Had an interesting discussion with a friend who holds quite a senior position in their company about the work-life balance, and if you can truly have that.

So, what are your opinions on the concept, and comparing it to your current job, do you think you have one?

41 comments

  1. I do. My hours are very flexible and not particularly long. I never have to do work at evenings and weekends.

    However, there’s of course a trade off. I get paid less than many of my friends who have jobs with longer hiure and that do occasionally require evenings and weekend work. But I’m happy with that. I’d rather have my time.

  2. Hybid working has been a game changer for me. I really struggled with five days in the office but now I am in three days and work from home for two and it works perfectly. Thanks Covid, I guess…

  3. Yes, but my personality means no.

    On paper, I’m permanent WFH and could and should be finishing at around 5:30pm.

    In reality, I really struggle to switch off and walk away so I spend WAY too much time thinking about work.

    But yes, no real complaints

  4. If you had of asked me a year ago – absolutely not. But I’ve since had a promotion and now get 2 x days WFH – one of which my daughter is home with me. This means that not only can I get on with housework and general home related jobs in my breaks and down time so weekends are a lot more relaxed.

  5. Yep. I work from home which allows me time to be with dogs during the day, so washing, etc.

    At the same time I will sometimes work later, or meet with my US team mates.

    I don’t work weekends and I get paid a decent salary for the job I do. No commuting has been a massive boon these past 3 years.

  7. Yes, I work from home most of the time but I had to start working for myself to get a hard boundary between work and home. When I bailed out of being an employee, I was in quite a high up position and was regularly being dragged into shit out of hours. Now if that happens, I either bill the time or tell them I’m not working right now. But that choice is up to me depending on what I’m doing.

  8. I think so, I work from home 90% of the time. I log on at 9ish most days and then finish at 5ish most days, with an hour long lunch break. The work is peaks and troughs, so during downtime I can do things like household chores or pop out to run errands. I don’t tend to work outside of these hours beyond the occasional conference or event. I’m not contacted outside of work and there’s never a conflict with anything in my personal life. I know this is a lot better than many people.

    That said, I’m currently putting in to go down to 4 days a week which is likely to be approved. I feel like I could do with even more personal time and use the extra day to pursue my hobbies, relax and generally work on my physical and mental health. In the last few years, my priorities have just changed.

  9. Technically yes but it’s hitting a point for me now that 40 hour contract is too long and I need to go down to 32 or 30 to be able to get everything I need done outside of work finished, plus have time to rest and socialise. I wfh full time but my job is fairly busy so I don’t have a ton of time to clean, do laundry etc during the day.

  10. Incredibly good

    I now work 9-5, but my boss doesn’t arrive til 10 so really nothing gets down til then. Then I’ve got an hour at lunch, and then he often disappears around 4pm so nothing really gets done after that. So really I’m only working 5hrs a day and probably a good hour or two of that is spent on tiktok and Reddit when there isn’t anything to do.

    I’m on around the UK average salary but I probably do less than half the work of your average 9-5 office worker.

    I used to drive lorries and was doing 12-15hr days a lot of the time, I earned WAY more money but my entire life revolved around planning when to sleep enough so I can work etc.

  11. I did in the last job I had before retiring.

    I worked nights, but it was long hours where we basically worked two weeks worth of hours in one week and then got the following week off. So 7 nights on doing 11 hours each shift. Then a full week off.

  12. I am a teacher and notoriously the work life balance and work load are common issues.

    Since leaving full time teaching in a physical school and working remotely I am much happier. I do work part time which of course helps (I am doing a doctorate on my days off).

    I still work about 6 hours a week unpaid – I get paid for my teaching hours but not for meetings, marking or planning.

  13. My time is semi-flexible, but I typically work 07:00-15:00, Monday to Friday. Any overtime is well-paid and no one forces you into it. Due to the nature of my work, I am unable to take it home with me, so once I’ve clocked out, I’m free.

    If anything I now have too much free time. Sometimes it feels like there are too many hours in the day. Im actually starting to make a dent in my pile of unread books.

  14. In terms of workload, I’d say yes. I can usually get all my work done in my standard working hours. Sometimes I work longer to achieve a deadline, and I have the flexibility to finish earlier on other days to make up the time, although in all honesty I don’t always do that.

