Practicing Work-Life Balance
Below are member responses to a brief survey asking them what techniques help them balance their professional and personal lives and what the ATS can do to help its members achieve a happy and healthy work-life balance.
Dan Culver, D.O.
Staff, Cleveland ClinicQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. I try to be “present” mentally and physically at home. When my schedule allows, I leave the office at 5 p.m. at least two days a week. I catch up on my work after the kids are in bed. I also turn off my pager when I am not on call. I also try not to log into e-mail when I am at home until the house is settled down. In my practice there is good coverage for my patients, so I don’t carry a cell phone and I don’t have a Blackberry. I find that frequent communication with work does not make me more productive, nor does it encourage my being mentally present with my family.
I try to make time to go to kids’ school activities and sports games, etc. They only happen once. I also try to only take home one or two manageable projects per night—this seems less overwhelming and I tend to get them done more often.
And I am more productive in all phases of my life when I remember to exercise and eat well.
J. Randall Curtis, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care University of Washington; Head of the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care at Harborview Medical Center
Q. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. I think everyone is different and needs to find the tricks or approaches that work for them. Over the years, I have found some scheduling approaches that help me. For example, I get up early and exercise before work. If I am not on service in the ICU, I try to make it home for a dinner with my family every evening by 6 or 6:30 p.m. and I don’t work after dinner. I usually work for a few hours on Sunday morning while my daughter visits her grandparents, but other than that, I don’t work at all (or check my e-mail) on Saturdays or Sunday afternoons. I also work at home on Fridays if I am not on service, and I find that is a nice way to work a shorter day and often get more work done without interruptions.
I make sure to use all my allowed vacation and when I go on vacation, I don’t check e-mail at all. I have found that checking e-mail while on vacation is a good way to ruin vacation! I generally don’t stay at home for vacations because I personally find it too hard to avoid e-mail and work when I am at home.Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. I have been impressed by mentors and colleagues who use their creative talents in the arts or music as a way to have a balance in their lives. I have also been impressed by colleagues who make it a priority to coach their children’s sports teams or play on organized sports teams themselves.
Ultimately, it seems to me that the best “trick” is to make some components of one’s “non-work life” a priority and find ways to maintain that priority, even during busy times.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. I think the ATS can help by making this a topic of discussion for both junior and senior ATS members. I like that the ATS is collecting ideas and tips that members can peruse to see that many who belong to the Society take this seriously and are looking for ideas that might work for them.
Mark D. Eisner, M.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor, University of California San FranciscoQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. This is one way in which an academic medical career affords significant advantages for work-life balance because of schedule flexibility. Specifically, I practice careful time management and planning. If there is an event during the week for my daughter’s school, I will carve out time to attend it and create an alternative time block in the early morning or evening to stay caught up with work.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. It is critical to think hard about your personal and professional priorities and create a ‘top ten’ list for each. When new opportunities come along, one should then carefully consider whether it is important for either the personal or professional ‘top ten’ list. This helps one to decide which new activities to embrace and decline. There are only so many hours in the week and they need to be prioritized to maintain work-life balance.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. Increasing dialogue and information about the topic is a good first step. Perhaps there could be an event at the International Conference focused on junior faculty on this topic?
Thomas Ferkol, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics, Cell Biology and Physiology and Director of the Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Pulmonary Medicine at Washington UniversityQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. I must admit that I find it difficult to answer this question, largely because I don’t compartmentalize what I do at work from my home life. My professional responsibilities and commitments do not end when I leave the office, and there are days when I think my work is actually my hobby. Of course, it helps that I have a remarkably understanding wife and family, as well as dedicated clinical and research staff. But I am not certain that is a “trick.”Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. I don’t think that there are any. The “balance” needs to be developed by the individual, based on their professional expectations.
Bradford Glavan, M.D.
Senior Fellow, Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine
Harborview Medical CenterQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. Put personal events/non-work time on the calendar well in advance, rather than assuming there will unstructured time to spare. If you don’t treat this time as seriously as work obligations, work will inevitably encroach upon it.
