Moment With Betty

Coping with career demands, managing the home and observing the spiritual obligations can be a huge task and finding a balance in all of these is a different ball game. The question therefore is, what balance are we talking about and how can we really find this balance without conflict?  Complicated as it may sound, l dare to say that all it requires is good planning, good prioritizing, and following through with the plan diligently so, that we can find a functional balance between work, family and spiritual commitments.

 Taking care of the home and the family have always been attributed to be that of the woman. There is the believe that the first office of the woman, is the home thus, every other assignment should be secondary.  But the situation is different today because women these days are occupying top positions in most organizations and establishments such as, banks, media, government ministries and also managing their personal businesses. There are also women at the lower cadre at these establishments who also shoulder more than one responsibility thus, need to find a balance in their lives.  This has not been easy because of the harsh environment which we are facing.

 In fact, some women that l spoke with are of the opinion that there is nothing like finding a balance. According to them, they are simply devising a coping mechanism to get by the situation they find themselves and for such women, work life balance is not realistic. When we consider the fact that in our society today, very few things function as they should hence,one will not but want to believe that finding a balance may be a tough task. Looking at the bright side, l beg to differ. l believe that we can still strike a balance if we are more detailed in whatever we do.

The first step is to have a plan, prioritize properly and also engage the right people to assist. If we adopt the above – mentioned strategies, we may find a workable balance but if we don’t then, we may find ourselves in a situation where one or two things may be compromised for the other to thrive. Besides, with today’s modern woman who has a career to pursue, family to cater for and other personal engagements to attend to and coupled with the rate of unemployment that has thrown many out of jobs and disrupted the traditional family structure, it has become very difficult to ascertain who the bread winner of most homes are these days. Trust me, the present situation can throw anyone off balance if not well managed.

Much as we would want to achieve a workable balance, it cannot be easy if we do not have a solid plan on ground. Every individual no matter his/ her status or the amount of task they are saddled with require a proper plan to cope with the workload at the office and at home. Having a proper plan that can help us find a good balance and also leveraging on the services being provided these days by different service providers, will be a big relief. We need to learn how to outsource certain activities or tasks that we find very inconveniencing or cumbersome for us to handle. For example, shopping for the house (food stuffs, re-filling of the cooking gas, caring for the children, cleaning of the house, doing the laundry and the entire facility job). These tasks can be out- sourced to experienced service providers to take care of while we focus on our job, the spiritual formation of the children, their academics and so on. We all want to look and feel good after a hard day’s job and so we have to look out for competent service providers who can help us achieve this.

Experts often say that stress is inevitable but it is also a fact that stress can be avoided if well managed. All we need to do is to identify those things that causes us stress so that we can find a way around it and find people to help us manage them effectively so that we can be safe and happy.  It is important to also note here that achieving a balance or striving to achieve work life balance is a personal thing. No two individuals can have the same method of attaining work life balance so, we need to individually find what works best for us and adopt it so that we can find a balance.

It is important to say that work life balance is not only for the women though ,the pressure is more on the women but men also need to find a balance in their lives. As the head of the family, the man has his own role to play . Aside, providing the money, he also needs to ensure that the family is protected, safe and secured. He needs to ensure that he is there for the family when they need him and guide them through the values and culture that may have been set out for the family. The man should not leave everything for the woman but he should partner with the woman to build a good home and maintain a happy family and also ensure that the family follows through with their spiritual activities. We as parents or guardians need to be proactive at all the times and try not to leave the running of the home entirely in the hands of the domestic staff. All hands must be on deck for us to attain a functional balance in our lives so that we will be able to manage the stress that comes with the career, family and be able to fulfill our spiritual obligations and other commitments without conflict.

Another way by which we can find a balance and enjoy a successful work life balance is to prepare a schedule to guide us rightly on our daily, weekly and monthly activities. For us not to breakdown and also avoid stress, we need to have a plan of life and trust me, if we follow through with that plan, we will surely find balance in our life. While preparing the schedule, let us remember to include holiday periods for the family and also medical check- ups.  Don’t forget that we all need a period of time to distress and bond with the each other, just as the saying goes” all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy”. Holidays will surely help us to relax, discuss our challenges, access our performances, come up with good suggestions and proffer possible solutions that will help us manage our activities well and also our health anxieties. And talking about holidays, it doesn’t have to be outside the country, we have very nice places to spend valuable time with our families or spouses.  We can call it a weekend – get- away in a nice hotel in whichever part of the country or world that we reside.  

In addition, with the new working culture after COVID 19, it is very important that we also consider working from home some days of the week if we are not already doing that . This will help us find a good balance and take care of the home front, fulfill our spiritual obligations while we still deliver on our job tasks.  We should try to discuss this with our employers and our employees as the case may be so that we can all achieve a good work life balance.