Work Life Balance

Work life balance is a tricky thing to understand. What I understand is that it is the amount of time spent in doing office work against the time you get for personal work. I now believe it is far more than that.

I have recently seen very good content because I quit my job and had lots of time. This includes Sacred Games, House of Cards, House MD, Boston Legal. I really could connect with the characters. I felt the thrill when Sartaj Singh was travelling in the train to meet Malcolm Murad, I loved how Frank Underwood played Garret, I was just blown away by Dr House and the kind of douche he was, yet he was a good doctor. The child me in me got excited and all worked up after the shows, but then, one day, the employee in me just could not take it. 

This is where it started hitting me. These web series or television shows that we watch so nicely is just about an employee doing a great job by sacrificing their work life balance. Although all the professions that I have seen do not come with a 9 to 5 rule, Lawyer, Cop, Doctor etc. these people are, but humans. I then came across another British Skit program , Armstrong and Miller show. It was this 5 minute clip on YouTube which culled all and any excitement I had for these larger than life employees.

Let me run through what I observed, a team, trying to resolve a very dangerous threat by decoding something important. Some breathrough is achieved and this is where it would be, in a larger, better produced work, a very exciting moment. The reveal, the wow factor. All of a sudden! the boss comes in and forces them to come to a team lunch. Similarly, Sacred Games would not have been fun if Sartaj Singh would have just taken a Half day to binge on netflix in his pyjamas on the day he was supposed to chase Malcolm Murad. 7 Seasons down, Dr House has not taken a single vacation, forget that, he not taken a single day leave. Frank Underwood, is man who has to be on his toes 24 bar 7 but Stamper? That dude should complain man, he is not even allowed peace at nights. Shitty jobs? I don't know.

I know one thing though. If you are working your ass off from Monday to Friday and living through a hangover on Saturday and fearing about Monday on Sunday, and you are not as kickass as these guys, you are just wasting the oxygen on earth. For the ones who complain of horrible work life balance, try to understand whether this sacrifice of personal life is taking you and the society ahead or not. If not then you are putting the efforts, but doing nothing.