Aristotle believed happiness depended on leisure ....

How happy are you with your cutrent work/leisure balance ?

For me, my work life is still very busy and there is much I plan to achieve professionally and personally . I do my best to reduce work stressors by creating opportunitirs to exercise , relax and rejuvenate during my time off , however some weeks I feel I have barely recovered when the cycle starts again . Shift work has its advantages .. 12 hr shifts provide flexibility to expand my time off but That is offset against the physical demands of working longer hours and reduced sleeping patterns . Clearly my work/leisure balance is not yet optimal .. but that will change shortly when I reduce to part-time hours :

Stress related health conditions are increasing . Workplace stress and burnout is now acknowledged as a major health concern and one that is set to continue .

What are your thoughts on a four day working week ??

As a society .. is too much emphasis placed on working and earning money to live with less emphasis placed on health , family time and leisure pursuits .

What is this thing you Humans call work?

Great topic Blondey

I love the idea of a 4 day work week. Though I prefer to work 30-35 hours a week. That seems to be optimal for me to have balance in the other areas of my life.

Right now it's pretty much only work. I've had two days off since Mother's Day.. Early May for us. I'm still working on incorporating exercise time during the day, not always successful. Being on call and at work 24/7 makes it challenging and it never seems to fail... the minute I try to do something productive, a guest comes to the door and needs something. Yesterday I managed to get in a 30 rest period. Sat back and put my feet up, I got interrupted, but went back to it. It definitely helped with my disposition for the remainder of the day.

I'm here until November. I won't leave early because I believe in keeping my word and agreed to stay until November. And unfortunately it wouldn't look good for future employment if I were to leave early.

I had thought about some of people here who work the 7 months straight and take five months off... considered if I could do that. I don't think it's healthy or wise. The body needs recovery time and the mind/soul needs leisure time. I am at least able to speak with people, the guests who stay here. However I often feel like a parrot because most of the conversations revolve around "Where are you from"... lol. Meaningful or engaging conversations don't happen to often.

Even knowing I am only here until November, it's very challenging to keep my spirits high and not let myself become majorly burnt out and miserable. There are some days I don't meet the challenge very well. But for the most part, I am surprisingly doing well... I once told myself I couldn't do this, and I am. Now that I know I can, I choose not to do it again :)

The balance is alright atm. Working three full days, off the rest of the week. But since it is not an easy and cushy job, I like to have no stress on days off. Peace and quiet is what I need.

Here in the U.S we work too much. With todays technology you are expected to be available 7 days a week

While working on a project in Spain come lunchtime it appeared the entire country stopped everything for abut 3 hours.. they ate, slept, rested. then went back to work

I was shocked at this and asked a Spanish co worker. He said .." yep, that is what we do" Then he said

You Americans live to work, we work to live

And he was right.

I'm in transition. My daughter is 14 so I'm going back to work. I start Monday. My hours are going to be 5:30am to 4pm Monday -thurday. Friday will be overtime. I love the hours. I hope I love the job. It has great benefits.

I'm a little stressed because I will still have everything else to do. It's going to be an adjustment but teenager girls require a lot.

I wear a leisure suit to work so things balance out just fine...

Work is my leisure.

My son put in for vacation for Sunday night. Then he found out he has to go to day shift for a class all week. He will be there 14 hours Monday, plus 8 hours vacation. I know at Least 6 hours will be paid time and half. He usually works 6 days a week.

His leisure time will be the company taking the whole class out to lunch. I told him to bring me leftovers.

I have no work time anymore. All my time is leisure. I worked all my adult life for what? Making the corporate's stock increase a penny? I got nothing out of it. I burned myself out physically and emotionally and had no joy in doing anything. I decided to retire early. Now I have leisure time all the time not having to answer to anyone. I can do what I want, when I want and with whom I want. I love the freedom it brings. Just got back from a road trip recently to the South and loved it. Couldn't do that while working. More road trips are planned just don't know when except 2 in the Spring when I go North to Canada and then West on another. If I was still working I would be all for a 4 day work week. More time for leisure then.

I am disabled and 90% of the reason I am disabled is because I worked myself into the ground.
My drive time ranged from 20 to 50 miles one way per day.
I would often go 6-8 months working 12 hour days driving home, eating, spend a lil time with my family, hit the bed, sleep the death sleep, get up and hit the road to do it all again.
That doesn't include the uncountable times when I was called back to work in the middle of the night for some emergency other employees that were already there couldn't handle on their own.
Then there were the times when I was on swing shift, split shift and on call days over weekends.

On top of all that, I made it a point to be there for my family.
When I was home, I usually wasn't 'home' because we would be going and doing family activities. Sometimes it felt like my "home time" was more 'work' than "work".
I liked my job but I loved being with my family.
I had dedication and commitment to both.

Most of my co-workers put in 80% effort and I put in 150% effort at all times. I worked circles around all of them and I advanced up the ladder quickly.
Thing is, when my body started to rebel, I didn't heed the warning signs and continued my high activity level anyway. It broke.

When my body failed, I was completely burned out. I couldn't recover and still haven't.
I found out dedication and commitment is not bankable.
When it comes down to it, you are evaluated and judged on near immediate performance and what you did in the past has no bearing on your current value.
This holds true for employment/career, friends and even family.