Communing with nature is non-negotiable for healthy work-life balance

Faculty of Economic Management Sciences: Professor Judith Terblanche - Top Achiever

Professor Judith Terblanche has a PhD in the Philosophy of education, and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting, where she teaches the SAICA-accredited programmes. she is also a highly respected Auditing lecturer, the programme coordinator for the PGDA programme, and serves on the education and Transformation Committee of IRBA. Her areas of research are citizenship education, teaching for social justice, ethical decision-making and responsible leadership, with a specific focus on the Chartered Accountant academic.

“The effects of the pandemic on a household depend entirely on the complexity and negotiated roles within a particular household.” What was her particular challenge? “I really, really, really like to read and reflect on matters pertaining to my research interests. “All of the preparation for remote online teaching took significantly longer than traditional face-to-face teaching. In combination with the onslaught of virtual meetings that were arranged and the divide between the personal and the work environment that was blurred out, there was just not enough time in a day.” she has learned that one needs to make a choice between personal well-being and research interests, and admits that she hasn’t always got it right this year.

“I do not think I have a healthy work-life balance at all. However, I kept to one rule, which was a non-negotiable and a necessity for survival: that I spend one to two hours daily outside in nature with my dog, preferably hiking. The combination of nature, exercise and animal energy and curiosity serves as a tonic to nourish and refresh the mind, soul and body. Lately, I decided to not access emails over the weekends anymore – and that is definitively also making a significant improvement in freeing my mind for reflective thought. I should have done this ages ago.”

One of the things Prof Terblanche is enjoying most is a research project in the department that includes four colleagues with little research exposure. The aim will be to determine whether using other learning material, borrowing from the fields of humanities and the arts, could assist in cultivating the required social awareness in students who will in future be leaders in business – thus combining technical skills with the teaching of values.

Ultimately, she knows that it is extremely challenging to find a balance between work responsibilities, self-care, research projects, care and responsibilities towards others, and personal administrative and household tasks.