Work - It’s Personal

Sometimes, I don’t understand why work and life are defined as 2 different things. I mean, work IS a part of your life. I suppose it’s when work becomes part of your like excessively is why it must be split up from life. Is that what it means when work becomes personal?

The work/life balance is all about having enough time for yourself and your profession, correct? One part money maker, other part money spender. That’s pretty much what your experience from school or whatever is for, right? Just to make money to make ends meet, while saving a little for personal ventures?

Wanting to do well in a role you specialize in through studying or training or whatnot is normal. You want to make an impression, might earn you a promotion, show you have value, or that you’re a reliable, trustworthy colleague. Working hard is nothing new. What is difficult to grasp is how hard one is going to work and at what cost it is to them.

When I think of work becoming personal, I think of consistent long hours in the office, working on the weekend, or being trigger happy on your work phone due to paranoia of something requiring your attention off hours. Doing all this is with the belief that it’s going to get better. You’re going to get that promotion. Someone is going to recognize your for all that hard work and sacrifice and you’ll be rewarded for it. We do it because we have a goal and we continue going through the struggle bus expecting it’s going to relieve us from the harsh journey.

I’m not saying don’t do any of this. I mean, I’ve seen people earn their fair share of success after months of not having time to invest in time of their own, away from the office. However, I’ve also seen people on the brink of failure, overworked, disheveled, literally on the ground having miniature panic attacks, those feelings of burnout. If you haven’t caught on yet, talking about myself here.

Well, I’m still standing somehow, with the success of several learning experiences coming out of it, if I came out of it at all. I’m still trigger happy on my work phone, email and chat still on, expecting some fire alarm to go off. Hey, maybe this is bigger than work/life balance. It could be a cultural problem. Who knows? A topic for another day.

I am so burned out, I’ve rewritten this twice over the course of 2 months, even refusing to write it because I was too tired. It probably still sucks.