Work-work-work-life balance
Recently, some colleagues at work and I were discussing how Vancouver is so expensive (and our salaries are, relatively speaking, so low), it’s not just that households need two incomes – you kind of need like 3 or 4 incomes to have the kind of standard of living that previous generations had with a 1-2 income household. Now, I realize that I’m not in nearly as hard a position as many, many other people, who actually need multiple incomes per adult in the family just to keep a roof over their head and food on the table and who have children and/or elderly parents to take care of. But even as someone in a relatively privileged position, I have relied on multiple incomes to pay off my massive student debt, buy myself a place to call home, save something for retirement so that I don’t have to eat cat food to survive, and do at least a little bit of traveling. This year, for example, in addition to my day job, I’ve taught one post-secondary course (Jan to Apr) and will be teaching another one this semester1, and I’ve put out a new edition of my textbook2 to help ensure that it continues to sell3.
And then in addition to the work-work-work balance, I try to have some semblance of a life – play some hockey, lift some weights, see my friends once in a while, read books for pleasure (as opposed to work-related reading), and maybe do some home improvement projects or some other hobby-like things4. I feel like I need at least 10 more hours in the day to do all the things that I want to do!
- Last year I taught three courses – one in each semester – at three different post-secondary institutions, so I feel like a slacker only teaching two this year. [↩]
- Which I appear to have neglected to blog about! I was just trying to find a link to when I blogged about it, but no such thing exists! [↩]
- As the first edition was published in 2012 and six years is ancient for a textbook [↩]
- There are other things I’d love to do too: meditation, yoga, skiing, and more traveling than I currently do come to mind, but I never seem to find time to do those things! [↩]
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