Try to retain some regularly scheduled time away from work AND away from family. Having a little bit of personal space is absolutely critical to maintain perspective and balance in these other domains.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. Advice from others who have successfully balanced work/personal life:
- Knowing when to say no is an art that must be mastered.
- Identify mentors who are successful at balancing work and personal life and model those behaviors. Recognize that those who have been very successful in work life may not always be the best role models if that success came at the expense of a fulfilling personal life.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. The ATS could provide seminars at the International Conference or webinars highlighting strategies and pitfalls related to work/life balance presented by individuals who have struggled with these issues and found approaches that worked.
Michael K. Gould, M.D., M.S.
Associate Professor at the University of Southernk California Keck School of MedicineQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. Leave work at work, especially in regards to e-mail. Resign yourself to the fact that you will always want to spend more time at work AND more time at home. And be sure to define success in terms of happiness or fulfillment, rather than financial gain, promotion, grants received and manuscripts accepted, etc.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. I have adopted the ones I listed above.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. Good question. At least as far as fellows and members who are academics are concerned, it is more relevant question for division chiefs, department chairs and deans at academic medical centers to address. That said, the ATS could include sessions (postgraduate course or symposia) at the International Conference and/or publish articles relevant to work-life balance in its journals.
Nicholas S. Hill, M.D.
Professor of Medicine at Tufts University, Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Brown Medical School and Chief of the Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Division at Tufts Medical Center
Q. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. The main constant in my life besides work has been regular exercise, which is a form of meditation for me. It allows me to escape other aspects of my regular routine, gain some perspective and relax. I find that I must arise early and do it before I start work, or it becomes impossible to find other time for it. I usually arise around 5:30 a.m., do some form of exercise for an hour or so, and get to work by around 8 a.m.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. Saying “no” is important, which I’m very bad at. I say “If you don’t use certain two letter words enough, you’ll end up using certain four letter words a lot more.” This is from personal experience.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. Just talking about it is good. Most of us in medicine have grown up in a culture of workaholics where sometimes people who want to devote less energy to work are less valued. This has happened to my wife who wants to work part-time as an emergency physician. She gets less desirable shifts and is viewed as more expendable. We have to be more accepting and respectful of people who want to enjoy things outside of the profession. However, putting on my division chief’s hat, I have to acknowledge that there are real financial constraints on this, because things like malpractice, health insurance and most administrative costs aren’t any less just because you work less.
Patricia Kritek, M.D.
Instructor in Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Associate Director of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Training Program at Harvard Medical School.
Q. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. Scheduling specific time on my Microsoft Outlook calendar for my “outside of work” activities that cannot be booked over. I also start the day with exercise, pretty much every day, and this ensures it doesn’t get squeezed out.
I try to compartmentalize work on the weekends to specific chunks of time so that I have the remainder of time to do other activities.
I row…and race a lot of weekends through the summer/fall. I find this is so completely different from my work life that it distracts me and recharges me.
And I love what I do at work too…which makes the balancing part easier.Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. Some people seem to do e-mail at just one time during the day and don’t look at it the rest of the day. I wish I could do that. I’ve heard that responding immediately to any e-mail you open is also a technique that can promote balance.
Randy Curtis told me that he schedules an “extra day” of vacation when he gets back from vacation to do e-mail and to catch up before officially returning to work. I want to give that at try!
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. I like Marc Moss’s idea about getting ideas from an expert on time management and posting them on the Society’s Web site or publishing them in one of the ATS’s journals or newsletters.
Louis S. Libby, M.D.
Executive Vice President, The Oregon ClinicQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. My wife and I plan on spending most of our free evenings together without interference from work. We are realistic and do 30 minutes of work/e-mail nightly but the rest is for us.I have an e-mail free zone weekly from Friday 5 p.m. until Sunday afternoon. The only exception to this is my personal e-mail (not on my work e-mail server) for my family and friends.
Vacations are planned up to a year in advance to make sure they get planned and happen.
