Since the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been working most of my week at home, while I only need to go into the office once a week. It was two years ago that the place I work at started requiring people to come to the office. Thankfully, our department head was looking out for us more and didn’t ask us to come in more than we had to.

Remote working alone has been a big help with my work-life balance.

For one, I’m not spending the two hours I would have been commuting. That’s more time at home with my family, for myself, and for my health. How I want to use that time, it’s time not wasted at work.

My boss is your “out the door at five” kind of boss, so any worry about whether I need to stay longer to work isn’t there. Once my contracted hours are up for the day, I turn my laptop off, and I’m not looking at it until the next workday. To contradict part of it, and it’s only when I’m in the office for my once-a-week visit, I tend to stay later than my scheduled time. The reasons? I want to use the gym there to work out, and leaving later does a lot for my mental health when dealing with traffic. So I’m not really working. Other than that, I’m done for the day once my time is up!

There are gripes with the company I work for, especially after the recent changes they implemented. Some of it has been good for us. This summer, they’re adding summer hours for us to use, which means once a week, we can take three hours off of our day (normally on Friday) to enjoy. It’s free time off from the company and more for ourselves.

All of this are ways I have been keeping a good work-life balance.

I am very privileged to have this work-life balance. Some have to work extra hours or need a second job just to make ends meet. I am not taking it for granted.