Does Caring Mean Overworking?

This Wednesday, my wondering thoughts emerged from a personal example. Recently, my boss said - “if you cared about your job, you’d be alright with staying an extra hour”, when I politely declined their request to do so. Although we had an honest conversation about each of our reasons and work philosophies, the interaction left me wondering: what if ‘caring enough’ is not the job description but my entire evening?

It’s nobody’s fault that the ‘always on’/ hustle culture has us believing that caring enough about work means sacrificing others parts of our lives. But here’s what I’m wondering: isn't leaving work at work also a form of caring? Caring about your holistic health, family and friends, passion, recovery? If a team lead receives an email off-hours, must they reply immediately because that’s what “good employees” do? Or can it wait till next morning because tonight they promised to have dinner with their parents? Both options, to me, show caring, but about different things. It shows that this person in question prioritizes professional life when they should, and their personal life at other times. Another example is my colleague (Jim), who gets every task done and cleans up well at work, but leaves at 7 pm every evening, regardless of whether his colleagues are staying. Do we assume he doesn't ‘care enough’? Or could this mean that Jim has boundaries in place and knows that going home on time, resting and recovering, and showing up on time the next day is part of the job too?

In my worklife, I’m coming to see that work-life balance isn’t about caring less or more, its simply about caring enough — caring enough about the job to do well and foster growth, and also caring enough about myself to rest as diligently as I work. “I’ll give my best during work and I’ll give my best self to the rest of my life too”.

So here’s my wondering for this wednesday: Can we redefine what it means to care at work? I’m thinking: work hard, play hard!