Worked out and still Wanting
Finding balance in busy lives
Aims of the paper
• Share the findings from a phenomenological analysis of the
occupational balance of OTs working in health and social services in
the UK. I will describe how:
– participants identified barriers to achieving occupational balance
because of the multiple demands of paid work and everyday life
– individuals made 'occupational' compromises, trading-off some
activities to achieve others
– participants with a strong sense of meaning to certain occupations
emerged as achieving a greater sense of satisfaction and well-being
in everyday life
– Conclude by illustrating that occupational balance is constrained
by social structures, workplace cultures, multiple activities and
personal perspectives but that with knowledge and insight it is
possible to find an authentic sense of self and an ‘occupational
balance’ in life
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The participants
• 29 occupational therapists were interviewed
– 18 working in health care setting; 11 in a social
services setting
• I asked them what occupational balance meant to
them and how they believed organizational cultures
of the workplace facilitated or constrained it
• They said….
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Work was busy
• Respondents spoke of work feeling pressured with more and
more expected in the working day:
– “I’ve used the word relentless because it is so like that.
Because, you know, I have quite a few complex cases. And
now it’s just a case of trying to catch up with paperwork
and things. But you got urgents [cases] coming in as well.
Then things just get all piled up. And I think because it’s like
that, I feel as if I could stay here some days, till midnight
and still not have done everything I needed to do off my todo list” (Sian – social services)
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Jugglers and hamsters
• But the danger is that you keep taking on,
taking on. And then eventually, you know,
you feel like a hamster on a wheel. And
you think, stop! I need to get off. Because
the faster you run, the faster the wheel
goes, and the faster you have to go to
keep on it” (Misha – healthcare)
• Aisha said she was "juggling your
priorities of work and trying to fit your
own needs in amongst it”
• Saffi said her life was "a constant juggling
act”
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Spillover into other life domains
• “I would like to think that I was able to manage my
workload in a contained time. Within, you know,
work hard, play hard. I don’t think that’s a bad
philosophy really. But I think [work] does overlap
because, even at the most basic level you're tired
when you come home. And then you’ve got the
responsibilities: the boring things like being a
domestic goddess [laugh]…Like the cooking and then
ironing and all that nonsense becomes a really big
chore….” (Lowri- healthcare)
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Time and energy poor
“And what you start to do then, you
start to cram everything into the
weekends. And I notice impulsive
things don’t happen anymore. If
you’re bringing stuff home at night,
you're gonna do that first while
you’ve still got the energy.
Everything then gets shifted to the
weekend and that’s a guaranteed
failure really. I mean it really. So it’s
got a messy big F written all over it.
Failed, try harder [laugh].”
(Lowri – healthcare)
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Occupational compromises
Social services
•
•
•
•
•
Jazz - writing books
Mhari – yoga, shopping
Rhiannon – earnings
Jenna - promotion
Seren, Sian and Bron lost all
personal/social/family time
• All stressed but Catrin and
Rosie had health issues
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Healthcare
• Lowri - socialising
• Maya – personal/leisure
• Saffi - social, personal,
leisure and holidays
• Amber caring for her child
• River personal, leisure,
social and development at
work
• Aisha – drive and ambition
• Dylan and Morgan - time at
home and with family
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Doing, being, becoming
• Wilcock (1998:248)
– …a dynamic balance between doing and being is
central to healthy living and wellness…Doing is
often used a synonym for occupation within our
profession….and is so important it is impossible to
envisage the world of humans without it. Being
encapsulates such notions as nature and essence,
about being true to ourselves, to our individual
capacities and in all that we do. Becoming adds to
the idea of a sense of the future and hold notions
of transformation and self actualization.
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Making choices to do what was
important and valued
• Tal made an active choice to reduce his working
hours:
– “[I was] finding it difficult to switch off you know?
