Exam season is upon us, and as I watch students I know bracing themselves to face the pressure and opportunity that exams hold, I’m reflecting on what the correlation is between a person’s attitude to studying in their youth, and the work-life balance they go on to establish in adulthood.
Take those conscientious students to begin with: the ones that have dedicated themselves diligently to hours of revision; the ones that have prioritised revising over socialising excessively with friends; the ones that feel stressed at the prospect of proving in the space of a couple of hours all that they know about a subject; the ones that feel driven and motivated to achieve the highest score they possibly can.
Are the kinds of students that have a positive attitude to studying the ones most likely to evolve into conscientious and diligent employees? Are they likely, as adults, to prioritise work over other things in their lives; to strive for high standards and career progression?
Conversely, take those students that demonstrate a lack of motivation to study or excel in exams; or those incapable of achieving high scores; those who enter an exam hall nonchalantly, unphased by the magnitude of the pressure or opportunity ahead of them.
Are the kinds of students that have a negative or apathetic attitude to studying more likely to be unmotivated in the workplace? Are they less likely as employees to feel stressed out by work, or to strive for ambitious professional heights? Are they any more likely to be self-employed entrepreneurs than conform to the whims of authority?
I decided to put a poll to my readers to disovery what the majority view might be.
The question I posed was this:
“Does being a conscientious student indicate that you’re more likely to apply a higher value to the “work” side of your work:life ratio in your adult working life?“
The result of the poll was as follows:
YES: 71% – NO: 29%
I found this an intriguing result because it ran contrary to many of the insights I’ve gleaned from the people I’ve interviewed to date in the “Work-Life Balance Profiles” series. Many of the people I’ve interviewed would comply with the poll results by both having been diligent students in their youth, and as adults assigning a higher value to the “work” side of their work:life ratio. Some examples include:
- “Sheara’s Story – Behind the Movie Scenes: A Tale of Full-Time Working Motherhood“;
- “Tahmid’s Story – Ethnic Minority Beginnings, Career Change & Burnout“; and
- “Jhilmil’s Story – ‘My Work, My Identity’: on Competitiveness, Co-Parenting & Surviving Job Loss“.
However, there are probably more exceptions than conformers to that pattern.
Firstly, there are a number of examples I could point to of people that describe themselves as not being diligent or successful students, who have gone on to balance their work:life ratio in favour of the “work” side. Take Darren, for example, who reflected on his attitude to his studies in the blog post entitled “Darren’s Story – Confessions of a Workaholic“:
For a person who describes himself as “obsessed” and “addicted” to work, it’s intriguing that he didn’t display similar dedication to his schoolwork. Darren says he got out of his studies as much as he put in, which wasn’t very much. He got through high school and left home at the earliest opportunity at the age of 18.
Take also as an example “Susan’s Story: on Single Motherhood and Social Mobility“. For multiple reasons, Susan left school at 16 and did not progress her education any further. Yet, she went on to establish a career for herself, to which she was incredibly devoted, out of sheer determination and hard work.
Secondly, there are a few examples I could point to of very diligent students that as adults do not exclusively prioritise work over most other things in life. Take Marsha, for example, who at the time of interviewing on the blog assigned her work:life ratio to be 0:100.
Marsha was an incredibly hard-working and proficient student and in her early career, she demonstrated a similar zeal for work as she had for studying. This changed after she became a mother, and after a traumatising redundancy following her maternity leave, she never returned to work as an employee:
She accomplished a great deal through her studies and, as a graduate, threw herself into her career, taking up the exciting opportunity to live and work in Geneva for a few years, where her career really started to take shape. Her social life was integrated into her work and she was 100% committed, loving the purpose of “getting the job done” and power-dressing every day.
Similarly, students that described excelling at school, such as Katherine Brownstein, a lawyer and Oxford University gradute, who says she “always took my studies seriously“, have gone on in adulthood to choose an evenly balanced work:life ratio. Whilst studying may have taken priority in their study:life ratio, later in life, the “work” side of the ratio, when prioritised against the “life” side, bears less weight.
I remember all too well the enormity as a student of exam season. Now, as the mother of children for whom exams are just a few years away, I observe this season with an all together fresh perspective.
Studying diligently and performing well in exams has a value; but it’s not the be all and end all. And whilst conscientiousness is a personality trait that can be with you for life, it is also a learned behaviour that can be triggered by passion, ambition and motivation – the origins of which are complex and wholly individual.
My observation is that being a hard-working and diligent student is not a foolproof indicator of how hard a person will work on their career later in life. Just as a student’s attitude to their studies may fluctuate over time, a working adult’s work-life balance is not set in stone. It is fluid and changeable, influenced by circumstance and experiences.
The challenge – at both stages of life – is in finding the balance that is right for you, and that will get you the outcome you most desire. Finding that balance won’t guarantee success; but I think it stands to reason that it will help towards a person performing at their best.