• Question: Does your work interfere with your home life? or is your life your work?

    Asked by kirsty20nov to Adam, Alexander, Aron, Jess, Neil on 7 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Neil Bowles

      Neil Bowles answered on 7 Mar 2014:

      Hmmm, the work is actually addictive at times – so you have to be careful. I’m pretty goal-orientated so once I get into a problem or e.g. analysing some data it can be difficult to stop, especially if the stuff isn’t working but if you just tried one more thing….. However, I do have a family and that helps me to try and get a balance.

    • Photo: Aron Kisdi

      Aron Kisdi answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      Not if I don’t want it to be.

      When your work is something you really enjoy doing, sometimes you keep doing things for it in your own time because you want to find the answers or prove that you can do it.
      It is up to you to find the balance and draw the line where you feel happy.

      In my case outside of work I spend time with my lovely fiancé, hang out with my friends, play tennis, fence, go skiing, play computer games, go to the cinema, cook strange new dishes and travel around the world as much as I can.

    • Photo: Jessica Marshall

      Jessica Marshall answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      I do find that a lot of things about this job make it feel a bit like a hobby – as I do really enjoy it. Sometimes there are long hours when we are working to deadlines (often set by ESA, so thanks Neil!) but it will be the whole team working so there is a good spirit in the team. Howver, I have lots of other exciting non-work hobbies (kitesurfing, kayaking, sailing) which I like to do around the world in my time off, so my work is not my whole life!

    • Photo: Adam Scott

      Adam Scott answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      My work and home life are quite separate – I feel like engineering is more of a ‘mindset’ to me, so once I leave the office, it’s rare I think about things at work (solutions to problems for example, unless I’ve been really confused). I still think about things with my ‘engineering mind’ outside of work, but I wouldn’t say it interferes.

Comments