Balancing Act

If there's anything that the MSBA program does well, it's that it gears its students up to work - to work harder, smarter, and with tools to make that work more effective. So it might be a little silly to already start thinking of taking vacation days, but I recently found two interesting articles about the importance of taking vacations and pacing yourself in the workplace.

In this article, the COO of Facebook, and the CEOs of Yahoo!, eBay, the Virgin Group, The Energy Project, and Deloitte Consulting (among others) all advocate for taking meaningful vacations in order to foster revitilization, creativity, increased productivity, and even increased loyalty to the company. Jim Moffatt takes this notion seriously, as he recently wrote an article on the importance of "unplugging" -  A CEOs Advice to All CEOs.

Living a balanced life has also been advocated to our class by some of our guest speakers, like Bradley Peacock and Rich Cooper - "You've got to know where your priorities are, and then everything falls into place," he said.

I mention this because I consider myself fortunate enough to work for someone who preaches this extensively, and lives it. My supervisor, Emmjolee Mendoza Waters, is not only the Campus Minister for Community Service, but she is also the Associate Director of Campus Ministry (second in command behind Fr. Jude DeAngelo). She has her hands in several different projects that need careful consideration and are time-consuming. She serves on the Board of Directors for a Catholic volunteer non-profit, is on the CUA Alumni Board of Governors, and has a list of commitments a mile long.

...She is also a wife and mother to three adorable young boys. (You can add being the PTA President of her son's school to her resume!) There's a thousand things on her plate, so I asked her the age-old question, "How do you do it?"

She laughed, claimed she was far from Wonder Woman, but made it clear that the key to everything is balance. That means taking vacation days when you have them; being flexible with your time, but not overcommitted; and knowing when to stop reading your emails.

"Trust me, Jess, there is always one more email to read, one more meeting you can have, but you can't become consumed by them." When you're here, work the hardest you've ever worked. But - Take your vacation days, she urged. Take your Fridays off. Call your family often. Make time for friends. Do something fun every week.

Not something you hear everyday from your boss.

I learn something new everyday at my internship, but the most important I've learned from Emmjolee is how to live a balanced life. I know I have plenty of dues to pay before I can consider taking a week-long vacation to Hawaii, but learning how to balance all my commitments meaningfully is a skill I know I can work on now.