Comments on: Work-Family Balance: What Does That Mean to You?

By: Anthony Fasano

Anthony Fasano — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:36:15 +0000

Thanks for your perspective William. Leaving everything at work is definitely not an easy thing to do, especially with the technology today. In my opinion it is up to the individual to decide how much “work” they want to do at home. Some feel that it is there responsibility to be available 24 hours by blackberry, some are able to come home and totally leave work behind. Personally I prefer the latter, however it is a big challenge!

By: youngmotivatedengineer

youngmotivatedengineer — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:20:29 +0000

While I don’t have a family of my own right now, I can relate with this topic in regards to work-personal life relationship. For me the biggest thing affecting my work-personal life balance is the mental stresses of the working office.

I have worked for a company where nothing seems to be is constant and their is consistent changing or personnel and procedures. While this is expected in any company, it gets frustrating when the owners say things are getting better and we are a much better team now that we weeded out the weaklings, and then a few days later there are more personnel changes.

Along with the personnel changes, the work load is usually transferred to those that are still at the company and are expected to accomplish current tasks and new tasks with the same quality work for the same pay and within the same daily time frame.

For me, this is something that I have been struggling to overcome, as the extra stress seems to affect my mood outside of the office.

Once I start my own family, this is something I don’t want to have to deal with. Unless there are times when I work from home, I would love to be able to leave work issues at work and not worry about them when I am at home raising my kids, or trying to enjoy quality time with my family.

By: Anthony Fasano

Anthony Fasano — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:00:00 +0000

Wow Wayne that’s a really clear definition, thanks! I agree 100% with flexibility. We need to use all of this technology to our advantage and allow for flexibility with work from home or even at other branch locations when feasible.

And as for guilt free, I know that if I work hard and meet my deadlines, I do feel guilt free on those days when I attend my daughters dance recital or just leave on time!

By: Wayne Vandenbergh

Wayne Vandenbergh — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:08:10 +0000

Two words: Guilt-free and Flexible.
Guilt-free: As a salaried professional, I have responsibility to my clients and company to comply with deadlines, communication with clients and co-workers, and accurate production of my product. Assuming any established minimum hours of work are met, the atmosphere at the office should allow for an employee to leave for that ball-game, sick child, ‘head clearing’ walk around the block, or whatever without guilt.

Flexible: Being able to log-in early morning or late at night to catch up on the mundane emails or schedule; being able to work from home at odd hours or weekends without needing to go into the office to get work done to account for those hours; staying home so you can take your child to the dentist without driving to the office, home, to the dentist, home, and back to the office. Actually allows for more productive time. Flexible start-times for the day.