The Conflict Between Work and Family

It used to be that weekends were for family activities, self-care and recharging one's batteries. After talking to several employed friends of mine, this is no longer the case.

When you work from home, is the office ever closed? How many of us have checked our work emails late into the night, or over a weekend? Better yet, how many non-profit executives had board members who expected responses, on a Saturday night? Or project managers who needed to catch up on tasks before a presentation. How many medical care workers, socialworkers or accountants have returned calls, updated charts or finished a return after hours?

 Come on, raise your hands. Before the pandemic, this was a semi-regular occurrence in my career. Nine times out of ten, I dropped what I was doing to respond. Even if the response was "I will get back to you on Monday." Time away, spent feeding babies, watching television, attending my son's wrestling matches, dinner dates and even sick leaves were interrupted. The scars from my earliest days as a #workingmother have never fully healed.

After speaking with one friend, who often works late into the evening, the expectations have risen but the salary increases have not kept pace with the increasing workload. He confessed, as he politely declined my invitation to grab a cup of coffee, "I am swamped, and I need to keep my job."

 Admittedly, the lines have been blurred for me for decades; I've made choices of work over family, and cancelled vacations, thinking it would have influence. It did not and now, as my search for employment intensifies, there are still no boundaries.

On a daily basis, I scan the Indeed.com, LinkedIn, and Monster Hiring job boards, respond to All-Star Recruiters and #humanresources personnel. To avoid overload, I maintain email addresses with Yahoo, #prodigy (now AT&T, don't judge) and Google #gmail. I post on my Blogger page daily and cross post to Meta, Twitter, and WW, when content is relevant.

There are a few moments that I will stray, to window-shop on Amazon, or eBay, return personal emails, and solve the WORDLE LIMITED and NERDLE LTD puzzles each day. While I do, I listen to SiriusXM, or ask one of my #alexa devices to play a special song, catch up on sports news with WFAN Radio. I do know that since I'm home, I drink more coffee, have gained five pounds and my gym attendance is a bit spotty, but after I hit post for this piece, I will grab my Fitbit (now part of Google) and my Beats and head to the #gym, because it is Saturday.