(no subject)

[nilchance]

[Poll #1380324]

Comments

[idiot4dean.livejournal.com]

When at work it should be your main focus but when you finish it shouldn't be something you think about.

Wish I could follow my own reasoning! I spend too much time thinking about things I need to finish, both at work and outside!!!

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

It's complicated. As a graduate student, I'm expected to put in whatever hours necessary to complete my work - can range anywhere from 30 - 60+ hrs. But there's also a lot more freedom to check my LJ in the middle of it.

Different occupations demand different things too. Doctors are expected to put their patients first - always. If they get called at 2am, they get called at 2am. Being a lawyer, manager, or small business owner can mean the same things at times. In fact, almost all really well-paying jobs demand more than 40hrs a week on average (most U.S. millionaires are actually small business owners). In the 40 - 70k range there are 40hr jobs, but I don't know any beyond that.

There are definitely weeks where work eats 90%+ of my energy. I'm ok with that for short periods of time. In the future, that probably means that I should look for a career outside of academia, because competitive academia usually requires 70 hour work weeks to start.

[elizaria.livejournal.com]

Like idiot4dean replied: when at work, concentrate on work. When home - forget about it. Not that I actually follow that advice much myself, which of course doesn't help the stresslevels aka not helping the shitty joints/musclesinflammation/pain problem.

But I've kinda decided this year there must be a change, so step by step I've cut down the overworking and I'm still working on that whole saying no and still trying to cut down responsibilities. Hopefully it'll improve my health as well as actually having energy to do other stuff than work.

[rocketchick99.livejournal.com]

It is really tough to balance career & family. I think how much energy you put into your work is proportional to how much you love it. When I had my previous assignment, I traveled a *lot* and worked weekends/holidays as needed and I loved every minute of it. With my new assignment, I don't travel and there is no weekend/holiday work, and I know I should be happier now that I have more time at home... but I'm not.

I know... cry MOAR.

[lapillus]

FMS is one of the reasons I've never been particularly ambitious when it comes to employment. I need jobs that only take up about 40-60% while I'm at them on a good day because on a bad day that'll be 110%. Luckily my current temp job fits the bill. It's also why I have pretty much relegated the idea of romance to the fictional realm - I just don't have the energy to both work and to have a bf.

[ixchel55.livejournal.com]

If you speak of 50% as part of a 24 hour day then it shouldn't even be that much because you're not at work 50% of the day. If you're talking about the energy you should expend when you're at work then I'm going to say 70%. They're paying you, they deserve at majority of your energy, but they still don't deserve to drain you dry.

[laurel-less.livejournal.com]

I have yet to have a regular job, and certainly use up too much of my energy at work so I never had any left for anything else. I hope one day to reach a better balance closer to 50%.

Oops I forgot I do have a chronic condition, depression so at the end of a long day at work I'm out of emotional energy.

[frala.livejournal.com]

my answer is that it should be hovering around 80 or so percent when they are paying you and less than 20 when they're not. Way less if you are very lucky :)

that being said I dont have a job where I'm vying with people to get ahead and climbing the corporate ladder either, where I would be much more inclined to put in extra work while I'm not being paid in order to get the payoff in the future.

[lomer.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of in a unique situation where my job is theatre. The theatre really isn't a job, it's a calling. If you can do something other then theatre and be happy, for the love of god, DO IT. If I were to honestly assess how I spend my time, I'd say I spend at LEAST 80% of my time actively working on something related to acting or the theatre in general, usually it's more like 90% of my time but I like to pretend I have other hobbies that aren't attached to my profession.

I think MOST people SHOULD spend about 60% of their energy on work. After all work is a little more then half your day. While you're at work, why not just work?

As for chronic conditions, I have a heart condition which is occationally irritating and old injuries that flare up. This is annoying in my highly physical field but I usually just push through it. I can do this because I'm young and stupid and I've convinced my body that I have a high pain tolerance. I don't recommend this for most people though and my physical irritations are so incredibly minor compared to some. Sure the pin in my wrist means I can't wield a broadsword for as long as I'd like without a lot of pain, but it's managable. I can still work with it.

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

If you can do something other then theatre and be happy, for the love of god, DO IT.

And this is true of many jobs - if you're doing it, it should be a calling. It isn't always, though, and people who do it for other reasons are miserable.

Academia and medicine are both areas where they repeatedly tell you, if you can do something else and be happy, DO IT. Chances are you'll work fewer hours and get paid more (General Medicine/Pediatrics only nets you around 60k a year, there's a wide disparity between specialties).

