A Unique Perspective on Work Life Balance
By Niamh Quinn, Quinn Communications
The reconciliation of work and personal life has become increasingly important in recent years and work life balance is now to the fore in contemporary human resource management debate in Ireland and throughout the EU.
I started my own PR business, Quinn Communications two and a half years ago, based in Limerick City and serving clients primarily in the Midwest. Whilst I would love to say I started a business because I harboured a burning desire to do so from a very early age, it is not entirely true. I am certainly passionate about what I do but the reality is that I also wanted to improve my work-life balance and achieve a greater degree of flexibility which is often unavailable in many full time, nine to five agency roles.
The idea of work-life balance is different for everybody, for example, a working mum will have different priorities to a single guy or girl in their twenties or thirties or a person in their fifties or sixties working towards retirement.
For me, self-employed and in the working mum category, work-life balance is about flexibility. It’s about keeping it all going, working extremely hard and staying focused when you are working, whilst fitting personal priorities around this in any given day. It’s also about being positive, recognising your achievements each day both at home and at work and enjoying those achievements.
According to the theory, when the demands of work and life exist in harmony, then work-life balance is achieved. Therefore, it is important that we all try to find a sense of balance and satisfaction between our work and personal lives. Some of the key things which I have found to be critical in attempting to achieve this are :
Be organised and manage your time - Procrastinating , doing nothing and being disorganised can lead to an unbelievable amount of stress. It’s critical to be organised as you will tackle work more effectively. Set goals, write to do lists, plan ahead etc. Also, from my own perspective, I have a three year old and I like to be there for her in the evenings as much as possible, so to ensure this happens, I have to be organised !
Manage your finances - I manage the finances of my business day to day, develop cashflow projections, bookkeeping, submit my tax returns etc. I have found this to be critical in terms of reducing stress and worry, planning ahead and allowing me to focus on managing all important client business instead of worrying whether I’ve paid this or that bill.
Learn to let things go – I have learned not to beat myself up over things and I think that this is critical to getting the balance right. It’s too easy to sweat the small stuff and lose sight of what’s important each day. I love to spend time with my daughter and watching her grow is brilliant for putting things into perspective.
Focus on achievements – The reality is that nobody really pats you on the back so you need to do it yourself! I focus on the positives and look at what I’ve achieved, much more so now that I work for myself as I find it to be quite motivational.
Learn to switch off – In today’s world of continuous connectivity, social media etc, it is hard to switch off, even on holidays. Many small business owners (me included!) will continue to check emails etc on the iphone. All that aside, generally speaking I do find that if I try to switch off at the end of day that I am better equipped to tackle the next day’s challenges.
Share the load – In these challenging economic times, it’s difficult to justify paying for help with household chores etc. I have learned to delegate to partner and family when it comes to some family responsibilities and some daily tasks. Women in particular try to do everything and it’s simply not possible so once they realise it, it gets easier!
I can conclude by saying that the satisfaction I get from working for myself is enormous. By no means has the PR business been immune from recession, the larger agencies have seen business fall by 20% or more in recent years and this is true of smaller sole traders also so it’s a challenge to survive. However, I genuinely believe that a huge part of Ireland’s economic recovery will be a thriving SME sector. As long as I can continue to develop my business each year, then I regard that as having achieved a successful work-life balance.
Niamh Quinn, Quinn Communications, mob: 087 122 0119, email: niamh@quinncommunications.ie http://www.quinncommunications.ie
References:
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living & Working Conditions (2002)
