Responsibilities piling up, competing demands, lack of time. These are all words that send a cold shiver down my spine.
The importance of having a work-life balance has grown in recent years, especially for students trying to combine full-time studies with part-time employment. For many people, finding a balance is hard and complicated when you’re studying, working, or just generally living life. The average student wears a lot of hats: partner, worker, friend, classmate, etc. It is common for these roles to conflict, and students need to be capable of balancing a variety of factors and prioritising them (Karambelas, 2022).
A mind and body that are put under increasing pressure to acquire good grades, to obtain enough income to live on, and maintain good relationships with family and friends may result in quite the opposite outcome.
Balancing university studies, long working days, as well as finding my way through life and learning more about myself is a challenge I was always expecting but am never ready for. Over the last 3 years, I have gained a better understanding of how important it is for me to adjust to different roles and set priorities based on a specific period of time – even if it means setting a certain goal for the week ahead. I currently manage a fast-paced, short-staffed and stressful dental clinic, which I eagerly jumped into straight out of high school. My roles during my 11-hour working days at the dental clinic include:
- Assisting the dentists in procedures and surgeries
- Receptionist duties
- Sterilisation duties + cleaning procedures
- Managing stock
- Customer service duties
And these roles are almost always performed within the same shift by the same person due to being understaffed. On top of this, I am responsible for training all the new employees, and after training six people (who end up leaving after one month), you tend to get a little frustrated at the time and effort that is involved.
The COVID-19 pandemic has furthered work-related stress to new heights (Shi, 2022). Due to the current COVID-19 regulations for a positive case being at home in isolation for 7-10 days, work life has become increasingly chaotic for employees.
Just recently, a fellow colleague who works full time became a positive case, meaning we were down to 2 employees and 2 dentists for the week. This meant I had to pick up some of her shifts to make up for the loss of woman-power. In order to pick up these shifts, I had to sacrifice my university lectures, classes, and study time. Rather than my usual balance between work, university, and a social life that allows me to achieve all three within the same amount of time, this had a domino effect on my family life, as I had to prioritize university assignments over family.
I realise that COVID-19 is an inevitable event and there’s nothing that anyone can do. All they could do was follow the rules and stay home, and although this set me back a lot physically and mentally, I was more concerned with my colleagues’ health and whether or not they were okay. Although I do not know this particular colleague very well, their positive influence on my day-to-day life adds to all my good experiences at work.
Using the Absent but Implicit framework by Michael Whites, we can begin to understand the principle that one should consider other perspectives in response to an expressed viewpoint or a difficult situation (Carey & Walther 2017). People can change their viewpoints and their perceptions of life if they recognise the lessons they can learn from unfortunate events. During our workshop in week 4, we discussed negative events that occurred at work and how they affected us. Our discussion then focused on the valuable lessons we had learned from the event and how we might approach similar situations differently in the future. Since I was examining a bad experience to a positive perspective, I was able to deliberately consider the concept of absent but implicit.
Some positives I was able to draw from this experience is that I am grateful to have a high level of education, as some people don’t get this opportunity to continue studying. The Absent but implicit framework also made me realise that I am grateful to even have a job following the pandemic, as well as living in a society where I can be concerned for my friends’ health regarding contracting COVID-19 but not overly worried as I know we have a great healthcare system to call out to.
Ultimately, even though there are setbacks, I am grateful that I am able to balance my work, school, and social life in a way that works for me and will cherish the experiences and people I meet along the way.
References:
Carey, M, & Walther, S 2017, ‘The absent but implicit: a map to support therapeutic enquiry’, National Library of Medicine, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19702920/
Karambelas, T., 2022. School-Life Balance | Johns Hopkins Student Assistance Program. [online] Jhsap.org. Available at: <https://jhsap.org/self_help_resources/school-life_balance/> [Accessed 29 August 2022].
Shi, L., 2022. The Impact of COVID-19-Related Work Stress on the Mental Health of Primary Healthcare Workers: The Mediating Effects of Social Support and Resilience. [online] Frontiers. Available at: <https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.800183/full> [Accessed 28 August 2022].
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