I feel I am constantly at the beck and call of our modern communication devices–beeper, e-mail, cell phone and voice mail, as well as my personal home phone and secretary/scheduler. I cannot keep up with all of these, so I have decided that my voicemail is low priority. Anyone who needs me can reach me in another manner. I state on my voicemail that I check it infrequently and to only leave non-urgent messages and advise reaching me via alternative means if needed sooner. This is one less thing I need to monitor.
I need time for myself–most of it is done via exercise–running, biking, tennis, golf, hiking, etc. I make sure some of these are in my weekly schedule–just as important as our weekly divisional meetings.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
I think that Randy has done a great service to our profession just by making this issue important in his presidency.
I think we are facing a future where many of us will get more life balance by working as intensivists and thus doing shift work. This may take away from the satisfaction of doing pulmonary, sleep and critical care in one practice, but it will certainly change our work-a-holic tendencies. The ATS can help clinicians in practice by advocating for appropriate reimbursement for the difficult things we do in pulmonary medicine and critical care medicine.
Kathleen O. Lindell, Ph.D., R.N.
Clinical Nurse Specialist/Nurse Manager at the Dorothy P. & Richard P. Simmons Center for Interstitial Disease, Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine, at the University of PittsburghQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. It’s like a fine wine…I’m still working on this. All aspects blend together. I haven’t figured how to separate them, but I’m not sure that I want to either. I have always been fortunate to have bosses that emphasize the importance of family, so I’ve not had to feel guilty about working full-time. Early on, when I knew that I liked my work, but had young babies and wasn’t sure if I was doing “irreparable harm” to them by working full-time, I discussed this with my boss (who was male), and he emphasized that whatever I did, that I needed to be comfortable and happy with it, and my kids would see and feel that, too. It was sage advice for me. As a manager, I try to practice the same way with my staff.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. I think that people who maintain flexibility in all aspects of their lives seem to adapt the best.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. I think that bringing attention to this issue is important and that columns in the ATS News and on the Society’s Web site focused on this issue will be helpful.
Atul Malhotra, M.D.
Director of the Sleep Disorders Research Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical SchoolQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. I save some work to do at home after my kids are asleep—e.g., e-mail and reviewing documents–I often go home early, play with my kids and then continue working once they are asleep.
If I am particularly busy at work, for example when I am on service, I have my wife (when she is not working) bring the kids to my office for an hour or two to eat lunch or read a book. This makes it a lot easier to come home late after my kids are asleep.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. I have a highly respected colleague who commented to me once that minimizing commuting time is most critical. She indicated “time in the car is time away from your kids,” since this time is hard to make up by working less or sleeping less. I think living very close to work has a lot of advantages, even if you could have a nicer or bigger home further away.
Gustavo Matute-Bello, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington Center for Lung Biology, SeattleQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A.Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, my life remains completely unbalanced. I certainly would appreciate learning effective “tricks.” Some failed ones, to which I can attest, include setting some time off (I once tried to reserve Saturdays for personal life…and when that became impossible, I tried just Friday nights, which also proved unsustainable. Reading about “effective time management” did not work either—I was already doing everything they recommended! Unfortunately, I’m still putting in 80- to 100-hour weeks, and I don’t see many viable ways out of this other than leaving academia.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. Other than starting a revolution, I cannot really think of any. Should you discover any effective ones, I would be most interested.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. First, raise awareness about the severity of this issue. Second, try to identify the real roots of the problem. In academic medicine, the problem is that the combined demands of the job are simply overwhelming. The only realistic options are fight or quit (which incidentally, more and more people seem to be doing).
Ultimately, division chiefs must act on behalf of their divisions; department chairs on behalf of their departments; and deans on behalf of their schools—that’s their job, as it should be. But we, as individual faculty members, need someone to speak on our behalf. Professional societies could do a great deal in this regard, should they choose to.
Susanna A. McColley, M.D.
Head of the Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center and Associate Chair for Clinical Affairs at Children’s Memorial Hospital; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, ChicagoQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. The most important strategy I use is to make sure that I put personal time on my calendar and respect it, just as I do my work obligations. When my children’s school calendar comes out at the beginning of the school year, I make sure that I take vacation time when they are out of school and that I have parent-teacher conferences, concerts and other events on my calendar so that nothing interferes with those important activities.
