Chasing Equilibrium Finding good work-life balance is vital, but achieving it is more like a marathon than a sprint
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ork-life balance is something that means different things to everyone who reads it, which makes sense as we all balance our lives in different ways. Everything is relative to the person who is experiencing it, and there are a multitude of different things which can factor in to how we balance our lives compared to our friends and colleagues. Saying “we need to have a good work-life balance” and successfully actioning it are two very different things, however. As the world has collectively roused to the importance of caring for our mental and emotional health as we do our physical health, the term “work-life balance” has crept into the collective consciousness, positioning itself as something we all need to strive for, regardless of our respective workloads. The term itself is not particularly new, in fact, if you’ve ever seen the movie Cheaper by the Dozen (the 1950, not the Steve Martin vehicle), you will be familiar with the brains behind the concept: 32
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Lillian Moller Gilbreth, mother of the famed dozen and intellectual in her own right, created the philosophical basis for the concept by examining the ways time, motion and fatigue intersect to affect the worker, and how a lack of equilibrium in this area can result in dissatisfaction across one’s life. What does a healthy work-life balance even look like? Many people - not just OTs - will find the lines of our work and life are blurred, especially in the aftermath of a global pandemic where many of us were working from home, thereby eradicating the physical barriers that exist between our workplaces and our places of rest. Working outside of our traditional nine to five is also becoming more common as we try to make up for all the hours in the day that seem to go walkabout when we’re not looking. That said, working overtime or outwith normal working hours is absolutely fine, so long as we do things to balance it out on the other side. According to the Mental Health Foundation, a good work-life balance can involve meeting work deadlines while still having time to see friends and perform hobbies, having the time to eat and sleep well, and not worrying about work when we’re away from the workplace. As they say, it’s not necessarily
