In August, IEEE-USA eBooks is offering Work-Life Balance, Book 2, by Peggy Hutcheson, free to IEEE members.
In Book 1, Hutcheson introduced some of the major issues that lead to varying degrees of balance in people’s sense of satisfaction with their lives. In Book 2, she explores work-life balance, with regard to career stages – young professional, mid-career and late career.
Hutcheson shares that “though balance between the time and energy spent on developing a career, and time and energy spent to manage an active social and family life is difficult, early careerists can often rely on higher levels of energy to help manage their lives.” She points out that developing healthy eating habits and doing regular exercise will have important positive consequences later, in the lives of young professionals.
Hutcheson writes that mid-career professionals experience many of the same challenges that they experienced earlier in their careers, but typically face additional challenges. The passion for the work they do may greatly diminish, if their projects and assignments become less exciting. Moving up the ladder as project leaders and managers can also extend work hours and responsibilities, which may affect family and social life negatively.
Late career professionals are usually comfortable with their responsibilities and proud of their achievements. However, they may become uncomfortable, if a long-time boss leaves and someone new comes on board, who makes significant changes in the workplace.
In addition, though many late career professionals are most likely empty nesters, they may still face taking care of aging parents, as well as seeing to their own health issues.
Hutcheson explores a strategy to help achieve balance, no matter the career stage: “Remember that work-life balance is the state of control, achievement and satisfaction in life.” She suggests being brutally honest about your time, and how you spend it, and recommends keeping a diary. Hutcheson believes doing so will help you uncover things that may be preventing you from feeling successful in what you have been able to accomplish.
From 1 August to 15 September, you can get your free eBook to download by going to https://shop.ieeeusa.org/usashop/product/careers/76735. Log in with your IEEE Web account, add the book to your cart, and use promo code AUGFREE at checkout.
SEPTEMBER FREE E-BOOK
In September, IEEE-USA eBooks will offer Writing for Success-An Engineer’s Guide-Volume 3: The End Products of Engineering Writing, by Tom Moran.
Volume 3 in this series on writing looks at the characteristics of several types of written end products, such as reports, specifications and instructions – documents with the primary mission of informing and explaining. It explores requests and proposals – written documents with the primary goal of persuasion. And it also touches on a variety of strategies and methods for making both the informative and persuasive aspects of writing stronger, greatly increasing the chances that your documents will be successful on every level.
CALL FOR AUTHORS
IEEE-USA eBooks seek authors to write an eBook or an eBook series on career guidance and development topics. If you have an idea you think will benefit members in a particular area of expertise, please email your proposal to IEEE-USA Publishing Manager Georgia C. Stelluto at g.stelluto@ieee.org and IEEE-USA eBook Chair Gus Gaynor at g.gaynor@ieee.org.
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Sharon Richardson is IEEE-USA’s Publishing & Communications Coordinator.
