Most of my colleagues got up only at noon - six hours after I was up. This routine left me exhausted and in a perpetual sleep-deprived state.
I would catch a snooze every opportunity I got. My kids got used to me pulling up my handbrakes at the traffic light and telling them: 'Wake me up when the lights turn green.'
It was not the work that left me in this state, but trying to maintain a balanced family life as well.
But my gallant efforts were not enough.
A friend pulled me aside one day and told me that I was not spending enough time with my family. 'You need to quit your job,' he said.
He was one of those who felt that some jobs just do not allow a person to have a work-life balance and that journalism was one of them. But I couldn't take up his suggestion. I enjoyed my work. And, lucky for me, I was later posted to a section with saner hours.
But many of us parents forget how much the family needs us, and some of us even believe that work-life balance should be something one can only hope for later in life.
Once, while chatting with a friend who had become a recent father, I asked if he would consider switching jobs given that his current one required him to travel so much.
My question agitated him somewhat. He said it was easy for me to talk about balance as he felt I had reached a level where my job was secure and salary comfortable.
But he needed to skew the balance towards work now so that he attains financial success; he would seek work-life balance later.
I don't deny that there is some truth in what he said, but I still maintain that striving for this balance should start early on in your working life.
On the one hand, work-life balance helps sustain a worker. Knowing that he is able to work and at the same time maintain his family, friends and other interests would keep him at his job.
These workers tend to score both in quality and quantity, and they also make better colleagues.
The emotional recharge they get from outside the office, and the skills and contacts developed are often transferable to the office.
On the other hand, I know a number of people much younger than me who went into their work with so much zeal they gave up everything else, only to burn out just three or four years into their career.
But there is a bigger reason I hope the Government's latest move to push for this balance will not lose momentum.
Other than keeping workers and their family members sane, this balance will save marriages and families. It will prevent children being brought up in a home where the father or both parents are absent.
There are enough statistics to prove how much more inclined these kids are to getting into all sorts of trouble. Pushing for a work-life balance could pre-empt such dangers.
But I am realistic. For some workers, achieving work-life balance will entail a trade-off in terms of promotions and money. If my bosses allow me to work from home, I would be prepared to put in the same amount of work and take a 10 per cent pay cut.
Finding that sacred middle ground between work and life outside is not simple. It is so much easier to swing more towards work.
For me, one good reminder not to go overboard with work came from the same friend who asked me to quit my job.
He said that one regret many people express on their death beds is how they wished they had spent more time with their family.
No one, as far as he knows, has ever said: 'I wish I had spent more time in the office.'
Somewhat melodramatic, but a good reminder.
By Mathew Pereira
Ten years ago when I was working as a sub-editor at the Foreign Desk of this newspaper, I started asking myself if a career in journalism was what I really wanted.
Work started at 3pm and except for a slight lag in the first hour or so, the constant updates to make sure readers got the latest in international news meant that work was relentless and the pace hectic. There was little time for chit-chat with colleagues.
Because of the workload, we would step out only to buy dinner and have our meals by our computer terminals while we worked.
It would be 2am by the time I got home, and my family would of course be asleep. By the time I woke up, the family would be out at work or in school, and I would be out of the house again before they got home.
Weekends weren't great either. I would have to work either on Saturday or Sunday. This meant that one of my rest days would fall on a weekday when my wife was working and kids in school. In effect, there was only one day in the week that I could spend with my family.
I did not want my kids to grow up with me out of the picture, so I decided I would get up every morning at six to catch them at breakfast and drive them to school just so I could have 30 minutes a day with them.
Most of my colleagues got up only at noon - six hours after I was up. This routine left me exhausted and in a perpetual sleep-deprived state.
I would catch a snooze every opportunity I got. My kids got used to me pulling up my handbrakes at the traffic light and telling them: 'Wake me up when the lights turn green.'
It was not the work that left me in this state, but trying to maintain a balanced family life as well.
But my gallant efforts were not enough.
A friend pulled me aside one day and told me that I was not spending enough time with my family. 'You need to quit your job,' he said.
He was one of those who felt that some jobs just do not allow a person to have a work-life balance and that journalism was one of them. But I couldn't take up his suggestion. I enjoyed my work. And, lucky for me, I was later posted to a section with saner hours.
But many of us parents forget how much the family needs us, and some of us even believe that work-life balance should be something one can only hope for later in life.
Once, while chatting with a friend who had become a recent father, I asked if he would consider switching jobs given that his current one required him to travel so much.
My question agitated him somewhat. He said it was easy for me to talk about balance as he felt I had reached a level where my job was secure and salary comfortable.
But he needed to skew the balance towards work now so that he attains financial success; he would seek work-life balance later.
I don't deny that there is some truth in what he said, but I still maintain that striving for this balance should start early on in your working life.
On the one hand, work-life balance helps sustain a worker. Knowing that he is able to work and at the same time maintain his family, friends and other interests would keep him at his job.
These workers tend to score both in quality and quantity, and they also make better colleagues.
The emotional recharge they get from outside the office, and the skills and contacts developed are often transferable to the office.
On the other hand, I know a number of people much younger than me who went into their work with so much zeal they gave up everything else, only to burn out just three or four years into their career.
But there is a bigger reason I hope the Government's latest move to push for this balance will not lose momentum.
Other than keeping workers and their family members sane, this balance will save marriages and families. It will prevent children being brought up in a home where the father or both parents are absent.
There are enough statistics to prove how much more inclined these kids are to getting into all sorts of trouble. Pushing for a work-life balance could pre-empt such dangers.
But I am realistic. For some workers, achieving work-life balance will entail a trade-off in terms of promotions and money. If my bosses allow me to work from home, I would be prepared to put in the same amount of work and take a 10 per cent pay cut.
Finding that sacred middle ground between work and life outside is not simple. It is so much easier to swing more towards work.
For me, one good reminder not to go overboard with work came from the same friend who asked me to quit my job.
He said that one regret many people express on their death beds is how they wished they had spent more time with their family.
No one, as far as he knows, has ever said: 'I wish I had spent more time in the office.'
Somewhat melodramatic, but a good reminder.
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