Since, like most physicians, I work a number of weekends and holidays during a year, I also look for days off school that I can take off, and plan for a family day or three-day weekend to enjoy time with my husband and children. Buying concert or theater tickets, planning an evening out with friends and signing up for sporting events like runs and triathlons assures that I do not let work consume me and, at the same time, refreshes me and contributes to my productivity.
For me, putting exercise time on my calendar is much more effective than trying to “fit it in.” I schedule pilates classes and put other workouts on my calendar to make sure that I have that time to stay healthy and reduce stress.
Another strategy that has worked well for me is minimizing my commuting time by living very close to work. This may not be appealing to everyone or possible for every work place, but my 10-minute walks to work and back give me a little extra fresh air and exercise, clear my head and assure that I am not wasting time in traffic.
Finally, I have had to learn that two letter word, “no.” I have always had a tendency to want to please everyone and take on more and more responsibility. I am learning that while you can “have it all,” you cannot always “have it all, all at once!”
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. While I love my foot commute, many members of our faculty take a regional train to work. They have a chance to read, catch up on e-mail or otherwise be productive instead of sitting in traffic. This allows them to shorten the work day a bit. I also know more and more physicians who work somewhat less than full-time. Having, for example, a day off out of every two weeks can be a great way to balance work and life commitments. The only caution I give with that approach is that it is hard for many who love their work to truly take the time off when it is scheduled!Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. Role models and mentors are very important for younger members. Advocating for faculty tracts that allow time for child rearing is also very important. More senior members might benefit from information on how to renegotiate work loads, while maintaining productivity.
Kent E. Pinkerton, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Davis Medical CenterQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. To not get too stressed out by deadlines. I keep a weekly to-do list and check off items as they are completed. I also look towards my spouse for support and advice. We share our daily experiences while walking. We also take trips together. Our religious activities are also critical in providing balance and meaning to our lives.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. Humor and travel. Family vacations.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. Encourage community service, teaching and sharing experiences. Work closely with graduate students, fellows and junior faculty to show them the ropes of how to manage a hectic life style we must all undertake.
Ted Reiss, M.D.
Corporate Vice President, Covance, Inc.Q. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. You must block the time and protect it—if you do that, you will find ways to work around your other responsibilities.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. You have to make sure that your protected time is protected for the things that really matter to you personally, not just for “goofing off.”
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. Making sure that the organization thinks about people’s time (scheduling meetings, for example). Also, finding people who are willing to commit the time to assemblies and committees helps everyone accomplish what is needed to move the organization forward.
Jeremy Richards, M.D.
Clinical Fellow
Harvard Pulmonary/Critical Care ProgramQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. For me, having a meticulously organized academic and clinical schedule is key. There are enough distractions and unexpected issues that arise during a normal busy day, such that a disorganized perspective on what I’m supposed to be doing or where I’m supposed to be would lead to unnecessary time spent trying to determine these things in real time, rather than having things laid out in advance. Having a detailed and organized schedule that’s readily available (on my iPhone) allows me to respond to e-mails, schedule meetings, commit to requests, etc., quickly. This, in turn, helps me keep my e-mail inbox relatively empty.
An organized approach to work and the various associated commitments allows me to spend less time at work doing unrewarding things (such as figuring out where I’m supposed to be, or if I have time to commit to this request) and more time doing what I like (taking care of patients, teaching, etc.) and ensures I get home at a reasonable time.
Of course, I’m just a fellow, so this may not be a relevant perspective for attendings who have secretaries and/or assistants who take care of their scheduling for them!
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. It’s said again and again, but learning how to say “no” to requests for one’s time and energy is a skill that I need to continue to develop. There are clearly times when “yes” is the only answer one can give (I am filling out this survey, aren’t I?), but there are clearly also requests that one can decline.