I’m sure that everyone says this, but you know,
sleepless nights, mulling things over. And also
think I just didn’t have time to do things that were
important to me and are valued. So it was kind of
combination of those things, really. Just to kind of
redress the balance”
• Arial also did this; but differently……..
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A sense of choice and autonomy
• “I’m a senior II and have been for god knows how many
years. And I’ve been part-time because I’ve not really
applied for anything else. Because it suited me to stay
that grade. And I think I made the choice. Am I going to
go all out, being sort of an aggressive if you like, or an
ambitious career woman, or whether I was going to
have my priorities my family. And I think people do do
that. They find out the balance. And maybe people do
go for their career and the family might take second
place. With me work has definitely taken second
place” (Arial – healthcare).
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Actually managing the workload
• Jazz and Jamie both suggested that a sense of
control, over daily work, could enhance their sense
of satisfaction at work :
– “If you have some control over what comes into
you and you don’t get overstressed, you don’t do a
bad job. You don’t go off with stress. You’ve not
wasted much time.” (Jazz - social services)
– “It’s just when something is imposed on you from
outside that you don’t necessarily have the option
to deal with it” (Jamie – healthcare).
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A sense of acceptance
• Aisha (healthcare) maintained that although the
power and control over work were externally
determined, she felt she could achieve satisfaction
by “…accepting what you can change and what you
can’t. And doing the best with what you've got”.
• The alternative she remarked was “…beating yourself
up about it. And work is a big part of somebody’s life.
And I think it’s important to try and have a work life
that you’re not struggling against really.”
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Keeping it in proportion
• Anwen (spoke of balancing work with other life activities:
– ”Occupational balance is taking your life as a whole, of
which your paid employment is one part, or be it a
very substantial part, but nevertheless only one part of
the whole” (social services)
• Sian suggested work was an important factor in how she
not only felt outside of work but how she felt in all
aspects of life:
– "If you're happy at work and feel good about what
you're doing, then you're happy out of work and vice
versa" (social services)
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Being honest and self-actualising
• …”You need to be yourself as well, rather than just
the various labels that you have as you go through
life. And have a chance, you know, just to be what
you want to be I think. And have a balance whether it
is going be 90% work and 10% your other things or
50/50 or whatever. It's going to be individual really.
You work it out. And it may change as well over the
years. I think it’s just being supported and getting it
right so you’re not going to go off with stress for
months on end” (Arial – healthcare)
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Finding time to reflect
• “I think if you give yourself time to reflect on
what you've done you realise how much you've
done rather than always thinking what you've
got to do ahead of you. So I like to look back a
bit as well. And I think, 'Well what have I done
this week?' And I'll have a look. And I'll read
through some of my cases and tie up some
loose ends. And I'll think ‘No I've done bloody
well’. So I go home quite happy about that
really” (Rhiannon- social services)
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Changing the workplace
• “So I think there needs to be an exemplar, or a sort
of collaboration strategy [in the organization]
whereby we all work to the same shared vision. And
I think that would help overcome some barriers and
support occupational balance. I think there needs to
be a lot more flexibility and interchange really than
what’s going on. We're holding on to some very
traditional ways of working and I think when you’ve
got a concept like occupational balance it’s those
traditional work ethics that mitigate against it really.
So, new strategy I think, you know, that’s unifying”
(Lowri - healthcare)
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Participation in meaningful
and valued activities
is necessary to achieve wellbeing. A sense of self – what is
really important and valued for
you helps
An authentic sense
of self..
of being in the
world…experiencing
the time to be who you
actually are
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Changing the workplace
Flexible working helps but social
structures and cultures have to
change at multiple levels. Value of
work needs balancing with
everything else in a meaningful way
to you without harming self or
others
Occupational
balance
Time to reflect,
plan and
think…seeing what
Autonomy, choice,
power and control
over time, space and
energy is necessary to
create your balance
you are achieving
rather than what your
not
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Work Less, Live More? Critical Analysis of the Work-Life
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