Hi I.M's, I guess I'm posting to have a bit of a vent. I've just recently started a full-time job (in the industry I studied for) and it is also a leadership position. This is the first full-time job I have ever had in my life, as I've been lucky to either stay home with my child or work mostly school hours as a casual employee. Being quite new to this position, I'm feeling quite overwhelmed with the concept of having just two days in the weekend as spare time (which is usually spent catching up on what has been neglected around the house during the week). Today is Monday, the start of a new working week and I have that all too familiar anxious feeling in anticipation for the hectic week ahead. I've expressed these feelings to people who have said 'yep, this is just life. You just have to suck it up unfortunately.' I know they're right, but I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks to overcome these anxious feelings I constantly find myself challenged with.
6 Replies
Yes thats life working fulltime. It will take some adjustment to get into the rhythm and some practical organisation to stay on top.
Use your leave cleverly, book a long weekend or find the next public holiday and book two days leave so you get a week off. Or book every friday for a month to give you a rest.
Buy takeaway and cook easy meals. Schedule your weekends so you do a few hours of cleaning and catching up ans getting ready for next week and then you can relax and have a family day.
Maybe use your higher income to pay a cleaner or washing and ironing. Spend it on what you hate doing and what youre having trouble keeping on top of, for me its cooking and making lunches.
And who knows maybe fulltime is just not for you, you could ask to go part time or job share or work a day from home or look for something that suits you, work life balance is really important.
That feeling will hopefully dissipate as you work more weeks but in the meantime organisation is your friend! I would recommend every weekend planning meals and preparing (where you can) for the week ahead, the night before work have all your clothes/things and the kids things prepared so it's just a matter of doing the bare minimum in the morning, utilise whatever support you have for these first weeks and on days you are exhausted just get takeaway!
I agree though that getting a cleaner is worth it!
Yes I used to feel this too. Sunday night, all the time.
I went back to work full time when my sons was only 10 weeks old. Then when my daughter was born, 10 months later I went back full time again. Although I wasn't in a supervisor or management position, I still felt anxious everyday cause I wasn't with them. You do what you have to do. You make it work. You just have to have routines on the weekends so you get the most out of the time. And don't forget after work as well. I'm now 45, my kids are 26 and 15 and the most grounded kids I know. Me working full time did not affect how they grew up because I made time to be with them. I'm proud of my kids and how they have adjusted to me having to work all the time. (Im now in a management position)...
Get organised. PLan ahead. Cook in bulk. Shop online. Get a cleaner and most importantly, have every member of your household involved with running the home, if you have a partner, then he/she should be sharing the load 50/50. This includes caring for any kids
Get a cleaner and a gardener if budget allows. It's not too expensive and will free up a lot of time on the weekends not worrying about big house jobs like bathrooms, floors, dusting ect