    In terms of stress, I’d say not right now. I’ve been moved around various teams quite a lot and never really ‘felt at home’ in any of them, and my current team/manager have been causing me quite a bit of stress lately. Luckily my manager is very receptive to feedback, and I have been very open and honest at what’s been going on. The proof of the pudding will be if anything changes going forward, of course…

  15. For someone in finance and this sort of role, my hours are relatively short. 8am to 6pm. 2 days a week work from home. The other half can’t believe I can permanently have 2 days at home. My pay is significantly lower than at rival companies, but it’s sufficient for my live style and I still make a lot of savings.

    I don’t work solidly 10 hours a day, first hour is brekkie time, last hour is loitering a bit more with dish washing and chitchatting. We have two cats, no children, so I still have a lot of me time. It’ll would completely a different story if kids were involved!

  16. No. I work full time and have ME/CFS, so by the time I get home I’m too exhausted to do anything, and spend my entire weekends either recovering or doing piles of chores that I couldn’t do during the week. I really need to find something part time or WFH.

  17. Yes. I work from 8-6 4 days a week and that’s it. Unless it is a particularly stressful or busy time I won’t even think about work when I’m not working.

  19. Yes.

    I work 9-5:30 with 1 hour lunch Monday-Friday fully remote. Plenty flexibility if I have appointments or weekday errands I need to do.

    When I log off my laptop at the end of the day I’m done.
    I don’t have anything come through to my personal phone and I no longer have a work phone either.

    I wouldn’t say my position is senior but I am a higher earner.

  20. No my balance is shit work mostly 6 days a week to pay the bills and to save up to take the kids on summer holiday. I swear my health suffers cause of this

  21. I did till kids/cost of living increases now I have to work more hrs to stay where I am. I get to most of my kids football and dance sessions but apart from that I’m either working or shattered at home

  22. I work from home. The hours are a bit naff (9-6) but most days that isn’t rigid. I work and end based on what I’ve got on, I can usually have a decent lunch and I’m able to get chores done around the house in down time. What helps us we use a particular room as an office, so once work is over, we can physically separate ourselves from it.

  23. Yeah, I work for myself and I probably only do about 150 days of actual work a year. Then my fiance is a teacher so we also get to spend holidays together. Most days I work about 3 or 4 hours in a day. It’s great!

  24. Yeah.

    I work 7-3 or 8-4 from home most days. Finish by 3 on a Friday so I can get a head start getting to the mountains for hiking and camping or kayaking.

    After work hours I switch off unless something breaks on the live systems, which has only happened once in 6 months of being here.

  25. Unpaid overtime is rife in my industry, a typical week is around 2-10 hours unpaid overtime ontop of the core 9-6. Plus around 1 hour commute into central London. So objectively it is not great, but it feels decent to me nonetheless. Perhaps that’ll change as I get older!

  26. Work in tech. Well paid and have flexible working hours. Some travel including abroad, and very occasional late hours to complete contracts etc. But my boss’s favourite mantra is “you are in charge of your own diary”.
    I very rarely even have to check before booking a holiday. And no, I don’t have a technical discipline, I’m in sales. I just have a healthy interest in the technology, it’s application, and how best to communicate the value to other non techies.

  27. I have since 1997 worked 4 days a week or 4on 4off for the majority of the time. At present on 4 on 4 off 3 on 3 off. Can’t say financially it’s done me many favours . But I got to spend time with my kids when young. Love the free time, even tho I do very little with it. At present I work 1 day every 2 weeks over time. Pays for fundays on the motorbikes or holidays.

    I’m a hgv driver so a normal 3 day week is 3 x 15 hour
    4 days is 3 x 15 and one 13 hour shift so still put a decent few hours in a week

  28. I’d say it’s good enough. I work remote and I have a fair amount of downtime, so work isn’t stressful and I get to spend time with my partner and my cats. I don’t do any overtime (it doesn’t exist) and I log off promptly at 5pm every day. I cover up the workstation and ignore it until my next shift.

    The job is easy/laid back but I also earn around £19k a year so I’d say that’s fair.

  29. Yes.
    I work 07:30-15:00/17:30 5 days a week.

    I’m lucky enough to work with my Partner, parents and brother so I get the added bonus of getting to see them every day. I know not everyone will see it this way, however we have a great relationship so rarely have any resentment towards eachother.

    I get my evenings free which is something that I appreciate massively after working unsociable hours for a long time.

    Everything is about perspective and attitude. Previous work and lockdowns have definitely helped find perspective with regards to work. A positive attitude and outlook definitely helps keep the glass half full.

