MGT 231: Slices of Life

*Before anything else, I would again like to congratulate Group 1 for a job well done : Sheila, Carla, Charelle, Reigh, Oya -- you guys surely gave an act that’s tough to follow! To the succeeding groups, good luck!

ACTIVITY: Each member of the class was given a paper plate to draw on. Each one was made to allocate a “pie slice” of the following life areas:

WORK
LOVE and RELATIONSHIPS
PLAY

The bigger the pie slice means more time and value given to that life area. Check out mine:

I roughly allocated 20% for play, and 40% each for work and love & relationships.

For non-classmates… curious to know how you fared? According to group 1, the pie graph can be interpreted as follows:

WORK> love and play = a lifestyle of responsibility

LOVE> work and play = a lifestyle of dependency

PLAY> love and work = a lifestyle of fear of responsibility

Naturally, everyone in the class had different pie graphs. I noticed some workaholic and lovestruck beings ~ work and love taking up most of their pies. Good thing I didn’t see anyone who had a large chunk of play… (just goes to show that nobody runs away from responsibility)

Giving importance to work may be a sign of responsibility – but too much of it (especially if it gets in the way of love and relationships!) can be a bad thing, and for me, sort of, well, saddening. We work to live, NOT live to work! Workaholics, get a life! The 8 hour work day was set for a reason.

I remember Ayala Foundation’s “Work-Life Project.” Employees and companies were encouraged to give importance to the other aspects in their lives. I hope to show a video of this to the class when I get a chance.

They say too much can be bad for you and I completely agree! Hearts and emotions cannot make the world go round. And as Carla said during the report, “Hindi pwede kainin ang love!” Valuing love and relationships is essential – but never lose sight or reality and responsibility.

My boyfriend is in the military – and the early days of our relationship were made harder by his “controlled life” as a cadet in the Philippine Military Academy. Times together were scarce… at that time I usually dropped anything I was doing whenever the Academy granted them leaves. I cut work, excused myself from barkada outings and volunteer work and rushed to Baguio as soon as possible! Sayang nga naman, I said to myself, minsan lang naman.

Pero gaano kadalas ang minsan? Once? Twice? A hundred times?

Eventually, I realized, my life cannot revolve around my relationship. I ended up with less quality work and neglected responsibilities. Now, I have learned to accept reality – learned to pace myself and prioritize!

And as for more PLAY than work and love, how irresponsible can one get?

Determining the time and attention I give between the three life areas was quite easy at first. But as I looked at the pie and evaluated my day to day interactions, I had a hard time putting my thoughts in order. Through the activity, I learned that we really can’t isolate each aspect of our life from the others.

In my case, I find both fun and great relationships in my work … which makes work not that much of a burden. Believe it or not, I wake up each day looking forward to responsibilities lined up for me, to interesting people at work, to new things waiting for me all throughout the day. Perhaps, my pie should be one colorful swirl!