“WORK-life balance” is typically defined as the amount of time you spend doing your job versus the amount of time you spend doing what’s important to you outside of work, whether that is with loved ones or pursuing personal interests and hobbies.
It’s not so much about splitting your time 50/50 between work and leisure but making sure you feel fulfilled and content in both areas of your life. A healthy balance could be: meeting your deadlines at work while still having time for friends and hobbies, having enough time to sleep properly and eat well.
Our work is a significant aspect of our lives. Ideally, the different aspects of life are not competing but instead support each other. Career or workplace can and should be positive contributions to one’s life. As a workplace and community we strive to meet that ideal for our members.
How many hours do you usually work daily? We are all workers whether we work in a plush carpeted office as executives and managers, in a hot and noisy assembly-plant as factory-hands, or as house-wives at home.
Why do we work? Why do we slug five or six days a week (or even more?) for eight or more hours at a stretch? The church has had quite a lot to say about work and especially, the rights of the workers. And when you get through the church jargon, you’ll find statements on minimum wages for workers, needs for leisure and social benefits.
It is the Book of Genesis which tells us that work is God’s gift to human beings. God gave us the will, power and intelligence to “fill the earth and subdue it” and not just talk about seeing the wild beasts, the fruits and grains.
We are given the enormous task of shaping the earth, whether as machinist in a textile factory, or as clerk in court. The important message is: Work is for man (and woman) and not man (and woman) for work!
Through work, man develops himself, his personality and his sense of self-worth. It is also through work that man produces goods and services contributing and participating in the development and society.
In the encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), Pope John Paul II made it clear that there should be just remuneration for the work of an adult who is responsible for a family and this means enough money for the breadwinner to feed, clothe and maintain his partner and children, with provisions “for security for his future.”
Our work is a significant aspect of our lives. Ideally, the different aspects of life are not competing but instead support each other. Career or workplace can and should be positive contributions to one’s life. As a workplace and community we strive to meet that ideal for our members.
Lastly, let’s find out where your work-life-balance is.
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