Nearly 8 years ago, when I was considering whether to apply for my current position, I attended a panel discussion called "So You Want to Be A Library Director" at the California Library Association annual conference.
The key message conveyed by the panel of distinguished Library Directors is that being a Library Director is not a 9-5 job. They emphasized that successful Directors attend library and community events on many evenings and weekends anmd participate in community and professional organizations ...and that is in addition to the 40+ hours/week it takes to fulfill the internal leadership and managerial responsibilities.
The job of Library Director is amazingly rewarding, but it is also one in which the lines between "work" and "life" can get pretty blurry.
If you believe many magazine articles and self-help books that is a bad thing, but my own experience leads me to believe that today's post from Nicholas Bate is closer to the truth -
"...remember that great work-life balance is more about removing the distinction than fire-walling the difference."
I'm not advocating that your work become your entire life, but if you feel the need to totally segregate what you do for a living from the rest of your life maybe its time to think about a different career?
I've always objected to the notion of "work-life balance" because of the superficial duality implied. I am a library director 24 hours a day. I am an amateur musician 24 hours a day. I am a doting grandfather 24 hours a day. Etc., etc. The challenge is to make sure that you make time to properly feed all of the aspects of yourself. Putting it in terms of "work-life" is just too simplistic.
Posted by: T Scott | June 23, 2011 at 06:50 AM