Brigette Hyacinth* says we owe our employer our best work every day but we don’t owe them our personal life, health or integrity.
Photo: R-J-Seymour
I can’t tell you the countless times I have heard some employees say their job is their life.
What happens then if you lose your job or when you retire? Your job is not your life.
It is a means to live your life. Never let a job define your self-worth or happiness.
Even if you don’t want to believe it, you are expendable.
An employer’s loyalty remains only as long as you are fulfilling their interests.
You do owe your employer your best work every day.
You don’t owe your employer your personal life, health or integrity.
I had a supervisor who would always emphasise in meetings how thankful we should be to have a job, as the economy was in a downturn.
This made many employees afraid to leave even though we were treated quite poorly.
So whatever demands the organisation made, employees grudgingly went along with it.
This can be likened to remaining in a bad relationship where you are unhappy, but you stay because you believe you can’t get anyone better.
It is nice to be wanted but if the job is inconsistent with your life and career plan, you are wasting precious time.
I left that job and I never looked back.
We must balance our jobs with other important aspects of life.
You should be able to separate who you are from what you do.
I have seen so many people give everything to their jobs.
Then after the job is gone, whether it’s due to retirement or being let go, their lives are empty.
A good work-life balance is one in which you work to live, not live to work.
Many people don’t know how to set boundaries with regards to work-life balance.
They don’t say “this is too much for me”, because they feel they have to prove themselves to be the first on the list for that promotion.
If your employer does not support work-life balance, it’s time for you to set boundaries.
I had a manager who would call me after 9pm as a routine to remind me of tasks for the next day.
I realised this would never stop, so I started turning off my cell phone after work hours.
We need rest and relaxation to perform our best, and requiring that your staff be on call 24/7 will inevitably produce resentful employees.
Give your employees time to recharge and enjoy their private lives.
You get a job so you can afford to have a life but then, you spend all your time at work and end up with no time to live the life you’re working for.
My neighbour worked non-stop and planned to travel after he retired.
Sadly he fell ill before this and passed away shortly after.
No one ever lies on their death bed wishing they had worked more hours in their life.
* Brigette Hyacinth founded the MBA Caribbean Organisation which conducts seminars and workshops in leadership, management and education as well as providing motivational speeches. She can be contacted at www.mbacaribbean.org.
This article first appeared on Brigette’s blogsite.
