Strive Notes

Are the walls between our personal and professional lives crumbling, asks Drew McLellan. Or did we get to a stage in our lives where the home-work balance became so difficult to manage that we allowed them to blend as one?

I remember, in my parents’ day, it was more common for the male to be the breadwinner and the female to be the homemaker,which effectively forced separate social groups. However, as times have changed and the family dimensions have altered with single parent families, male homemakers and the female of the house providing as much, if not more, towards the family income, so too has the shape the home-work balance.

After taking a quick reccy of my friends on Facebook, I felt sure they would lean more towards actual lifelong friendships than friends I have made through work. However it was the opposite way around! I must admit I was surprised how many of my Facebook friendships started life as work-based relationships.

I actually met my partner through work, which meant we have shared a lot of work friendships from day one. It also means that together we can comfortably switch between the working and social friendships that we’ve gathered along the way. As our relationship has developed, so too have our careers. For the past two or three years, my partner has been developing his business which in itself has taken over many hours of our lives. I think with our relationship starting as work friends we’ve been able to easily spend long evenings and weekends together side by side with laptops perched upon our knees. (ooooooooh romantic!)

To be able to balance your home-work life comfortably it is really down to your family’s ability to accept your work and your ability to accept them within your working life. It’s a case of knowing which one takes priority at any one moment in time.

Filed under: public relations