[earthkat.livejournal.com]

Wow! I was thinking of this today too! I think people with chronic pain are in a whole different category than regular folks. They say if you are doing what makes you happy (or your calling) that it will energize you physically and feed your soul. But FMS sufferers know energy is finite. Some mornings there aren't enough spoons to be civil AND groom oneself, AND work. I don't know the answer. Other than, the world outside of a traditional office/9to5 and flex hours are the bomb :)

[davincis-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm one of the smaller percent of your poll that has kids (2 in my case). The fellow teachers in my department don't have kids. I find that I have to say no a lot more than they do to extra requests for my time, since each time I say yes to a someone at work I'm stealing time from my kids. I prioritize a lot more also, and let things slide that are not essential to the main job--teaching kids things.

I need to have a good paying job to support my family, but in the end I do the job for my family and they need to be a major priority too. My husband looks at it differently. He often stays at work all weekend or overnight due to emergencies. However, he wouldn't be able to do this if I wasn't picking up the slack. He would likely take a higher percent answer on the poll.

Livejournal is one of the few things I do just for me without the kids (at school or home). Hense, late night or early morning reading most times. Or, like during this post I stop 5 times to keep doing things for the kids.

[hederahelix.livejournal.com]

I voted for 50%. It's not a perfect estimate, but here's why:

Eight hours for work. Eight hours for rest. Eight hours for what we will.

That was unions calling for regulation to assure a work day of no more than 8 hours, arguing that we need enough time to work and enough time to rest, and still have some time left over for leisure.

These days, 50% even seems high--but maybe that's just the end of the semester talking.

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

YES. Humans were not made for more than 8 steady hours of sedentary brain work. The build-up of stress hormones alone...

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

I put 100%, by which I mean you should devote yourself to your job 100% *while you're there*. To me, the options were a bit challenging, because picking less than 100% implies that I'd slack off or do a half-assed job on the clock...Pesti does NOT! :D

But no, you shouldn't drag the job around with you after hours, if you *can* disengage emotionally. Unfortunately, in too many customer service/retail jobs (or anything with significant solving-people's-problems jobs), it's very difficult to leave the abuse behind. Damn people can be so fucking RUDE...they forget we're all human beings, deserving of courtesy!

And there *are* jobs-or, more accurately, professions or vocations-that you simply *can't* leave whenever you feel like it, which is why so many ER doctors and staff, for example, suffer burnout.

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

I put 100%, by which I mean you should devote yourself to your job 100% *while you're there*.

That's a good point, yes. I try to devote my attention to the students and to be PRESENT when I'm on. But it is hard to leave my job behind on the days I KNOW the admin has screwed over a student, or that some unfair bureaucracy is forcing a student to drop out, or whatever. It chews on me.

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

It's easy to say "leave it behind", much harder to do, I know! If we *aren't* moved and disturbed by what we see at work sometimes, what would that say about us? I'd rather be crabby or sad outside of work than not be upset at the decline of a patient, or annoyed with the boss for being an ass, because I *am* engaged and hello, I can SEE what's going on. Some of my co-workers just drift along, indifferent, one day the same as the next; but a patient's death *should* be a grief to us all-they were in our care! I suppose they're happy, but they seem like they're doped to submission, to me. Like cows.

[spae.livejournal.com]

I'm a student teacher - and when I'm at school week in/week out I have like 2 hours to myself every day ... but I couldn't live like that long term. The school I am at atm is full of people living for the job, but I don't want to live like that. It's said that teaching is a calling, but that doesn't mean you turn off living - just like having kids doesn't mean you lose your personal identity ... you can't neglect yourself ... in my experience, it never ends well.

In my previous job (senior officer in a Cat B London prison) I was travelling 3 hours daily - had to be at work early to change (couldn't travel in uniform) and never got out on time while working 10 hour shifts ... I didn't eat hot food I didn't order out for, for over 6 months! ... and the work itself was too much - too much pressure and not enough support - totally stressed and depressed me. I now know I *have* to have 'me' time, and I have to have both clear targets and boundaries - what I will do and what is unreasonable.

Work-life balance is vitally important, and something I need to work on too!

I'd say atm I spend 80% of the weekdays, and want to bring that down to 60%, and half the weekends, at least, and would like to streamline that too. I'm hoping experience will help me there ... I have another year of training to go, before I have to go out there.

I have no conditions, or kids (other than those I teach) and yeah, I am female.

[davincis-girl.livejournal.com]

I teach high school and was talking about this with some older students today. Yes, I do spend most of my waking moments during the school year doing either the school thing or the mommy thing. The good thing is summers off! (So then 70% mommy and 30% me time.)

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

It's said that teaching is a calling, but that doesn't mean you turn off living - just like having kids doesn't mean you lose your personal identity ... you can't neglect yourself ... in my experience, it never ends well.

That's really a good point. Neglecting oneself means you can't lend any energy to others in the first place.

[oaktree89.livejournal.com]

My work is as a full-time undergraduate, so that's definitely my first priority.

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

Awesome. Yeah, that has to come first. What are you majoring in?

