My work life balance
Tue 13 Jun 2017
Caleb is youth leader in Tasmania and participated in the Youth Lead Connect program in 2016. Caleb is an active part of the Tasmanian youth community
Caleb talks with Hannah, Health Promotion Officer for Haemophilia Foundation Australia (HFA) about how he balances his busy life with work, umpiring and his haemophilia treatment every day. As part of Caleb’s commitment to his youth leadership role as part of the Youth Lead Connect program, Caleb shares his story in the hopes of connecting and providing support for youth in the community. Caleb believes that his experience with time management and sharing his personal story will provide some helpful ideas for youth.
Caleb: I’m currently working at an employment agency which helps people find employment and at the moment I’m working towards my Certificate III in customer engagement, as well an umpiring which includes training twice a week.
I saw the job advertised on a website, applied, had a job interview and then they offered me the job.
I had worked in a previous job where I had worked on the phones, and I think that helped me get some useful experience for this job.
Hannah: What do you like about your job?
Caleb: I find this job really interesting and rewarding because you’re helping people find work. The people we help are those who have struggled to get jobs or haven’t had the experience of looking for jobs before. We help them write resumes and help put them on the path of how to look for jobs and jobs that might suit them.
I also really like that it is your typical 9am to 5pm job. That means that I don’t have any weekend work and they’re really flexible with leave, they don’t mind if you take some time off to visit the doctor. Plus they’re a really outgoing group of people to work with.
Hannah: How do you find balancing work with umpiring?
Caleb: I have umpiring two nights a week and goes for about 1-1 ½ hours, and because my work is 9am-5pm, and it only takes me 15 minutes to get to umpiring, it’s really easy for me to get there after work. I’m really lucky that I don’t have to work weekends, because that way my work doesn’t interfere at all with my umpiring.
I enjoy umpiring and because I can’t play a winter sport, this is my winter sport.
Hannah: And how do you balance your traineeship? Is there any weekend work involved?
Caleb: At work, they allow me to do 1 hour of my traineeship at work and what I also try and do is look through the sections of my traineeship that needs to be completed, and even if it doesn’t need to completed for months, I complete the questions that I already know and can answer in advance – that way I am always on top of it.
“I look through the sections of my traineeship that needs to be completed, even if it doesn’t need to completed for months, I complete the questions that I already know and can answer in advance”
Hannah: Do you have any tips for someone who has a busy schedule, and they’re struggling with time management?
Caleb: What I do that I think is really helpful, is to write down a program or a script of how I should run myself for the next day.
For example, at 7.30am I write down that I should answer a few questions of my traineeship, and then when it gets to 830am-9am I write down that I have some personal time for myself.
Hannah: Is it difficult to make time for your haemophilia treatment?
Caleb: On the days that I have umpire training, I get up in the mornings and have my haemophilia treatment. My Haemophilia Team and I have worked out the best times and days for me to have treatment based on my busy schedule.
“ My Haemophilia Team and I have worked out the best time and days for me to have treatment based on my schedule.”
Caleb has also given a talk about umpiring and written a story for Factored In about his experience.
Read the story here: http://www.factoredin.org.au/stories/my-umpiring-talk-in-the-community