This is a report of my key takeaways from my research into “work-life balance” done for my Master’s Thesis. This is a short breakdown of what I found.
1. Strict Boundaries on Time are Important
Among workers who reported having an acceptable “work-life balance” they stated that they have strict boundaries around work. One person stated, “Generally, I’m good about starting and stopping work at the same time every day.” Meanwhile, among suggestions to make “work-life balance” better it was stated that, “most people can get things done in a 30-hour week.” It was also generally supported among respondents that they would prefer to leave work at work and not take work home with them. One person stated,
“I think it’s hard to find a balance within the publishing industry especially, because a lot of the higher ups (especially within the big five) expect you to work on things at home. If you do not, it feels like you’d fall behind. I feel like I truly can never leave work at work when I’m doing things like that at home.”
2. COVID-19 Did Not Improve “work-life balance”
While some would think that the societal changes among the COVID-19 pandemic would improve “work-life balance”. The research I conducted seams to say the opposite. While overall there was improvement due to working from home, something many would like to continue if not have expanded upon, there were overall negative effects of the pandemic. One such event was the massive layoffs the summer of 2020, the feeling that one cannot distance themselves from work when working from home, and the longer hours that have been taken on since the pandemic started.
Among my respondents there was also the report of having to switch to freelancing during the pandemic due to necessity and that the “feast or famine” nature of freelancing has made it harder to maintain a good “work-life balance” because you are always chasing a paycheck.
3. Better Pay and Shorter Hours are Necessary
Among the things that respondents found to be essential when creating a better “work-life balance” is shorter hours and better pay. One respondent stated, “If I could find a job that allows me to live comfortably (i.e., not paycheck to paycheck) I think that my “work-life balance” would be much better.” Followed with, “I’m concerned that even with a fulltime job I’m still going to have to freelance, which makes me feel like I’m going to have no time to myself.” This concern among people in the industry is valid. With most entry level jobs starting out at around 45k it can be the lack of income that moves workers to working longer hours and even freelancing.
However, these longer hours are not necessarily a good thing. This takes away from other aspects of life, such as taking care of one’s health and social relationships. One respondent stated that, ““work-life balance” does not exist under the 40-hour workweek.” And many others reported wanting fewer hours of work as well. One person even stated, “Generally speaking, most people can get things done in a 30-hour week unless something big comes up last minute.”
However, for most Americans working fewer hours comes with caveats. Not having the pay that comes from working longer hours can be severely detrimental. Not to mention in the current work culture cutting back on hours could also mean being passed up for promotions and raises. For “work-life balance” to improve within the book publishing industry both fewer hours and higher pay are necessary.
4. Most of Work Can Be Done Remotely
As a publishing professional myself I greatly agree with the ongoing sentiment among respondents that the work done in the publishing world can in fact be done remotely. After all we have had to do it the majority of the past two years because of a pandemic. Many respondents to my survey reported wanting more remote jobs. It’s not a wonder why. Working remotely by choice comes with additional flexibilities around life. It can save on childcare, allow greater flexibility around life events, and allow workers to focus on getting tasks done rather than just logging in hours at a desk.
Another big reason for the push for remote is that publishing professionals will no longer be chained to the cost prohibitive city of New York. This allows people who are enthusiastic about publishing to choose an affordable place to live, given that they would only need internet access to do the job.
5. Freelancing Does Not Equal Better “Work-Life Balance”
While freelancing gives you greater flexibility to choose when to work and when not to work it is not the solution to an overall better “work-life balance.” Respondents reported that they found freelance work to be “feast of famine” which indicates the foundational stress that comes with this type of work. As reported earlier, you’re not really getting a break when you’re constantly worried about paying bills. Others reported that they work full-time jobs in addition to freelancing, using freelancing as a way to makeup the financial needs that aren’t being met by working full time.
Before Linny and I started our publishing companies in the ’80s, we both worked a variety of unionized, more fairly-paid industrial jobs. 40 hr/wk on rotating shifts, with the latter creating the most stress in our lives. But it took decent pay checks for us to feel secure. When I decided to write for a living, I had to start from scratch, and I nearly gave up before learning how to find gigs that abetted my goals. For instance, when computers were about to hit the desktop, I traded my writing/PR skills with Pittsburgh’s first computer store for freedom to use all the equipment at night and to learn it well. Meanwhile, aware of how little I knew about writing long documents, I decided that ghostwriting for that market’s large pool of wealthy old men (and one woman) would get me paid well to learn how to research and write long documents. Having to write in the voice of someone else was exceptional training, and becoming an insider to the careers of others opened a plethora of freelancing opportunities. It several years, but I more than replaced my previous wages while gaining precious experience that included project managing the books my clients wanted. I learned about printing and I learned about publishing. So I had acquired whole sets of new skills and was paid to do so. What I hadn’t expected was that my clients became my sales force. On the straight freelancing side, I realized that making it pay and allow some work life sanity meant researching once and writing many times (with different slants and audiences). Meanwhile, Linny had done something similar in videography when the mill where she was a crane operator shut down and she took her retraining in that new arena. After moving home to Portland, we felt ready to take the huge risks of nurturing a small press into existence one book at a time, but the books that did that best were how-to and where-to publish in the region, including all relevant resources—so we wound up serving the broad community of the printed word in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and British Columbia. And that success got us excellent national bookstore distribution, which allowed us to publish riskier, literary books. Forty books later, with many awards, we sold our publishing houses, and two years after that PSU hired me to create a teaching press and a graduate publishing curriculum. The Oolgian focus on generalism grew from our own experience because we knew it made us more flexible in all we did. Over and over, Oolies have found jobs because they really can do it all—or, knowing their strengths and weaknesses, can find others with complementary talents. At the moment, though, I’m stoked by the union organizing that some Oolies have been doing. Given their talents and savvy, they absolutely deserve living wages and a secure life outside of work. But, really, everyone deserves those things, that security. There’s much more work to do to make that happen. Thanks for your thoughtful essays, and best of luck to you. Cheers, Dennis