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Entries for archive: 2009-01

Found 2 entries.

How is your Work/Life Balance?

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Recently I and a few of my work colleagues have been having an interesting time of it. Our project is pretty busy at the moment and it does make you think of the work/life balance.

As you all know, I have been trying to do a four day week recently but haven't been having any luck. I was four days for September and October but back to five days for November and December at the request of my employer. Again when I wanted to be back to four days in January, I was asked if I could do five.

Of course, I said '\i{yes}' because it's hard to refuse when your colleagues are also your friends.

The Problem

But since early January the project has been even busier and there is currently no let up in the amount of work we have to do. For the first 21 days of January, I was in work for at least a few hours (if not usually a full or even longer day) for 17 of them. If I were on a five day week I'd have normally done 13 days and on a four day week I really should have done just 10 days.

I also just cut short a holiday I had pre-planned from five days to just three.

And this is my problem. When someone asks me if I can do something, I invariably say yes. It's silly, I know and it's completely my fault but as I said earlier, I guess I find it hard to say no, especially to people I like.

Work/Life Balance

Unfortunately this does nothing for my work/life balance. My original four day work week dream is not only not happening but pretty much completely shattered. Again, as in November and December I have noticed that I have less time to do the things I enjoy. I have:

• hardly been on my bike in January at all (maybe three times)
• not really cooked a good meal at home
• not kept up with simplifying my life
• hardly spoken to my family in the UK
• missed a neice's birthday for which I will be eternally sorry

I even managed to somehow lose a DVD which I had sold on an internet auction site. I have no idea where it is and I shall be reimbursing the purchasers' price and postage. Not only have I lost out on a few extra dollars, I'm sure I won't get a good rating from the other trader.

So as you can see, my life has both gone out of whack and been pretty much non-existant. I have still seen a few friends here and there but not as many as I would usually. I usually go for coffee with a particular set of friends at least one weekend in each month and since the New Year, I have had to delay it every single weekend and now, there's not even a full weekend left to do it in (this Saturday will also be taken up working).

Extra Work and Who It Affects

We sometimes say to ourselves that "it'll be okay", "it'll calm down soon" or "we'll be able to relax afterwards" but none of these statements are ever true. Firstly, it's not okay when the extra work time starts affecting your family. Secondly it never calms down since commercial projects are incessantly going forward always with something to do. And finally, you don't get time to relax since once the project is done, all the things that need to be fixed up come back and haunt you for weeks if not months afterwards.

Out of those points though, the first is the most interesting in this conversation. Many times we buffer those around us from the realities of having to work overtime. We manage to shield our loved ones from the harsher realities such as nightmares (about work), arguments within work or even just plain old tiredness (whether physical or mental).

But sometimes our buffers become thin or cracks start to show. When working 14 consecutive days, it's hard to shield it anymore from those around us. We start complaining about the smallest things, we're grumpy and we're tired.

And as soon as you start to show it, your family sees it too.

Suddenly your homelife isn't as good as it was, your relationships don't sit as well and your family and friends start complaining that they never see you anymore. I know this because some friends of mine have been complaining for almost two weeks now. My response however is "There's nothing I can do".

Saying What we Don't Believe

Of course, there is something we can do about it and that is to push back on unrealistic work schedules. Having to work extra days, overtime and lunchtimes because of something that is out of your control is pretty demoralising. I have been on projects in the past which had crazy schedules but this particular one is fast becoming one of the hardest I've ever had to work on. Let me also qualify that by saying that on one of my previous projects I had to support a scientific space telescope for the European Space Agency for months beforehand, months after and 12 hours per day for well over a week around launch. So I know about high profile and expensive projects.

Today then, I decided that I shall give my all until project launch which will take us to around the end of January. After that however, I expect I'll not only be back on the four day work weeks but also back to normal hours too. It'll still be busy after launch I know but realities are kicking in now and I know that working these long hours is not good for either myself or those around me.

Instead of believing then that "there is nothing I can do", I shall be instead believing that my dream of a four day work week will soon become reality again - and this time, actually make it happen. Any future projects will just have to schedule me for four instead of five days per week.

Why?

Because I want the 'life' part of my 'work/life' balance back!

How do you put a control on the work part of your work/life balance?

Labels: planning, living, working

Inserted: 2009-01-26 01:11 (1 year, 6 months ago)

Are you a spender or a Saver? Can you Change?

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Jonathan at Master your Card wrote a guest entry over at Four Pillars. It was titled How to Change Your Financial Personality. I found it an intriguing article and got me thinking.

Here's part of the comment I left over there:

I used to be a spender (with a few savings) but now I’m a saver (with a few spendings). I think you’re right, we do flit and flirt between them but I now know I’m on the right track and probably won’t ever become a 'spender' again.

As I've mentioned before, since September last year many things about my life has changed and pretty much all of those have been for the better. I really don't spend as much as I used to which has afforded me the freedom to work a four day week and spend more time doing the things I enjoy.

My Changes

Therefore change for me was actually surprisingly easy. Of course, my change was enforced since I wouldn't have been able to sustain my previous spender lifestyle and be able to only work four days.

I bumped into an ex-boss the other day and we got chatting how things were. I told him that I was working a four day week and he immediately asked: "And you can afford that?"

I replied: "Well, you make yourself afford it." I'm not sure whether he actually liked the answer since I'm sure there are many people who would say that they couldn't but the truth of the matter is, many people can, if they only curb their lifestyle slightly.

I'm not going to make this a long blog entry since Johnathan wrote a great article. Also because there are a few other things I want to touch on before I go. However, one thing that stuck in my head about all this is whether each of us has the ability to change.

What do you think? Can you change? Let me know whether you have, you can or you will.

Changes in the 'Andy @ Retire at 40' World

As you can see, I have a brand new blog with my own domain now. It is all very exciting and I even managed to migrate all my old entries and comments over to the new one.

I know this is a lot to ask but if you have a link to Retire at 40 in your blogroll, can you please update the link so that any of your readers coming here won't have to go through BlogSpot to be redirected. Many, many thanks to each of you, I owe you one big time.

Hopefully, you good people who have already subscribed to the blog will automatically come here from now on since my feed now points to the right place. You're also in luck since there are quite a few interesting features planned for this site over the next few months so if you're not already subscribed, do so now so you don't miss out (that big orange RSS icon in the corner is what you're after).

By the way, thank you to everyone who has subscribed to 'Retire at 40' recently. I thought getting to 100 subscribers by month 3 was pretty exciting but I seem to have gained about another 50 in the past month (pending what happens with the blog move). Welcome to all of you.

Also, be sure to contact me to say hi, talk about PF, point me to an article, ask me a question or just to chat about anything at all. It's great hearing from you guys.

Finally, I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and keep enjoying the blog now that I am back.

Labels: planning, saving, spending

Inserted: 2009-01-07 23:18 (1 year, 6 months ago)