I see less modeling of “integrating” one’s professional and personal lives, than modeling of “balancing” them. I don’t have a clear sense of how to integrate them and that seems like something I should know how to do and would like to learn more about.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. I very much like that this is a topic that will be on display at the International Conference this year, with a plenary talk and small sessions in the Center for Fellows and Junior Professionals focused on it. That alone gives it importance and attention. I think that further interventions are more difficult.
Direct modeling is clearly important, but it’s difficult to imagine how the ATS could provide this for its members.
The literature is always an influential manner in which to reach physicians (and a broader societal audience). Perhaps the ATS could solicit proposals for studies which would investigate (survey?) various methods of balancing/integrating work-life obligations. Or, proposals could be solicited for studies assessing physicians’ satisfaction with their jobs when employing different strategies to achieve work-life balance.
The ATS could devise written and/or online materials describing individual’s strategies to achieve a work-life balance as examples for young (or older?) physicians struggling with this issue.
Those are just some ideas. I think it’s an extremely important topic and I applaud the ATS and Dr Curtis for providing it the attention and consideration it deserves.
Dean Schraufnagel, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and Pathology and Program Director in the Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep and Allergy at the University of Illinois at ChicagoQ. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. I am not sure I should be giving advice on this, but here goes: I love my work, my societal activities and my hobbies. So there is almost no activity that I do which I dread. I try to think of the big picture—for example, how do we cure lung disease—and that drives me. I use my hobbies, which include photography and travel, as opportunities that allow me to inquire or think creatively, which is rewarding and renewing.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. Getting along well with your spouse and children is enormously helpful. Having good and fun people around you is also important. Their understanding and help make life great for me. Sharing with someone is tremendously rewarding.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. Asking these kinds of questions is a good start.
Anna M. van Heeckeren, MS, DVM
Executive Director
Q. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. My spouse is an integral part of my balance to life. He helps with taking care of the kids, and with household needs (cooking, shopping, laundry). Communication is key. All family members pitch in and help with housework, which is age- and skill-appropriate. Time management and making a schedule for all the key elements (time with my spouse, kids, friends, and myself) to the balance is required.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. Have a listserv for people to talk about common life balance issues. The list is closed to ATS members.
Anonymous
Q. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. 1. Pushing for the ability to work as part-time faculty. While this results in greater "balance", it pretty much kills the academic career, unfortunately. 2. Say "no" to stuff that really doesn't interest you. Life is too short. 3. Don't take yourself too seriously.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. 1. Deciding not to have children. Seriously. 2. If they have children, utilizing in-home childcare as much as possible. 3. Having a spouse who assumes most of the responsibility for home and children.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. Continue to support the Women's Luncheon at the Annual Meeting; support NIH policy changes that allow women (and men) to work part-time while starting their families; encourage faculty promotion policies that recognize the need to retain women and those who work part-time for family reasons
Anonymous
Q. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. Hire people to help with household tasks
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. I know that many work part-time as a solution to balance work-life. But I think that usually leads to “full-time” work for part-time pay.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. 1. Publish burn-out and depression rates among Pulmonary physicians 2. Advocate for changes in Medicare documentation requirements - the current level of detail needed to justify most billing levels adds significantly to the workload of attending physicians, and actually detracts from patient care. 3. Advocate for the use of flexible and/or shared time at academic institutions. 4. Advocate for reasonable work-hour limits for attendings. Too many institutions have compensated for trainee work hour restricitions by shifting work to the attending staff. If it is problematic and unsafe for interns to be exhausted, it is also a serious issue for the team leader to be sleep-deprived.
Anonymous
Q. What are some of the specific ways or “tricks” you have developed to help you integrate or balance life, work responsibilities and other interests?
A. I schedule my “life” time as I do all my work responsibilities. The schedule is on my calendar and I make sure that family-life takes priority over all other events.
Q. Are there other ways to integrate or balance one’s professional and personal lives that you have seen others use effectively?
A. I know that many work part-time as a solution to balance work-life. But I think that usually leads to “full-time” work for part-time pay.
Q. What are the ways that you think the ATS could help its members maintain a healthy “work-life balance?”
A. I believe just bringing this concept to the forefront has already helped so much. Individuals do not feel as stressed by allowing for family life to be a priority.
