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 to-do 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 compromisesSocial 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

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……..10/04/23 Teena Clouston, Cardiff University 10

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

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• …”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)

Finding time to reflect

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• “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)

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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Autonomy, choice, power and control over time, space and

energy is necessary to create your balance

Participation in meaningful and valued activities

is necessary to achieve well-being. A sense of self – what is really important and valued for

you helps

Time to reflect, plan and think…

seeing what you are achieving rather than

what your not

Changing the workplaceFlexible 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

An authentic sense

of self.. of being in the world…experiencing the time to be who you actually

are

Occupational balance

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Boundaries: Autonomy or Illusion, Time & Society, 14, 1, 113-131

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• Gergen KJ (2000) The Saturated Self, New York, Basic Books • Hochschild A (2008) On the edge of the time bind: Time and

market culture in C Warhurst, RE Eikhof & A Haunschild (Eds) Work Less, Live More? Critical Analysis of the Work-Life Boundary, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan, 80-91

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• Paton C (2001) The state of health; Global capitalism, conspiracy, cock-up and competitive change in the NHS, Public Policy and Administration, 16, 4, 61-83

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• Wilcock A (1998) Reflections on doing, being and becoming, Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65, 5, 248-257

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