Work/Life balance. We’ve all heard this term before. With life and work constantly happening and never slowing down, it is imperative to understand that work/life balance in the trucking industry is critical for a physically and mentally healthy trucker on the road.
It can be difficult for truckers to maintain a proper work and family balance in their day-to-day life; however, it is not impossible! These are four easy tips that all truckers can follow to maintain that balance:
While on a long haul, talk to your family every day if possible. The best part about technology is that it makes it seamless for truckers and their family members to keep in constant contact!
Before getting on the road, one can send a text message to their family or share their location. This keeps the family in the loop and they can understand the trucker cannot answer because he or she is driving.
One can call, facetime or message your family members while you take a short pit stop. Create a schedule to identify what time you can connect with your loved ones. This helps everyone to understand when they can call or text you!
When life and work start to get crazy, always have a detailed calendar at home and work to remind you of events. The one at work will have a work schedule for family members of the long-haulers. This will allow for your family to add events to the calendar and know if you will be working during these moments.
The calendar at work will allow for you to remember if a life event is happening, and if need be to take time off of work. This way all events are planned out in advance and everyone understands if you can or cannot make it.
Daily, monthly and yearly maintenance is done on your truck, but what about your own maintenance. In the trucking industry, burnout is bound to occur when you drive for long hours over a long period.
Burnout affects your family time because it can cause feelings of detachment and extreme fatigue. It is important to find hobbies and activities that enrich your life on and off of the road.
This can be exercise, music, reading, walking, fishing, hunting or other activities. It all depends on your needs, but always remember to put your needs first so you can be there for YOUR family!
Are you missing out on family moments, events and feeling constant burnout? It might be the time to find a new company to work for. A great way to achieve work/life balance is working for TransWood! This is because spending weeks away from your kids can affect their mental health and well being.
At TransWood almost ALL of our truckers and fleet managers are home every single night. This relieves the stress of work/life balance while not missing out on every softball game, basketball tournament or family event!
You can ensure to your family that you will be present in their lives each and everyday!
At the end of the day, the trucking industry needs to take care of its truckers! Regardless if you have your own system or not, these tips can help truckers navigate that thing we all like to call work/life balance!
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