Work-Life Integration: Ways to Nurture the Soul and Thrive in a Busy Career

Stress will always be part of a pathologist’s or laboratory professional’s job. Two seasoned professionals offer tips that have helped them survive—and even thrive—in a busy career, as well as tips that employers can use to support their staff.

Self Care

“My definition of an engaged employee is someone who gets up and comes to work without a knot in their stomach and who, at the end of the day, feels good about what they did and feels like they are part of something bigger than themselves,” says Anne Walsh-Feeks, MS, PA(ASCP)^CM, Chief Operating Officer for Ambulatory Operations at Stony Brook Medicine, Stony Brook, New York.

She often checks in with her staff to gauge their stress levels. If they indicate they are stressed, she tries to get to the root of the issue, which might lead to a discussion about time management and problem solving.

One of the symptoms of stress is not eating properly—easy for busy professionals to overlook. It’s important to have healthy snacks on hand when employees feel exhaustion coming on.

“In some cases, they’re not able to take a five-minute break,” says Ms. Walsh-Feeks. “We should all feel comfortable speaking up to advocate for our needs. And leaders need to recognize that, too!”  

ASCP President-Elect Kim Sanford, MD, MASCP, intentionally blocks free time into her schedule and does something special for herself each week, whether it’s a pedicure, massage, going to the gym or doing an outdoor activity.

Scheduling these activities on the calendar is important for Dr. Sanford as she has very little free time in her role as medical director of the blood bank at Virginia Commonwealth University and the undergraduate medical education director of the pathology department for both the medical school and dental school. In addition, she teaches an introductory pathology course to both sets of students and helps organize the pathology sections of each system-based course. Dr. Sanford also coordinates all the electives in pathology for the M3 and M4 students (the upperclassmen of medical students) and coordinates the observerships for undergraduate students eyeing medical school.

“To be in this career long term, you have to plan downtime and realize that you won’t be successful at everything,” says Dr. Sanford, ASCP President-Elect. “You have to be forgiving of yourself.”

To stay organized, and keep her busy schedule controlled, she maintains an ongoing to-do list and a project list on a large white board in her office. She has regular meetings with her education assistant, medical office assistant and associate director each week. “You need to have an accountability partner to keep you on track,” she adds.

“It is important for women to recognize they cannot do it all,” Dr. Sanford adds. “Paying for services that can lighten their load, such as yard care, housecleaning and grocery pick up or delivery, is money well spent. This helps free up time to recharge.”

How supervisors can help

Baby boomers are retiring in droves and the younger employees replacing them—often from the Millennial generation—have a different mindset about what they’re willing to put up with and how they envision their career trajectory unfolding. It’s forcing administrators to reevaluate how they deal with varying needs of their employees.

The Millennial approach to work life balance – now referred to as work-life integration – is becoming recognized across the board. “In order to engage, retain and have a competent effective workforce, you have to address the needs of these individuals,” says Ms. Walsh-Feeks. This entails providing mentoring and regular performance feedback, for example.

Millennials now make up 50 percent of Ms. Walsh-Feeks’ current workforce, and where as employees in her system typically stayed for years, retention rates are going down. Millennials don’t plan to stay in one or even two jobs for their entire career. They tend to be very mobile and expect to advance in their careers as a faster rate than that of prior generations. Also, the market forces that once kept people in their jobs for a long time doesn’t exist anymore.

“Many Millennials don’t plan to stay long, but while they’re with you, they expect you to mentor them and give feedback, and they expect to get promoted faster. This generation is saying they have lives outside of work and often families and they have priorities that don’t always put work ahead of personal time,” she explains.

Ms. Walsh-Feeks recognizes the need to educate leaders on generational diversity and the specific needs of the different generations. “You need to understand each generation and what motivates them and react accordingly.”