In this week’s issue of Time magazine, the cover story details The Future of Work.  Specifically, the article takes a look at how the workforce will be (and has been) changing.  Not surprisingly, the article highlights the disappearance of employer paid benefits.

It’s not news to anyone who has worked - or looked for work - in the last 5 years that company sponsored health care is a rare gem in the job market.  Most employees these days are thrilled to have the opportunity to pay a portion of their health insurance premiums out of each paycheck.  An employer who invests any matching funds into a 401K is often thought to be going above and beyond the norm.  And a pension?  What is that? As a 29 year old worker, I have never worked for a company that offered a pension.

Insurance and retirement benefits used to be the perks that differentiated one job offer from another.  With those extra benefits being taken off the table, what are the perks that we’re working for now?

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Gruff, unreasonable, and known to once make a co-worker cry, my spouse has been trying to make changes in his demeanor.  He knows the way he acts could possibly get in the way of future advancement. In the past year, he’s become a very different guy.  He’s made friends with co-workers (we’ve even invited a few over for dinner), goes to a monthly poker night, and has softened his tough-guy image. 

Except in one arena: he hates going out to lunch with his co-workers.  His team goes out to lunch as one big group about every two weeks.  They pick a fancier restaurant than my spouse is comfortable with and tend to rack up a big bill that often includes alcohol.  At the end of the meal, each person is expected to split the bill equally regardless of whether they ordered only a small plate or had three martinis plus an appetizer. 

My penny-pinching partner is practically having bleeding ulcers over paying 30 bucks for a lunch that he didn’t really enjoy. 

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I work full time (she says on a blog called Full Time, All the Time).  I also have two permanent freelance writing  jobs and run two websites of my own.  And I’m trying to write a book.

Oh, and I’m a wife and mother of two.

On paper, that doesn’t look like much.  It only takes up about two inches of my computer screen, but the hours it takes to fill those few inches of commitment can be overwhelming.  Like every single working mother I know, I constantly find myself with too much to do and not enough time to do it.

In the past, I’ve used my weekends to get more done.  I’ve written on Saturdays and answered work emails on Sundays.  I’ve spent the time between Friday night and Monday morning playing catch up so that I can start all over again each week at barely even.

I think that may just be the surest way to a breakdown.  And possibly divorce.  And also, just maybe, my children on a therapist’s couch in the distant future lamenting the fact that Mom was always busy.

And so, in the interest of my sanity and my family’s well being, I’ve decided to take back my weekends.

I’ve officially declared the weekend in my house to be a work free zone.

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Several years ago, my mom took me to a Franklin Covey seminar for my birthday.  As part of the package, I got a Franklin Covey starter kit that included a planner and all the planning pages for the first year.

That planner - and the system behind it - kept me organized and sane for years.

I always knew where I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to be doing.  I never worried about forgetting anything and I was never haunted by that nagging worry that I was letting something slip through the cracks.  It was wondeful.

I’m not sure exactly why I stopped using Franklin Covey planners.  It might be because it was too big to take with me everywhere.  Or maybe it was because my husband bought me a Palm Pilot for Christmas one year (which I hated).  Or maybe I just got bored and distracted and before I knew it - I was a total and complete unorganized mess all over again.

Until recently.

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As working parents, we think (and talk) a lot about what happens when our kids get sick.

We worry about having to call in - again.  We worry about sending our kids to school with a runny nose.  We worry about having to leave work early to pick up a child who seemed just fine when you put them on the bus that morning.

We set up contingency plans and give up vacation days if necessary to care for our sick kids.  We are, as parents, constantly preparing ourselves for the possibility that our children might get sick in the middle of the work week.

But what about us?

Like many working people I know, my contingency plan involves handfuls of ibuprofen, a stash of out of date antibiotics, and a heavy dose of sucking it up.  I think less about the possibility of infecting my co-workers and more about letting everyone down by calling in sick.

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