Posts Tagged ‘work-life balance’

What Motivates us to Work?

To answer my question I enlisted your help via my twitter, thank you to all who completed the survey.

what motivates us to work

The results of our mini survey show a pretty close 1,2,3 of work life balance, love of the job and money.

We explored the challenge of work life balance in our last blog, so next…

What makes one person love their job and another hate it?

When we are in a position to follow our own values and beliefs we seem more comfortable and confident with our actions and decisions. Believing that what you are working towards will make a difference somewhere somehow is a motivator and gets those happy hormones pumping.

We are not all the same so our values are also going to differ

It is up to us to ensure that there is a good match between our core values and our work environment. This doesn’t have to be a life changing statement (giving up the office job to be an NGO in the Niger Delta) it is just about being aware of why we love or hate what we do. This will change because we change and our environment changes.

Do you love or hate your job?

  • Write an honest statement of what your job is
  • Compare this to your actual job profile (is there a match?)
  • If there is not a match, write down why. Are you being sucked into things because of bad management, process or the incompetence of others?
  • Put a smiley face next to everything you love :-)
  • Put a sad face next to everything you hate :-(

Do the math…

:-) or :-(

Posted by Yasmin in Motivation on September 2nd, 2009 | 1 Comment

Tagged: ,

Work Life Balance

“Work life balance is about people having a measure of control over when, where and how they work. It is achieved when an individuals right to a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and respected as the norm, to the mutual benefit of the individual, business and society.” – flexible-working.org

It is perceived by my nearest and dearest that I don’t have the right work life balance and they believe it has got worse. As I am sat on the plane ready to start my holidays I have some time to wonder why (and nicely prove their point at the same time!)?

Has the recession pushed me to work harder?

Throughout this credit crunch period I have been anti recession, believing that we could talk ourselves into and just as easily out of this mess. I don’t dispute there was a mess and that the decisions that were being taken in certain sectors that could not continue. There had to be fall out.

It is true, I didn’t want to be part of the fall out, so did this environment push me to work harder?

Like many (or all) business owners, I work everyday. I did before the recession kicked in and I have no doubt I will continue to do it when it’s gone.

I want Cheeky Monkey to be the best Change Management Consultancy it can be. I want the people who work at Cheeky Monkey to contribute in the best way possible and be the best they can be at what they deliver. I want Cheeky Monkey to be successful and that is what pushes me.

Success = being the best you can possibly be


Always Connected!

The recession may be playing a part but other things are having a bigger influence. We have embraced social media as a way of engaging with a broader spectrum of people and keeping us sharp. We are operating on a Cheeky Monkey cloud, access to everything by everyone without having to be at a desk.

To make sure we could do this efficiently we invested in the latest Blackberry’s and iPhones. Fantastic, I am linked to our client’s networks, integrated calendars, business and private emails, messenger and our whole social network from something that fits in my pocket. My god it’s efficient, and allows me to work 24/7 wherever I am. I am probably at 18/7 if I am being honest and my friends and family are constantly telling me its going too far.

My Blackberry has had the biggest effect on my work life balance.


Although I am one of those people who is in the pub checking my BB at regular points, at least I am in the pub. It was not long ago I made choices on going out or not going out based on how much work I had to do and most of the time it was the latter. Although my working day has increased, so has my social activity…

The lines between my work and life are blurred, what is wrong with that?


So, as we make our approach into Nairobi I am happy that I will be able to keep in touch with my fellow monkeys and our clients with ease and enjoy a fantastic family holiday. I have control over my work life balance, technology has given me this and it is for the better.