Clocking Off: How I learnt not to take work home!

Black Woman working on a Laptop

As a Black Woman, I am well aware of the double edged sword( Black & Woman) of having to work twice as hard as everyone else on top of having to constantly assess and reassess your work because if anything would go wrong, you would most likely be the first to be blamed. I am also acutely aware of the racial trauma we endure and the need to be constantly hyper-vigilante in all spaces we occupy, which just adds to our racial injury.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has forever changed how we work and the workplace culture that accompanies our jobs, so to speak. In the midst of a forced shutdown, companies and employers were forced to bring in changes that many have been asking for years that most employers have mostly paid lip service to! Working from home became “THE THING” and the era of employer led as opposed to employee led flexible working came into place. Gone was the so-called rat race and all over the world employees were reflecting on what life meant to them and what changes they wanted to make. I for one was here for all of it.

Woman on Laptop and Smartphone

The world of clinical research is a fast paced one with specific timelines on collecting clinical data and reporting them. For example, more often than not, sponsors require data on SAEs to be reported to them within 24 hours of one being reported. As a clinical research nurse/study coordinator, participants had my work number and preferred to call me as opposed to the emergency number they were provided with at the start of the trials. It was great that i had such a close working relationship with our trial participants and that contributed to the smooth running of our trials but it also meant that i was almost always the first to learn about issues arising like an SAE!

That was how i found myself dealing with an SAE and the paperwork that followed, not to mention the numerous phone-calls to the sponsor on a Friday evening way after work, on my own unpaid time. Having a work phone and carrying it home with me, seemed like a great thing to do as a way of getting on top and planning my work but it also meant that it ate into my private home time and i could not really switch off. I literally carried work home with me everyday! No wonder i was constantly tired, feeling like i was being pulled from all sides, but, hey, wasn’t burnout a great marker that you were doing something right?

Black Woman reading a book.

Fast forward to a new job and I am going through all the IT set-up and but this time I have no work phone, so I would not have to carry work home with me and I could maintain that work like balance that I so craved and had etched out but I am also a work in progress, because in the middle of setting up emails and teams, I found myself synchronising my phone to my work emails and teams! Luckily I caught myself just in time to remind myself that I was already doing enough, giving my 100% at work and that work stayed at work!

But we all know that it takes years to unlearn traits that have been part of ones identity formed from societal pressures and perceptions. So I have to fight the daily urge to be on top of everything and synchronise my phone to work emails and teams and remind myself that when I leave work, I make sure I leave ‘work’ behind!

How do you maintain your work life balance? Drop us a comment.

The Wandering Nurse!

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