Work Life Balance for A Single Lady
It was exactly 3 p.m. when I picked up my bag to leave the office that fateful day. I cannot say it had been a long day but I could not wait to get home either. My “me time” is something I always look forward to. Before starting work I had made a decision not to bury myself so much in work that I forget creating a balance. After office hours I should be able to do something other than go home, eat and sleep. No matter how important these two are, in my opinion there’s more to life than consuming calories and resting the bones that have barely lived.
To be honest it was an easy decision for me to make. I had registered for an Advance Diploma class in Human Resource Management, a faithful choir member like myself could never miss a day of practice, except for reasons beyond my control. I had also come to the realization that I was naturally endowed with Makeup artistry, a skill I could hone and make profit out of it. Eating lunch/dinner out of home once in a while was on my list too, I mean, it’s Yaoundé, the idea of having fun practically limits you to either a restaurant or a bar/snack or whatever you want to call it. The latter is not my thing so yeah, my limited options became even more limited, I had no option but to settle for this limited idea of fun. But I was happy.
Happy that I was busy doing the things I loved. Happy about this new mindset. Happy that even though I loved my colleagues and the work we did, there was another form of satisfaction I could derive from a place other than a job, partner or kids.
This was one thing my colleagues did not understand.
<<Dès que 15h arrive tu prends déjà ton sac pour rentrer. Ikiiii>> -they said, more than once, comically but I could read the satire.
They will ask me what I was going home to do. Who I was going home to see.
Their minds could not settle on the idea that a young single lady with no kids will be so prompt to leave work. These people knew about the school, choir bla bla but I did not give them details. It was not necessary. I come to work on time, do my job and close at 3p.m. as agreed. End of story!
I have a bad habit of speaking my mind when necessary. So I really could not give a deaf ear to those very unnecessary comments. They were trying to normalize the idea that a single lady with no kids should find no problem staying at work for longer hours. Why?
It seems normal until you eventually marry, have kids and then you realize that’s all you have going on. These people will definitely mean the world to you (I mean that’s why you sacrifice a lot for them) but at the appointed time, when they start giving you the problems that come with wrinkles and “mbamba”, you know no tennis court so you can’t go out there to release the stress. You have never heard of Maison du café at Montée Anne Rouge for that reason you can’t think of a place that is quiet in a relaxing way, where you can just breathe and see the world from a different perspective.
I told these people I needed to pamper this body and get it ready for my future kids and the life after and so no one was going to stress me up.
I know about putting in the extra work and all that talk about giving-in your best at work. However, I am pro creating a work culture that gives room for employees, the single ones inclusive, to build a life apart from work. One that involves building and strengthening relationships, developing other skills, exercising their passion etc.
We could agree to stay for longer hours, work during holidays, travel at any given time, relocate to different cities, but what’s the long term effect it has on us and the people around us?
I will round this off with a quote from Brian Dyson, former CEO of Coca-Cola
“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them — work, family, health, friends and spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls — family, health, friends, and spirit — are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.”
