Life style balance is a term that gets bandied about a lot these days, usually by some seemingly fortunate person employed in the public sector who enjoys regular short hours, fixed holidays, great superannuation and lots of lurks and perks most of us can only dream about.
Of course these same people often have stressful positions, low social status with virtually no power to directly influence their job outcomes or working conditions; but should anyone really expect work to be comparable to leisure activities or to get highly paid for doing something they really like doing?
Most ‘workers’ I know spend more waking hours with their employer than they do with their families - and before you go checking the mathematics of that claim consider how much of your own non-working hours is actually at home: remove all time associated with sports (participating and/or watching), any activities involving hobbies or alcohol and travelling to or from the workplace.
Self-employed people have always worked the longest hours and in 99 per cent of cases earn less per hour than the wage earners they employ, but they usually love every minute of it with the operative word being ‘they’ since these sentiments are not always shared by all members of their family.
And herein lies the dilemma; who exactly defines life style balance?
I would suggest it is an individual’s circumstances which largely dictates the best lifestyle balance for them.
The 2006 census highlighted a decrease in home ownership and a marked increase in mortgage repayments for those families who have decided to pursue the traditional Aussie home ownership dream.
Certainly a young father with a large mortgage may like to spend as much time as he can with his new offspring but equally he will be wanting to provide for his new family and put his hand up for any overtime opportunities, and if his partner is in agreement that working the extra hours is right for them that must surely be their lifestyle choice.
Most people in high profile jobs have had to make significant sacrifices along the way to achieve their lofty positions in society and commonly the higher the position the greater the sacrifice.
Although I have never seen any hard statistics anecdotal evidence clearly suggests from the number of divorces and multiple marriages involved in this particular group that the lack of lifestyle balance is at the root of the problem.
Many people define themselves by their occupation and the decision to forgo a career or lifetime goals to accommodate a future partner is either too great or would simply diminish their sense of self-worth, i.e. they would not be the same person. On the face of it this may seem selfish but the recognition of this reality is actually a sign of self awareness and in fact faces the issue of lifestyle balance squarely.
Most people do not make these considerations or even think they should have to but with less people marrying, and later in life, these confronting issues underly the tensions which inevitably arise in many modern day live-in relationships when contemplating major steps such as marriage and raising a family.
The recurring problem of bad behaviour with high profile young sportspeople can also be seen in this light. Simply, if the many privileges bestowed on these sporting champions were also directly tied to responsibility for their off field behaviour then any inappropriate, lewd or illegal acts would breach their contracts and prescribed legal remedies would apply.
They used to say that ‘nothing focused the mind like a good hanging’ but the idea of banning a high profile player for life or fining them $1million would surely make all players take notice and shape up.
This is not as outlandish as it may first seem since the whole system of law in this country is based on equating a monetary value to all types of offences or damages.
Our society needs role models (on and off the sporting field) for our young people to aspire to and whilst it may be everyone’s dream to be highly paid for doing something they love we must also acknowledge and accept that there are always major sacrifices involved.
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