  30. I have a couple of friends who openly say to me that ultimately their job comes first. That providing for themselves and their family is very important to them and that they will alway do what is required at work. Though, they earn £100k+ and now mainly work from home, so I guess that has helped out.

  31. I think what improved my work life balance the most is ditching the work mobile.

    I moved to a new company where all calls are made via MS Teams, so no real need for a mobile – the option is there but I haven’t taken it. Obviously once I log off of an evening that’s it, I literally forget about work.

    I have a couple of work apps on my personal phone (desk booking and secure network authentication) but nothing substantive. If I was desperate I could log onto my emails on the internet but I haven’t yet.

  32. Paid for 37 hours, get two days at home every week and probably only work for around 30 hours a week. Earn way above the median salary, get some very good benefits and my boss is a good lad. I’m onto a very good thing.

  33. For me, a lot of it comes down to discipline.

    I used to have a very poor work-life balance but a lot of that was down to me not wanting to say “no”. I’d be looking at emails after hours, working late and bringing work home – the sort of things that I think a lot of people feel pressured to do in their early career.

    Then I just decided to stop doing that shit. The business wasn’t any worse off for me not doing it, the world still kept turning, and I was much happier.

    Yes, I still have deadlines and yes there are times when it’s much harder to do, but that discipline in knowing what to give and what to take is huge.

  34. 12-hour shifts which on the one hand means that on a working day I have very little time for anything else, but on the other hand means that I work fewer days, so more days off, and the rota pattern means that just a few carefully chosen days of leave can give me a long chunk of time off.

    So, overall pretty good I think.

  35. I do – I’m an early riser naturally so I start work at 7:30 and finish at 3:30. This gives me a big chunk of the late afternoon/evening and I don’t work weekends. I also work from home (I was based in an office, but the rest of the team are remote so makes no sense for me to be there) so there is no commute.

    I’ve always maintained that I work to live, but I’m greatful to work with a fantastic team who make work a pleasure anyway.

  36. Nope. Bar manager, salaried for 45 hours, often work more and respond to emails/messages outside of work. The pay is pretty terrible, but I do love my job.

    I was looking to retrain and get out the industry, but now have a baby on the way. Looks like I’m stuck in hospitality for the foreseeable…

  37. I got 0.69 days leave for every day I work, could be better, could be worse. The catch is I work on a ship so don’t get home every night.

  38. Hahaha, no! But that’s because I am self employed working on a new business idea on top of that so I have more work than usual and I am kind of a workaholic. But having been burnt out twice, I try to take some time off every now and then and if I feel like it’s not my day, I will take time off but my work-life balance is way off.

    ​

    I had amazing work life balance when I worked 9-5 but I wouldn’t change self-employment for 9-5. I’d rathe have worse work-life balance and do what I am passionate about rather than do your typical jobs. I’d get bored. Part of not having good work-life balance is that I love what I am doing wich can make it harder to disconnect. But over the years, I’ve learned that when it’s time off, I have to switch off completely so even if I’ll only take afternoon off, it will be off.

  39. I think it’s a misnomer cos work is a huge part of life. If u really need a draw lines like that you need to question if you really should be doing what ur doing, that’s really toxic. I was in that place for 3 years when I worked in a bank. I thought I needed work life balance but really the job was just toxic. Now, I don’t feel like I need to create a balance cos I don’t find my job toxic at all.

    I get not everyone has the privilege tho of just being able to magically find a job they don’t hate. A lot of that’s to do with seniority and not having arseholes treat you like crap.

  40. Yes – I primarily work from home, which helps massively. Even a day like I’m having today whereby I have quite a lot to do, because I’m able to log on at 7 (early riser anyway), I’ll be in a position to log off at 5. And I give myself 5-10 minute breaks every hour or so, so I’ve already tidied the kitchen, taken the bins out, done some clothes washing, etc.

    Therefore I’m probably going to end up doing more work than if I went into the office, no housework to do once I finish for the day & saved myself £15 & a couple of hours by not having to commute.

  41. The concept doesn’t vibe with me as it implies the two things are completely separate which I don’t think applies to modern knowledge worker jobs. I think the two elements are part of the same whole and need to be interleaved. Also I think in some circumstances the term can be used by employers to ignore issues caused in people’s personal lives by work events ie stress that bleeds outside work hours.

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