Rudi, Ängela, Nicole and Kai discuss how to find balance in busy lives with Catherine Allen. They talk about:
How do you separate what you do on day-today basis with who you are at home or in other capacities?
What are some of the assumptions that you’ve encountered about the role of work in our daily lives?
What are some helpful suggestions you have for people seeking to find balance in their work/life?
Transcript:
- Hello, and welcome, to the what's Career got to Do with IT podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you're at in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way.

- On today's episode, we are joined by special guest, Catherine Allen, assistant director in the Duke Career Center. As we discuss an answer, or many, to the question, Who are we beyond the nine to five? Who are we beyond the nine to five? We've covered this in many different iterations, we've talked about this in a lot of different capacities. Kay's making fun of stuff right now. You hear, that was his breath into the mic. As we kind of dive a little bit deeper into this subject and we talk to different people and we think about different perspectives of who we are, when we take that work hat off, I'd really like to think of that hard hat, and just like, putting it down and going into a different mind or mental space. I think it was really interesting to hear from Mary Pat as she talked about like, there was like, a mixture of it, she has to, but then also, people have different types of boundaries that they enact in their life, and with our guest today, I would love to just start right off the bat with Catherine and be like, Catherine, what's it look like for you when that clock strikes five or whatever time you end up saying, "Hey, I'm done with work." What does that look like for you, that transition?

- It's a nice, fun drive home. I usually to drive home to really, like, zen out, so either I'm listening to like, a podcast, or I'm calling somebody that I need to just like, catch up with, and just have a moment of like connection with someone that's not related to work. So yeah, that's what I do. That's my like, buffer, between work and home.

- I don't know if we've discussed this as hosts either, like, what we do, how do we unwind? What do I do?

- I'm really schedule-driven, so I think literally once I leave, like my mind's on the next like, to-do thing. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but like, as soon as I leave here, my mind's on like, "Okay, next I need to go to the store and shop for this stuff, or next, I need to call Mom and talk about this." Or next, I need to, like, my mind goes to the next thing until it's like, it's marked by time. So like, five, I leave, six, okay what am I gonna eat for dinner? Seven, going to the store, eight wash clothes, nine iron clothes, 10 be in the bed by that, like, that's where my mind goes to...

- Wait.

- And then repeats, repeats, repeats for five days until the weekend comes.

- You iron immediately after washing your clothes?

- Well, I mean you wash a set of clothes, and then you iron a set of clothes, so that you don't have laundry built up, so you have room. See, this is not what the conversation was about.

- That's more efficient than I've ever been in my entire life.

- Yeah, I'm really unfamiliar with that. I mean the the dryer, is the iron.

- No, after you take it out the dryer, then you set aside what you're gonna wear, and then you iron that stuff out. Is that not a thing?

- I mean, I plan it out, but I plan it such that I, lay my, I don't put it in most of my stuff in the dryer, I let it air dry.

- Uh-huh?

- But the dryer is the iron, unless it's a real bad wrinkle, like my jeans.

- I gotta press...

- I'm with you.

- Everything.

- Turns out Kay is not messy beyond, . Kay i