If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got: How to achieve a work-life balance
One thing I’ve never been able to understand is the medical profession’s tendency towards masochism. I remember as a junior doctor, along with my colleagues, gaining morbid satisfaction comparing our lack of sleep on call. If we dared complain, the consultants scoffed, saying it was much worse in their day. After spending eight years at the Medical Defence Union, advising doctors, I know this ghoulish fascination with how much you can endure, still exists.
So what is work-life balance anyway?
My favourite definition is from WorkSMART1: “Work-life balance is about ensuring work doesn’t take up more of your life than it should.” Personally, I would change the last bit to read, “… more of your life than you want it to.”
How often do you get the chance to think about you? Do you know where you are in your life and career, and where you would like to be in the future? I imagine you have little chance to evaluate your life, as life itself has a habit of getting in the way. Before you know it, ten years will pass, and there is a risk you will still be doing the job you weren’t sure about, and worrying you are missing your kids growing up, or not pruning the roses enough, or not writing that book you always wanted to.
What happens if you don’t have a work-life balance?
As a wise man said, “Nobody on their deathbed ever declared, ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.’” For office substitute hospital, surgery, clinic, lab, etc. You get the idea.
Chances are you will know when you haven’t got a balance. Doctors are at higher risk than the general population of developing stress related problems, depression, and suicide234, There is particular concern over increasing female doctor suicide rates.2 Doctors and other health professionals report above average levels of stress (28% compared with 18% in the general working population).5 “The BMA estimates that one in fifteen doctors has a problem with drugs or alcohol at some point in their lives.” 6 Factors identified in studies of mental illness include the long hours worked, the high workload, the pressure of work and their effect on the personal lives of doctors.7
Do any of these apply to you?
• Are you stressed both in and out of work?
• Do you suffer from poor physical or mental health while at work
but this tends to resolve during holidays?
• Do you abuse alcohol or drugs to forget work?
• Do you feel your relationships are struggling as you don’t
have time to invest in them?
How bad does it need to get before you will take action?What is really
important to you?
Values are those things we hold most dear. Your values are the things that
matter most to you. Without these things, you would not be you.
If you commit time and energy to something that violates or neglects one of your values, you will begin to feel resentful and frustrated. If you do not honour your values in your activities and work, you will begin to get a nagging feeling that something is missing or wrong in your life.
Our values help us make choices about what we commit to in our lives.
So how will you know when you’ve achieved a work-life balance?
Imagine what work-life balance really means for you. Is it working part time so you can have the time to do what you want outside of work? Is it finishing your clinic or surgery on time so you can get home to tend the garden? Is it negotiating to work from home when you have paperwork, so you can get to your tennis lesson on time? Taking all your study or annual leave? Taking a sabbatical to go on that expedition? Taking your parental leave entitlement to spend the summer holidays with your kids?
A GP client was fed up with work and always being home late. She considered leaving general practice as she felt completely burnt out. With help, she realized one of her values was to be there at bedtime for her children. She wanted to kiss them goodnight. We looked at her day and how she could improve her time keeping during surgery and improve her efficiency with paperwork, so she could be home in time. Although this may seem like a small change, she no longer resents work and plans to remain in medicine.
And when you have the balance you crave, what will it do for you?
This workshop will give you time to think about you, your work and your life. It is a practical session with exercises to change the way you view life, begin to dream about where you could be and identify the resources to get you there. If you are interested in learning about what is important to you, and throwing some paper around to discover your true priorities, come along.
During your career you will spend countless hours with your patients, invest time planning the future of your practice or hospital, and developing your staff. Can you afford to neglect the most precious gift of all, your own life?
Dr Emma Sedgwick
MBBS BSc DCH MRCPsych MBA NLP Coach
Telephone 01892 724245
Mobile 07977 120391
Fax 07092 874347
E-mail emma.sedgwick@doctors.org.uk