If your life is proving to be all work and no play, it might be time to review your priorities. Harriet Swain offers a few pointers to set you on the road to a less stressful and more fulfilling future
Right. You've got a couple of minutes to read this while you're waiting for the students to enter the lecture theatre, then you can finish it off on the way to collect the kids from school, unless the departmental meeting overruns, in which case you'll have to get your neighbour to pick them up and read it on the way to tennis, although you know you really ought to start on that vital journal article... Feeling a bit unbalanced in the work-life department? You're probably not the only one, and it is important to find out if others feel the same. Simonetta Manfredi, co-director of the Centre for Diversity Policy Research at Oxford Brookes University, says colleagues can often help out by covering for each other when needed, or agreeing to work certain days or hours.
Talking to others is also essential if you are considering a new pattern of working. "Sometimes people can be too enthusiastic and take on too much - particularly new members of staff," she says.
Alexandra Jones, senior adviser at the Work Federation specialising in work-life balance, says that by working more collaboratively you may be able to help create a culture of mutual support, and one in which working long hours is seen as a bad thing.
Rosemary Crompton, principal investigator for the Economic and Social Research Council's Employment and the Family project, warns that there are limits to what can be done because of the wider context and attitudes towards work-life balance within universities and the country as a whole.
But she recommends making friends with whoever is running the timetables so that your lectures don't clash with home commitments.
It is also worth finding out what your institution's policies are on the issue and what patterns of working are available to you.
"Nobody will tell you what your opportunities and rights are," says Caroline Gattrell, a teaching fellow at Lancaster University, who has written a book on the sociology of parenthood, family life and career.
"Often they are there but it is up to you to sort it out."
She recommends talking to personnel officers to find out about all the options, and strongly advises thinking ahead. For example, if you want to go part time you must find out how easy it will be to go back to full-time work if your circumstances change.
Jones says it is important to define early on what kind of work-life balance you are looking for because it will vary over time. The kind of balance you look for as a single person will change if you become a parent, while you are likely to be looking for something else again as you near retirement.
Gail Kinman, senior lecturer in psychology at Luton University, who has researched work-life balance among academics, suggests assessing the impact of your situation and writing a list of what you want your priorities to be (rather than what you think they should be) in order of importance.
"By making a concrete list of what really matters, you may discover you are devoting too much time to activities that are not a priority, and you can adjust your schedule accordingly," Kinman says.
She says that you should not set out to achieve the impossible. "In an ideal world, you may wish to go to the gym five times a week but goals should be realistic and should motivate rather than dominate. If goals for work-life balance dominate, you may find yourself with even more time pressures, feelings of guilt and lower self-esteem."
Kinman suggests creating a separate work area if working from home and checking email only at set times, as well as planning times for relaxation.
Also useful, she says, is identifying the activities that either fuel or drain you and keeping a work diary for a couple of weeks to analyse how more time could be made for non-work activities.
Liz Doherty, co-director with Manfredi of the Centre for Diversity Policy Research, says it is important to think through the implications for your colleagues of working reduced hours or taking a career break. She suggests putting forward a plan for how your new working pattern could be managed.
Gattrell says you must think very hard about the implications of going part time, both in financial and career terms, and stresses the importance of staying focused on your career goals and what you are good at so that you can retain your niche and the potential to develop it later. "Don't allow yourself to be marginalised by other people dumping bits on you," she says.
Assertiveness is essential - whether it is strictly working your pro-rata hours on teaching, administration and research, taking your full holiday entitlement and days in lieu for extra hours, or setting clear boundaries between work and home life.
"You don't just need to be assertive once on the day you are going back to work but you need to keep being assertive," Gattrell says.
She says there are no easy answers, and individuals have to find their own work-life balance - just as soon as they find the time.
More information
Hard Labour: The Sociology of Parenthood, Family Life and Career , Caroline Gattrell, Open University Press, 2004
Working to the Limit, stress and work-life balance in academic and academic-related employees in the UK , Gail Kinman, Luton University, Fiona Jones, Leeds University, Association of University Teachers, 2004.
TOP TIPS
- Be assertive
- Accept support from your partner, family, friends and colleagues
- Work out exactly what kind of balance you want
- Find out what options are open to you
- Don't expect to achieve the perfect work-life balance immediately - or for it to last