Halfway there

It's half way through the course of my internship with
Tourism WA and I must say that it really has been an amazing experience. Thus
far, I have helped in writing press releases, feature articles and emails that
inform the industry about upcoming events.
I must say that working in Tourism WA is a vastly different experience from
working at any other one of my internships over the course of the last few
years. I have worked in the Corporate sector with EXXONMOBIL back in Singapore
as well as UBS as well as in the not for profit front in my local church as
well as currently being the president of Overseas Christian Fellowship. Working
in the government sector I must say is a whole lot more structured. Aside from
that, the environment seems more conducive somehow in spite of what some might
think. The relatively relaxed work environment stimulates and allows for more
creative thinking on my part and I am extremely happy to say that my supervisor
allows my imagination to run wild when writing features and industry
newsletters.

All that however, is not the point of this blog entry.
In this blog entry, I would like to talk about something that is not often
talked about in the work context. What I am referring to of course is balance.
Balance not simply in the form of managing time or workload, this I firmly
believe has been covered extensively by all my fellow peers and readers that
contribute to this blog. I am however talking about the balance between one’s
personal lives and work. Like it or not, it is something that everyone will
have to come to terms with sooner or later in their career, for example the
simple question of “Do I or do I not leave
this piece of work to be finished tomorrow or next week and go home and spend
time with my family?” One might think that the answer is straight forward
enough but this dilemma increasingly presents itself especially if you’ve grown
up in an Asian household where filial piety and family togetherness is a huge
part of your culture but on the opposite end, also having grown up in Singapore
where hard work and rewards based on merit is a way of life. A situation like
this creates the proverbial perfect storm for such a situation to occur.

The thing about the work culture in Singapore is that
one does not leave things halfway done. Also, on top of that is the huge
emphasis placed on one’s work ethic. This is therefore shown by the amount of
time one spends working or is seen to be working in the office. As a result, it
is not uncommon for offices in Singapore to still be full well past 5pm and for
most of the office to be in well before 8am. It does consequently however create
a pressure cooker environment where in order to create a good impression, one
has to work longer hours and stay longer to get ahead. As such, going home on
time may be seen as a sign of a person that is not interested in their career.

On the other hand however, coming from an Asian
family, family togetherness and filial piety is also a huge part of culture. With
it comes the unsaid obligation to spend time with the family having dinners as
well as if one has kids, spending enough time with them to raise them well.

This is where the dilemma comes in through the for-mentioned
question. On the one hand, leaving work on time to spend time with your family
would fulfil your obligations and more importantly without a doubt be what you
really desire to do, which is unwind from your day through being able to spend
time with your family over a meal or taking part in some family bonding
activity. On the other hand however, the culture that is created seems to say
that by leaving work on time, you are not taking your career seriously and risk
letting others get ahead of you. In doing so, you would be in-directly
affecting your family’s chances at living a more comfortable life.

The question then remains, how does one strike a
balance? Surely there must be a way to both spend a good amount of time with
your family but also being seen as having a good work ethic by one’s superiors.
This of course involve fulfilling your moral and social obligations of filial
piety and raising your family well, but much more than that building up the
foundation and support which will remain long after your career fades away. It also
does however involve the ability to work and provide a comfortable living for
one’s family, to fulfil one’s duty to their parents by providing for them in
their twilight years as well as to provide a comfortable and safe environment
for their spouse and children. To achieve that however, one must be able to be
seen as having a good work ethic so that they would be able to cultivate and
establish a career.

The answer I believe lies in the value one places in
either side of the coin so to speak. Not so much a focus on the problems of the
question but more the value placed in the over-arching reason behind the dilemma
which would differ from person to person. For some, the value might be placed
in working to make a name for themselves, to get ahead in their career or to
gather wealth for whatever reasons it may be. Yet for others, the value may be
placed on the quality of time spent with their family, their friends or in
providing enough to ensure that they lead happy contented lives. Essentially,
it is the values that one grows up with and places upon the reasons of working that
will guide the direction in which they choose to balance and manage these
relationships.

