I read a recent post on www.MoneySmartLife.com entitled "Can You Maintain A Work Life Balance And Carry A Pager?"
I thought of all the people helping professions, such as pastors or youth workers, who although they may not carry a pager, definitely work in a profession that expects them to be "on call." How do you maintain balance when anyone could contact you and unload their burdens on you?
Here are some suggestions:
- Designate an "appointment" time each day just for you. Inform your staff or friends or anyone who works with you this is your appointment, it's not for all day, and you'll be back. We teach people how to treat us. Over time, if you're faithful to your personal appointment, people around you will get the idea and may actually help you protect that time.
- Learn more about delegation. There is an art to delegating. Basically, it's finding the right people who can handle certain situations even better than you could. Then, when people come to you with those situations, you can refer them to the delegatee. Click here for some info on delegation.
- Balance the abnormal with normal. Say you receive a call in the middle of the night to address an issue that can't wait. You lost 3 hours of sleep because of it. Balance that abnormal time with normal time. In other words, the next day, lower your expectations and perhaps even take a nap. Put off that "heavy" assignment for one day, if possible. Balance is a constant process of adjusting the sails according to the shifting winds. (NOTE: If the calls are coming in the night as a regular occurrence, perhaps it's time to...
- Get help. After you've tried setting a personal "appointment" time, delegated, and balanced abnormal for normal and you are still struggling with 24/7 on call syndrome, get help. Seek from your supervisor or district manager some sort of relief. If you work with a board, bring it up with them. Perhaps some communication is in order.
Learn to successfully push back on being "on call" and you be serving strong!
Recent Comments