Day 39 -- quest for work-life balance

Today was a sunny winter day ending with crisp, coolness.  Most of my day involved preparing lectures for next week and pondering ways to put together midterm exams when no test bank exists for the text book. That will mean inventing a bolus of questions in the next couple of days. I'm sure this would work better if my brain wasn't as cluttered with all the 'to do' lists of my job, volunteer work and life in general <smile>. The thought of crowd-sourcing questions has crossed my mind, but that may not work as well for this situation as it can for many others. <giggle>

So -- when did life seem to feel the need to be always on the verge of wanting to get out of hand? It is not that I don't enjoy most of the activities that I'm involved in; in fact, I love most of what I do. The quantity can affect quality and that is where I think I become bogged down. I feel great passion for the work and therefore, really want to do a fantastic job for everything. However, the time needed to do this can often be more than is found in a 24-hour day. This is not unique to my work situation, but seems to be the trend across most job settings. The quest for efficiencies has led to fewer people while the quest for expansion has led to more tasks to complete. This approach doesn't compute -- more work in less time by fewer people. Sadly, something has to give.

I'm heartened to see that many young people heading into the professional world have solid expectations for a work-life balance, something that I do hope they are able to achieve. It will take some strong advocates, but it would be well worth their while to stick to their convictions.

Today's selection speaks to  changes and how it can affect both those working now and the upcoming generation. Love this guy <smile>. He has embodied the song title through his career. Enjoy!

Changes -- David Bowie