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Days like World Environment Day aim to combat apathy, urging action against the grim realities of climate change. Despite dire headlines, there are grounds for hope, if not for optimism. Any change in environment for the better must be grounded in a change of heart.
We are in the midst of what is being called the ‘the Great Resignation’, with millions of workers rethinking the place of work in their lives, and WFH is a huge part of this. According to a report by Microsoft, ‘over 40 per cent of the global workforce [is] considering leaving their employer this year’ and hybrid work — a combination of home and office work — is here to stay.
While once it was honourable to put your work first, it's now seen as a fool's errand. Not to say staff should discount their employer's interests, but put them in their proper place - important, yes, but not more important than health, for example, or family. Unions have built memberships on these kinds of ideas for decades. But the current movement is not so much about grouping together as it is about individuating: 'My particular needs are important, too.'
The tweet I sent that afternoon pretty much summed things up: 'Running late for work-life balance seminar. Why? Life, of course.' The irony was not lost on me. While officially I work part-time, I also freelance as a writer, volunteer regularly at my kids' primary school, have increasingly frail elderly parents who I feel terribly responsible for, and try to keep fit and maintain some semblance of a social life. On the day of the seminar on work-life balance, I'd managed to fill my schedule to breaking point.
Award-winning journalist Geraldine Doogue explores the experiences of women in leadership, from the nuns who taught her at school to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard. She reflects on the importance of ambition and achieving work/life balance, and analyses the role of women leaders in the Catholic Church.
The conversation about work-life balance is only just skimming the surface when it talks about childcare. We need to talk about how to structure employment arrangements to allow for good citizenship, befriending the stranger, and more.