Work-life out of balance?

I’m not a luddite, but I am beginning to wonder where all this technology is taking us.

It seems that we are all unable to step outside the office for a real break. On my way to work I pass people who no longer see where they are going, and on the tube I sit next to commuters who are scanning their e-mails on the journey to work, or when returning home. What’s happened to real relaxation, a time to reflect on the day, to dream about tomorrow?

It seems that for many of us our phone has become a comfort item, and we feel lost without it. We are all caught up in the race for the newest technology. In the last quarter of 2009 Apple managed to sell 8.7 million iPhones.

Many of our clients at CareerBalance are complaining of longer hours, and are feeling the stress of having to be ‘on call’ out of hours, including during vacations. The technology designed to speed things up and to make our lives easier is also imprisoning us.

We often help our clients to set clearer boundaries between their work and their home life.  For this reason some have chosen to work on a freelance basis or take on fixed term roles which require less commitment to the organisation. In or programmes we encourage you to look not just at how you want your career to progress, but also what kind of home life you would ideally like. We ensure that better quality time with partners, children, friends and wider family is an important part of the career planning equation.

What would it be like if you could throw your Blackberry away? I recently had to do without mine for a couple of weeks and found the experience very liberating. Once again I had time to read for fun, to make plans for tomorrow, and to dream a little of how life used to be….