Inside: Do you have trouble saying no at work? Here are a few tips that will help you say no and bring a little more balance to your life. Our loved ones deserve it.
My cube-mate Jenny said something a few weeks ago that surprised the heck out of me.
She has a wicked long commute, so in order to pick up her sweet baby boy from daycare before they close, she has to leave the office at a very specific time.
You know how that goes. Meetings run over, your boss needs something by the end of the day, people stop by your desk to share a laugh about goats who sound like people screaming.
The world conspires against you, and you’re rarely out the door when you want or need to be.
So what did Jenny say to me?
“I feel like you do a great job balancing work and home.”
The Old Me
I’ve been at the same company for more than 16 years. As a young’un, I would work all hours of the day and night when I had a big project to get done. I still remember one night where I worked straight through to 6:00 in the morning.
On my way out the door to head home for a quick shower and costume change, I ran into all the early birds just arriving for the start of their work day. Early birds with rather large eyes at the sight of me just leaving.
When I came back from my maternity leave after having Abby, I had a completely new role at the company. I felt like I had to prove myself. I came back as a 20-hour part-time employee, but I would regularly find myself working from home while Abby and the rest of the world were sleeping. So week after week, I racked up 25, 30, even 40 hours a week.
I bumped up my part-time status to 25 hours, and my total hours for each week bounced around 40-45. I went up to getting paid for 30 hours a week, and my norm climbed to at least 50. Even my boss told me to stop working so much.
Plus, I was just SO. FREAKING. TIRED. All the time.
My problem? I had no boundaries. When opportunity came knocking, I just didn’t know how to say no.
A Turning Point
Around the time I admitted defeat and became a 40-hour-a-week employee again, the company required all employees to get a health risk assessment at our on-site health clinic. A nurse would check our blood pressure, glucose, and BMI. And then the company would tally up all our stats so they could tell us how much money we’re costing everyone by being so sedentary and unhealthy and oh by the way, could we cut out that daily visit to the vending machine for a Honey Bun and Mountain Dew?
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I’m a mom of four, a recovering perfectionist, and the author of Happy You, Happy Family. Parenting is hard enough without all the guilt we heap on top of ourselves. So let’s stop trying to be perfect parents and just be real ones. Sound good? Join my mailing list and as a bonus, you’ll get 25+ incredibly helpful cheat sheets that will ease your parenting struggles.
