Work-Life Balance should not be Optional, it should be Mandatory if you want Longevity in your Career

You can have empathy for someone that is experiencing burnout, but you will only fully understand what that person is feeling, if you felt that before, and you know how miserable life becomes when you reach that stage.

In December 2010 I experienced this burnout due the lack of work-life balance. At that time, I was working with our beloved ISA Server / Forefront TMG, and I was part of the Microsoft Security Escalation Team. I was on this constant race against myself, thinking that working more would lead me to better things, not realizing that I was doing exact the opposite. A research from the International Labor Organization concluded that longer hours does not make you more productive, and as a matter of fact it may cause the opposite effect. In other words, you’ll get less things done, and what you do get done is never your best work (low quality). I was in tunnel vision mode, work was priority one, and I didn’t feel the side effects coming until I collapsed. That usually is the problem with burnout, you don’t see it coming if you are entangled in work and trying to get everything done with high level of quality.

I started having healthy issues due my weight (100 lbs heavier then when I started), high blood pressure, high cholesterol, early arthritis in my knees that required me to take injections every quarter just to walk properly, in summary: I was completely messed up. I was working on the second shift, living in a poor diet based on junk food and high stress level. But again, I just noticed that I was burning out when my doctor called me out and said: if you continue this trajectory, you won’t last long. On top of that, my youngest daughter was only two years old at that time, and I had zero energy to play with her, it was depressing.

I decided to start over, moved to another position that allowed me to have more control over my schedule, and started working from home in 2011. I started organizing my time, my meals and in three months I lost 30 lbs. I was feeling great, more focus, more energy and getting things done quicker. I kept consistency for one year and on that year I lost 100lbs. I finally realized that I was able to achieve more while keeping a good WLB, and I wrote a book about that.

Recently I was part of the Virtual Team we put together in our organization to highlight the importance of work-life balance. I became an intense advocate of this, and to me was a honor to share my insights with the team and my experience on this matter. Our team is by far one of the best ones I ever worked at Microsoft in my 15 years in this company, we definitely have the flexibility we need to keep a good work-life balance. However, WLB is something that starts with your mindset, and what this balance means to you. Some people (mainly in the beginning of their career) relax by opening a book and studying, or by doing some labs and learning more about a specific technology. That is fine, each person owns their WLB strategy and if working after hours in personal projects is something that makes them happy and relax, so be it. I’ve done that in the beginning of my career too, and I know it was cool at that time. However, as time goes on, life changes with family, kids and mainly with perspective.

Nowadays I feel I can only operate in full power and be productive, if I have this balance well established. I personally need to ensure that I’m living my own life after work and for the past one year and half, it was hard to do that with COVID. Hard, but not impossible and that’s when having good discipline pays off. If you can create boundaries, truly log off when you need to and go work on your hobbies, you will truly feel recharged for the next day.

I’m a Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, and I love training and competing. In September 2020, in the first tournament since the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation put all tournaments on hold due COVID in March, I went to Austin to compete. In the second minute of the first match, when I was working on a takedown, I twisted my foot in a bizarre manner and suffer a Lisfranc Injury. I had no idea what that was, but after the MRI it was concluded that I needed surgery. I took some days off from work, but wanted to get back quickly, since I was unable to walk and unable to train, I wanted to deep dive in work. I got back to work, but the emptiness of not being able to log off at the end of the day from work and go train was killing me. I was back to that unbalanced state. It was miserable, and this time was not because of work, to the contrary, my teammates were very supportive, my Director and Manager gave me all flexibility I needed and I will be always grateful for that support. But my WLB was compromised, I was unable to exercise and stay in a good mental state, hence all I could think and do was work related.

It was when I decided to create a podcast called Overcome. The idea was to interview athletes from many sports to talk about moments of their careers that they had to overcome obstacles and how they came back better. My first episode was interviewing the two times Olympian from USA Judo Team, Nick Delpopolo. From that point on, I interviewed many other Olympians, Professional Coaches, Bodybuilders, Physical Therapeutics, Runners, Powerlifters, etc. I gained a lot of knowledge in many areas talking to all these great people, and that was the way I found to cope and bring back some balance in my life during the time I was unable to train. I still have this podcast, and I’m now on Episode 37. It is a fun hobby that allows me to learn and share experience with others.

This whole experience also helped me to strengthening my mindset, and when I started my physical therapy in December 2020, I told my PT: I want to walk again by Christmas, do you think is possible? He was like: everything is possible, it depends on the work you will put in. I said: I’m on it, let’s do it. Two days prior to Christmas I was waking again. Those little “wins” were giving me that balance back, and I started to feel good at work again, because my life was once again getting aligned.

I'm back to the mats, and by far the best part of my day is when I have the opportunity to train with my daughter. It is my way to recharge, come back motivated to work and to achieve more!

I cannot stress enough how important it is to be passionate about something outside of work and use some time every single day to do something you love doing it outside of work. Even if it is something simple, like walk with your dog. It doesn’t matter, because if this is what makes you happy and allows you to decompress from work, that’s your balance. Always remember: is okay to feel tired and ask for a break, is okay to say "no" because you are overloaded, and is okay to ask for help when you feel your mental health is getting compromised.

Keep your balance, be happy and as result, you will be more productive and have more longevity in your career!