Would you ever tell your boss that?

PoohAh97 said:

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One of my coworkers has a Google Phone number he hands out as his "personal" number, so he can just ignore it if necessary.

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Ha I do that too.

I don't think about work when I am not there for the most part, but I occasionally get bothered with emergencies and have to go in or deal with a problem using my phone.

I think of it as work / life integration…not a balance of two separate parts of my life. If you enjoy and find meaning in your work, then you will naturally think about it when not in the office. And with working from home so much over the past couple of years, there really is not much separation from home life and work life. Sure work can be a grind at times, but to me the key is finding the career / role that is the right fit with your personality and strengths which makes it easier to integrate with your personal life. And like someone already said, it really helps if you are able to have more control over your schedule such that if you have to take calls or answer emails in the evening or on vacation, then you have the freedom to show up to work late or leave early the next day to compensate.

My work life and personal life are inextricable from one another. Most of the people I employ were friends before they were employees. We travel together for work and vacations, are close with each other's families, etc. Sometimes it's wonderful. Other times it's frustrating. I feel a lot more pressure and responsibility for them and their families than if they were just employees. But I can trust them more with my business and my family's livelihood than I could trust anyone else.

Found a job were I'm not on call 24/7 and cannot put work applications on my personal phone. So when the laptop shuts the day is over until tomorrow or Monday. Couldn't do that before this job. Tough adjustment but feels great now.

BeastmodeAg said:

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Found a job were I'm not on call 24/7 and cannot put work applications on my personal phone. So when the laptop shuts the day is over until tomorrow or Monday. Couldn't do that before this job. Tough adjustment but feels great now.

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I spent 10 years on call for a pack of entitled children, and it was like stepping out of a cloud when I was finally out of there. I can't imagine having held that level of stress for that long with a family of my own. Never again, and I'm making sure my future son gets a damn degree in something valuable, and then act like it's valuable.

I'm just learning how to do this now that I have a child. I didn't at all before because political media is pretty 24/7. But I'm going to just consulting hours now.

PrincessButtercup said:

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I'm just learning how to do this now that I have a child. I didn't at all before because political media is pretty 24/7. But I'm going to just consulting hours now.

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I envy people in your business because you have such a measurable value. There's no hiding, good or bad. It's all there in your follower count, engagements, etc.

Retired. 7 Saturdays in a week !

I'd much rather hide in the gray areas of muddier determinants of success. Way more bullsh/t accepted and I'd be able to get away with a lot more slacking.

*ETA: UNLESS you can translate those KPIs into the equivalent in chicken nuggets. Then I'll take that option 10/10 times.

See previous post

713nervy said:

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BenFiasco14 said:

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In other words, what do you do to keep the stress from your job from influencing and harming your personal life?

Serious and GB answers welcome.

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To answer this seriously, I quit. After many years of overachieving on unreasonable goals with nearly none of my requests for additional resources being met, I finally decided that my life was more than my resume. Unfortunately this was after I had already sacrificed the well-being of my physical health, my marriage and my mental stability.

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This sucks a whole lot. I'm still trying to fix my life after having that same experience. I hope you're more successful than I've been.

Duncan Idaho said:

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Single biggest thing I did was get a personal cell phone that no one from works knows and isn't connected to my company email.

My company issued phone never leaves my home office unless I am traveling for work.

When I walk out of my home office I am done for the day/weekend

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I have one phone. If I'm not at work, I don't check work emails and the phone rings and it's not personal, I don't answer it.
It's really simple for me.

The advantage of course is I only have 1 phone to worry about.
Never really saw the need for 2 phones with this as the argument. Security I get, but just in an effort to separate work from home?

I think the whole conversation about work/life balance sets up a weird set of expectations.

Work is a part of your life like family, friends, hobbies, service, church, pr0n, etc.

Any of these aspects can be out of balance and cause a bunch of hassle and bull####.


Work/life balance seems like less common of a problem than terrible choices/life balance or toxic personal relationships/life balance.

bagger05 said:

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pr0n

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this is whats important

bagger05 said:

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I think the whole conversation about work/life balance sets up a weird set of expectations.

Work is a part of your life like family, friends, hobbies, service, church, pr0n, etc.

Any of these aspects can be out of balance and cause a bunch of hassle and bull####.


Work/life balance seems like less common of a problem than terrible choices/life balance or toxic personal relationships/life balance.

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You're in a less common situation, though, where you're working on what you would want to do with your life anyway. I think the phrase "work life balance" originated to describe taking time for yourself and what is important to you vs what you do to put bread on the table, which in most cases is not something that's too personally fulfilling.

Be less of a b and stop snapping at my nieces.

bagger05 said:

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Be less of a b and stop snapping at my nieces.

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Not until they learn who the boss is around here.

I leave work at work. That simple. I don't answer emails, texts or calls after hours. Then again I am a teacher so it is easier for me than others.

Where do you teach? My wife had to answer calls and emails all the time after hours (parents would immediately complain if no response and school would support them) + grade + coaching morning and night. So glad she's done with career

wangus12 said:

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Where do you teach? My wife had to answer calls and emails all the time after hours (parents would immediately complain if no response and school would support them) + grade + coaching morning and night. So glad she's done with career

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My wife has been a teacher and counselor for 15 years in both TX and CO at 3-4 different schools. No school has ever required an immediate response to parents. 24 hours is standard. And she has never, not once received a phone call, because putting her personal cell phone on her email sig would be just dumb. Parents/students call her office phone, and leave a voicemail if it's after hours.

Your wife should have left that school right away if that wasn't the case.

I work in a profession that is frequently adversarial, high stress, competitive, and, unfortunately, populated with ass holes. It is amazing the delta between a "good" job and a "bad" job in this field and that it can hinge on things you wouldn't really think about like the type of coworkers you have and the type of clients/bosses you report to.

One thing I've finally come to understand is that my current company has worked extremely hard to foster a particular culture and, as a result, everyone that has had a rough experience elsewhere in our industry will almost uniformly refuse to leave here for the rest of their career.

I've had some rough gigs where you're on 24/7, expected to be in the office at least half-day Saturday and some Sundays. They paid well. But they took a toll, I was always stressed out, and really unpleasant for anyone to be around.

My wife likes to buy things that cost a lot of money, so my work stress doesn't really stop when I leave my office.

I deal with this daily. My position with my agency requires me to be available by phone 24/7 and I must be responsive to those I supervise and to my supervisors. I don't go a week without having to take calls or answer emails, during dinner, church, son's sports, or in the dead ass middle of the night.

I knew what I was getting into when I accepted this position, and I get compensated well, but damn there have been times when I have literally thrown my phone on my days off.

In the end the positives outweigh the burdens that go with my job.

Easy - Don't work.

With 6oz of bourbon

I thought that I had picked a smart career path. In movies, if someone with my job is a character he's the rich ******bag bully. But it turns out that in real life it's just a crushing workload, lots of stress, and not as much pay as you think unless you start with the right moves early, which I didn't.

I can't complain because I actually do make a lot more than most people, but I'm getting pretty tired. The day I hit my number I'm going to walk out the door. **** scorekeeping.