[oaktree89.livejournal.com]

I'm doing a major in social and cultural anthropology, with a double minor in ethnomusicology and Jewish studies. (Yes, I know this will not serve me well in the real world.)
I'm a first year, and I just declared, like, two days ago, so I'm still super-excited about it.

[hansbekhart.livejournal.com]

Should be or is?

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

I was thinking 'should be'. Y'know, ideally for you.

[dairwendan.livejournal.com]

I put 60% because probably 70% of your waking day is spent at your job, but you have breaks and lunch and you're a human being, not a robot so you should give 100% of the energy you have to your job most of the time while you are at your place of work.

Before you get there, once you go home, or on your days off, you should give 0% to your job, except for possible rare exceptions when for some really good reason the job has to take priority for a little while.

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

I put 60% because probably 70% of your waking day is spent at your job, but you have breaks and lunch and you're a human being, not a robot

I think that's a very important distinction. Thank you.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

I put 50%, but as I've really only had crappy jobs that involve me being a replaceable sandwich-making cog in a sandwich-selling machine, I would say...35%.

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think the quality of job makes a big difference. I used to love my job, gave 90% because it was meaningful. Now I resent giving that much because it goes to the administration, not the students.

[vofpracticality.livejournal.com]

I am finding it rather amazing that ALL of the participants in the poll, at the time of this comment, have been women. Go girls!

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

Right? Man, I love all the strong women on my list.

[mutelorelei.livejournal.com]

There should be an option for 30%. I seem to piss a fair amount of people off with my attitude (and, even more, that I can get away with it) -- but I will never want a job that is my life. My life is that thing I do that's not at work and I prefer to work as little as possible, just enough to pay bills and have a little extra to make my life more enjoyable.

I will freely admit that I am selfish. I will jump at any chance to take fewer hours or go home early. But while I am at work, I do my work and work harder than most (but not all) other employees. And I work for not much over min. wage in an increasingly hostile and unforgiving environment, in a dead end position, so I'm not rewarded any differently for working properly than if I spent 90% of my shift gossiping and/or complaining. But it is my way to not burden other people, which is what happens when you don't do your job. I hate working and if I ever get in a position where I don't financially have to, I would be so so happy to never work at all. But that's not to say I wouldn't do anything but sit at home eating bonbons and watching the telly. I have plenty of hobbies and I'm glad I have the freedom to enjoy them, even if I'm so not rich by any means. But my man is a workaholic and is ok with paying for most things, as long as I'm either working part-time or are in school, which I think is a fair compromise. And I like to pay for my own things like clothes and entertainment, which I don't think he should be responsible for, so I work even if I often really hate it.

And one of the reasons I don't plan to have children is because I want all of my time and all of my money for me and me alone. I also think it would be cruel to have kids when I have severe depression, very low energy, and and terrible genetics in general. But I've never really wanted to have kids anyway.

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

No, I completely agree with you. I work to pay bills and hate every minute. If I could not work? I'd jump at the chance. I'd probably be putting in hours in dog rescue, but I don't count that as WORK. And ditto about kids; cats can feed and entertain themselves, dammit.

[beanside.livejournal.com]

See, I'm coming from a hindsight is 20/20 perspective. When I was working for Kirk, I was using closer to 80-90%. And I got sick at the drop of a hat, regularly felt like poo, and generally had the energy of a dead whale.

So, as a fellow fibro bitch, I'd say 50%. Any more and you're risking overtaxing your system.

*nod*

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

*pet*

[ginger-sunshine.livejournal.com]

Whilst I'm not a fibro sufferer I do have three friends who are and I spend a fair amount of time with them. I don't *get it* like they do (it's very hard for me to always keep in mind that their symptoms flare up frequently) but I flatter myself that I have a better understanding of it than other people. Especially when they spend a lot of time swapping pain meds that do nothing at all for them. :-(

That being said, I have a wonderful condition that means my own time at work has to be thought out beforehand. I dislocated my thumb the other day when I cracked my knuckles, and I woke up a month ago with a rib pushed out of place. My doctor helpfully told me that wasn't physically possible and said I was making it up. I have a shiny new doctor now that believes in hypermobility.

With the way my body's going (I'm only twenty three and I've already done such fun and exciting things as subluxate one of my cervical vertabrae) I only give about 50 - 60% of my energy at work. I can't do some parts of my job that I'm supposed to do, but I do spend more time at work than I actually get paid for. If I get too tired though I tend to fall over a lot - most of the time I have to concentrate on staying upright, supporting my ankles and knees when I walk, so when I get tired everything goes to shit. On the bright side I won't ever sprain or strain anything - I bend too far. :-) This can be a plus.

[wystii.livejournal.com]

When I'm at work, I will give my full focus to it, hence the 100 %. However! I only work 3 days a week. And when I'm not at work I devote no energy to it at all.