{"id":89883,"date":"2018-09-24T13:34:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T11:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=89883"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:23:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:23:06","slug":"talking-to-a-work-life-balance-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2018\/09\/24\/talking-to-a-work-life-balance-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking to a work-life balance coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Workload, performance pressure, work pressure; universities are full of this. In this first Week of Work Happiness (24-28 September) EUR presents eight work-life balance coaches<\/em>. For those who don\u2019t know what such a person does: work-life balance coach, Caroline van Halteren, answers five questions here.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tshopcatalog.com (unsplash)<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

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Caroline van Halteren<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCaroline van Halteren<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Isn\u2019t this supposed to be Rotterdam, the city of \u2018actions not words\u2019? Who needs a coach here to sort out their work-life balance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut maybe it\u2019s exactly <\/em>here that we need a coach, because of how the city is. A director of a large financial institution just called. Not someone who is easily put off his stride; a real entrepreneur. He thought burn-out was a stupid word and wanted nothing to do with it. But we know that very many people are on the brink of this. Making that first step in asking for help often seems to be difficult. And of course, this doesn\u2019t only apply to people in Rotterdam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Why do you need a coach to achieve a work-life balance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018\u201cActions not words\u2019, is a good approach to work, just not all the time. A chat with a work-life balance coach, which is always strictly confidential, can ease the pressure and generate new insights. I work with people to investigate what balance actually is. For example, I ask how much time they spend on work in a week, including that e-mail that needs to be sent at 11.30 pm and the time that they had to read an agenda item on Sunday afternoon for a meeting on Monday morning. People are often shocked by this. I then ask how much time they spend on something that they really enjoy; something that gives them energy. People often can\u2019t think of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI sometimes compare it with servicing a car. People are actually really good about servicing their cars; they go to the car wash regularly and have an MOT done every year. And yet nobody thinks about a minor or major service for their body or brain; but your body can\u2019t run on full power the whole time. Sometimes you need to put the brakes on, slow down or stop. However, we\u2019ve never learned to do this. In just two or three discussions with a coach, you learn a completely different way of acting, communicating and working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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Een lijst met artikelen<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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