It is the ability to see the value in both sides and
balance the relationship made by the two that will allow one to properly manage
these two relationships and consequentially their time, workload as well as their
moral and social obligations. Undoubtedly for everyone, there would be
differences in which one of these two are favoured, be it work or family, but
they key is not in achieving a 50-50 compromise between the two but rather
being able to see the value of both and working to find a balance that would
benefit all the individuals involved. This would mean that for some a slightly
heavier emphasis is placed on the family and vice-versa, but the important thing
in all of this is finding that balance point that will allow one to effectively
manage the situation and as a result enjoy both the time spent with their
family as well as the work that they do.

How does this relate to working in the PR industry one
might ask? The answer is that it can be related to the very core of the PR
industry. Undoubtedly everyone working in the PR industry would agree that PR
at its very basics involves a great deal of relationship management. Managing relationships
between the company and its stakeholders or a client and their stakeholders is
the very basic job of any PR professional. If that is true then however, a PR
professional must first be proficient at managing the fundamental relationships
that are placed in his or her life, their family.

Many would agree that image is an important if not the
most important identifier of good PR. How a company’s image fares after a
crisis, a company’s image after an event or simply a company’s image at any one
point in time would tell you how well they are utilising PR. From stock holders
to the government, it is no secret that every company has a wide base of
stakeholders that they have to pacify. With this large base of stakeholders
come many different expectations and obligations, not all of which are
over-lapping. The key job of a PR professional then is to BALANCE these expectations
and give the company the IMAGE that they are at the very least satisfying these
obligations and expectations. In the same way, one can imagine that the image
that the PR professional gives and portrays of themselves would have a huge
impact on the way their superiors view them.

The rationale behind this is that if a PR professional
is able to manage the relationships that they have between his or her
colleagues and superiors as well as their families appropriately, they would
likely be seen as more competent workers compared to a PR professional that is
not seen to be able to manage and balance the obligations between family and
work. This is due once again to the fact that the family portrays the most
basic relationship that one has and if the professional is unable to balance
that, not much trust can be placed in them to manage the relationships between
a company or a client and their stakeholders.

As stated above, because it is the job of a PR
professional to manage the relationships between a company / client and its
stakeholders, a PR professional has to see and understand the value of each
stakeholder and once again finding the balance point in which to manage the
expectations and obligations of each of them. This is almost parallel to the
basic ability of the PR professional to see the value of balancing both work
and family and managing that relationship. In this case however, it goes one
step further as the PR professional has to understand the company/client’s
value system and with that knowledge and understanding portray it in a positive
light by balancing the expectations of their stakeholders. If done right of
course, the PR professional would achieve the all important positive image for
the company/client.

So what does balancing one’s personal life and working
life have to do with being a PR professional? My personal opinion is that it
has everything to do with being not just a PR professional but a professional
in any field. This rolls over even into how one manages their time or how one
let’s problems at home or at work affect the way they conduct themselves.

However, the importance and parallels that can be
drawn between that and the PR field in particular is something that cannot be
denied. It is in my personal opinion that being a professional in the field of
PR has everything to do with being able to balance one’s personal life with
regards to work and family. One can see the stark parallels in the need to be
able to manage relationships, see the values of all sides involved and
consequentially find a balance that would benefit and satisfy all parties in
managing both one’s own image or that of a company/clients.

This blog post comes off the back of a long thought
process that occurred while reflecting about the course of my internship. Seeing
all the fascinating opportunities that I have had to contribute to the team,
watching them work and being able to do so much, the questions that I found myself
asking were these:

1.
While I am
learning a lot about the PR industry with regards to technical skills, what can
I learn with regards to working life and how I am to conduct myself when I
eventually start working? Where do I find that balance between family and work
when I eventually do start working?
2. How am I able to learn from my colleagues with regards to how they
manage this particular conundrum in their own lives
3.
How am I
personally balancing this issue now even though I am only doing my internship 2
days a week?

All these questions eventually led to me drawing these
parallels between the PR profession and one’s personal life. I do hope that it
has enlightened you my fellow PR professionals to be and encouraged you in one way
or another to find that balance and to continue practicing the fundamentals
that we as PR professionals are called to do.

Until my next post,

Derrick (Curtin Bentley Campus)