Work-Life Balance: How to Deal When They Overlap

On Friday there was a table overlooking the water. Pink champagne. And a black velvet box holding a sparkly diamond ring.

Now it’s Monday. And I have no idea how I’m supposed to concentrate at work.

And this is just the first day. What happens when there are vendors to call? bands to book? napkins that absolutely must coordinate with the flowers that need to match the invitations? There are only so many hours in a day, and most peoples’ business hours are the same. Which of course means a lot of this will need to be taken care of during the work day.

Gah! I’m terrible with directions. Where’s the GPS?

I’m sure you’ve been in the same situation at some point, whether you had to plan a wedding, buy a house, move, plan your child’s bar mitzvah or baptism, book your vacation…

Work sure is an inconvenience sometimes, isn’t it?

So then, the question is, how appropriate is it to do plan all these things at work?

Obviously, the best answer is to try to take care of your personal matters during your lunch hour. That’s your personal time, after all. But sometimes that just doesn’t work out. Maybe you can consolidate all your appointments to one afternoon, and use one of your vacation days to take care of these things.

But regardless, you might have to take care of things at your desk during office hours. And I think managers and bosses are pretty forgiving…up to a point. I mean, we’re all people, after all, not robots. It’s pretty much impossible to be completely single-minded and focused on work every single minute of every single day at the office (and, yes, I’m talking to you, guy who’s shaking his head no while surreptitiously hiding his Facebook profile behind a spreadsheet).

As long as your work gets done and your deadlines are met, is there really any harm done if you also take care of some personal business?

I’m throwing it to you. What do you think about dealing with personal matters while at work?
A. Not cool. Work is for work. Do your personal stuff at home!
B. Generally, you should only do personal stuff at home or during lunch breaks. But if you have no other option, once in awhile is OK.
C. As long as all your assignments are completed in a timely fashion, what’s the harm?
D. Work? Who can think of work at a time like…[glances down at ring] ooh, shiny…

By Jessica Livingston