There is something special about enjoying a better work/life balance.
Achieving the goal of having everything in perspective and enjoying both your work and home life is crucial to your well-being. Finding that balance is not always as easy as we would like it to be.
There are several factors at play when it comes to a work/life balance, such as:
- Understanding what you value most in life
- Enjoying your choice of work
- Making the most of your free time
- Managing your time and conflicting schedules
- Setting appropriate boundaries and maintaining them
- Focus on your mental and physical health
When you have your values, work and free time in proper alignment, you have a powerful tool to make more of your life.
One of the keys to a successful work/life balance is maintaining the delineation between the two and being strict with your time management.
It is difficult and even impossible to take the next step in your worklife if you don’t have the right balance between what you do and when you do it in your life.
A change of job as a new step
Whilst there is the possible anxiety around making changes that comes with taking a new path in your career, there are great advantages to be had as well.
Often it is the case that someone who is looking for a new role or a complete change of job experiences a rejuvenation and improvement to their outlook.
Sometimes, however, if looking for a new job is a decision not of your own making, this can be a particularly unnerving time. This is especially true if there are other stresses involved such as financial worries, family issues, personal problems or external factors at play.
That change can also be an extension of what you are already doing in your worklife.
As an example, you may be taking on some of the casual babysitting jobs Melbourne has available and want to make more of it as a career.
This could mean using your experience and looking for more professional development in the field.
You could start by contacting childcare recruitment agencies to ascertain what you need to do to make a career in childcare.
It may begin with an assistant role that branches out into a more senior position of early childhood educator in the years to come.
Knowing how to prepare and what a new role entails is the key to making a more informed and more rewarding choice in whichever field you choose.
Stepping up at work
Even if you are part of, or you are in charge of a workforce that has no reason or desire to change positions, there is also the opportunity to improve productivity and work satisfaction.
This is when the team’s performance becomes a key to the success of the business.
With the use and integration of human synergistics and the ability to make a cultural change within the workplace, the workforce can become a stronger asset.
By undertaking initiatives such as high performance team development and having a shared common goal, there can be room for structural improvements.
The notion that an individual can make changes and step up in their role is one positive point. To do that as a collective or as a specialised team, can be immensely powerful.
There are also other benefits that come with developing a strong team performance that include an increase in job satisfaction, better workplace cohesion and the chance for enhancements.
With a concentration on making things work better as a team, ideas are more likely to be shared and suggested improvements to be brought forward.
Change in employment
Once the decision has been made to change employment (even within the same business), there comes the point of ensuring that your role and duties are clearly defined.
With that change of position will come a new employment contract.
As with all employment contracts, it is vital that you (as the employee) read and thoroughly understand the details as outlined. If there are any concerns about any portion of that contract, those issues need to be dealt with and explained before the contract is signed.
Looking at the finer details is just as important as the basics such as the wage and leave entitlements.
Work hours, as an example, can now be carried out at the work premises as well as in the capacity of ‘working from home’.
To this day, there have been many cases of people signing the contracts of their employment without fully reading or understanding the different conditions.
Preparation for the future
It isn’t possible to future-proof your employment and the days of staying within one business year after year until you retire are all but over. To remain with the one employer for all your working life and getting a gold watch as a parting gift is no longer the norm.
Once the idea of changing employment is accepted and that you can make some of your own choices, it can be liberating to know that you won’t be ‘stuck in a dead-end job’.
The point about making any changes in your career is to be as prepared as possible before that change is made or made for you.
Checking that you are doing all that is expected of you and that you are growing within your current role is a great safeguard and an opportunity to further your skills.
Balancing work and life
To have a realistic and healthy work/life balance, you can look at what you are currently doing in both realms to see if you are ignoring any important issues.
If your job is interfering or trespassing on your home life, you may feel frustrated, dejected or resigned.
Changes are possible and these changes are easier to put into practice when you have a clear plan of what you want to do and how it can be achieved.
Taking the next step in your worklife need not be daunting or nerve-wracking if you take the emotional side out of the equation and be true to what you want.