When asking high achievers what the key to their success is, not many mention work-life balance. In fact many openly admit they are workaholics. The attitude of Hugh Tait thus makes him all the more unusual.
Tait was Engineers Australia’s Young Engineer of the Year in 2012 and is the service excellence and business development leader in NSW/ACT for Opus International Consultants. Apart from establishing an engineering consultancy office at the age of 28, he has followed a passion for sailing having crossed oceans, represented Australia and won a University Sailing World Championship, as well as mentoring young sailors and engineers.
“There have been numerous times I have been asked how I fit everything I do into the same amount of time everyone else has,” Tait said. “My typical answer to this is that I manage my time doing what I love doing, however I have to make sacrifices to do this.”
Tait said this is typically followed with a response similar to ‘you must have very good work life balance then’, however, he has an unusual philosophy. He argues that everything he does is part of his life, so why should work be so important that it takes its own place apart from the rest of his life?
“I enjoy what I do at work and being an engineer is something I am very passionate about, however I am also passionate about competitive sailing, volunteering, spending time with family and friends and the list goes on,” Tait said. “These are all components of my life and I balance them as best I can to be able to enjoy them all. If one of these takes over more than the other, my life cannot be in a balanced state. You therefore must make sacrifices in life, however these tend to be at the expense of the quality of our life.”
He said there have been times when he pushed beyond his normal limits, beyond what he thought was possible, but that he keeps those moments short in time and infrequent. He has observed that when he is focused too heavily on one part of his life affects him negatively for a prolonged period.
He is also adamant that achieving success at work should not involve spending more and more time in the office.
“It is common place with many friends I speak to that, throughout the early stages of their careers in varying professions, there was an expectation to spend 40 to 60 hours at work and in extreme cases 80 plus,” he said. “This is seen as common practice just to progress your career and your performance will be judged on this time in the office not on your actual output.”
Tait said this widespread perception is worrying and argues that we should enjoy, be challenged and get satisfaction from work as much as other parts of our life.
“If we enjoy work then it becomes a positive part of life and not the means to an end. It is no longer the negative component to an important societal ideal, but an integral part of our life balance.”