A Work in Progress: Real Life Struggles from Professionals Looking for Balance
A Work in Progress: Real Life Struggles from Professionals Looking for Balance
In the first season of VISTV, we explored the theme of leadership: What does good leadership look like? How did COVID-19 change our leadership approach? In this second season of VISTV, we’re digging even deeper by asking professionals about their personal experiences with wellness in the workplace.
We were lucky enough to speak to a speech language pathologist, an international opera singer, a loan officer, a licensed clinical social worker and host of E! Famously Single and a registered dietitian. We asked: What about your relationship with work are you actively working through? Where have you most recently struggled? Here’s what Kathyrn Tarner, Zachary Nelson and Brooke Evans shared with us.
Brooke Evans: Searching for a More Positive Work Environment
Several years ago, independent loan officer Brooke Evans found herself working within a highly competitive, bureaucratic corporate culture. As she explains, “No matter what you produced or how well you produced it, there was always the push for more, more, more. It made me feel like my contributions were smaller than they actually were, which ultimately wasn’t good for my overall health.”
After having a baby in 2020 and redefining what mattered to her, Brooke launched her own mortgage consultancy. She admits that while she’s still getting a bearing on her workflow, she now manages her own schedule, chooses clients she likes spending time with and is able to create an environment that keeps her physical and mental health a top priority. As she explains, “There’s so much more autonomy and flexibility because I would spend so much time on the corporate side dealing with compliance and all the minutia, which is necessary in such a bureaucratic environment. But all of that time is now reallocated to how I want to use it. So I can just spend much more of it working on building my business and with my clients in a more positive environment.”
Speech Pathologist Kathryn Tarner: Compartmentalizing
Speech pathologist Kathryn Tarner shared that she can find it difficult to walk away from families at the end of each day and reorient herself back into her own life. She explains, “It’s still something I’m working on, but it’s gotten easier over the years to compartmentalize what I’m doing at work and who I am in my own life. When you’re starting out, you’re eager to prove yourself, and I found I was always bringing the job home with me. Now that I’m getting older, I have a daughter and different responsibilities, I’m finding I can be more realistic and say: This is my job, and when I get home I have to give my own family what they need.”
International Opera Singer and Voice Teacher Zachary Nelson: Redefining Balance on the Road
International opera singer and vocal teacher Zachary Nelson also struggled with work/life balance, though his challenge looked a little different. He explains that when he first began his singing career and was touring regularly, he lived “like a hermit” when he traveled, only going to the gym, cooking for himself and eating clean. But his approach backfired. As he explains, “I found I was incredibly unhappy doing that. With that unhappiness, I would get sick a fair amount and I’d think, hold on, I’m practically eating vegetarian, I’m not drinking, I’m not going out.
And then I started discovering that actually the mental aspect is just as important as the physical aspect. So over the years I’ve tried my best to find that balance. Sometimes that means I’m going to work out and sometimes it means I’m going to grab a beer after rehearsals, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
In fact, he’s found this shift has greatly improved his singing and performances. He explains, “Living my cleanest life within this very strict lifestyle I found my singing was very inconsistent at times and I didn’t understand why. Then I started living a more balanced lifestyle, and I found my singing improved, my mental health improved and my physical health improved.”
Interestingly, where Kathryn found balance by compartmentalizing work and life, Zachary’s balance was restored by finding ways to better integrate them. A great reminder that our needs as people—and professionals—vary greatly, and need to be addressed with the level of nuance and autonomy with which we live our lives.
To hear the full interviews, check out Season Two of VISTV here.
Note: Some of the quotes included in this article were edited for clarity.