Chris Hansen’s blog

I know that those of you who are not retired or in school will think I’m a real cry-baby for complaining about going back to a full-time job after 18 months of mostly not working. I’m really sorry about that, but I think the most difficult part of this is the work-life balance.

Working for a consultancy does not help, as the company expects one to be available almost all the hours God sends. This is illegal (just) here, but really ends up destroying your life, if you let it. I will have to:

• Give up most of the active work I’ve devoted to Freemasonry, as it will more often than not happen at times when I’ll be tied up at work;
• Give up a lot of the work I’ve devoted to the Diocese of Southwark, although I’m going to fight for this on the grounds that it’s charitable work, which the company encourages;
• Give up going three times a week to the gym–I think I’ll be lucky to get there once or twice a week.

Now what to do? I’ve pared my Internet activities back, getting rid of lots of syndicated stuff from my Friends list (but no individuals, I hasten to add!). I’ve cut down the Usenet groups I read to the barest minimum.

At the end of the day, I think that I will have to give it my best shot, without losing sight of the things which I enjoy doing. After 3 to 6 months, I’ll re-evaluate. Perhaps at that time the market will be a bit more transparent and I can try something else. Or maybe I can shift my career into its final phase, trying something else that will give me the freedom I want while allowing me to make money with the experience I have.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 24th, 2006 at 05:17 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.