Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast exploring the topics of business, education,
technology and design.
I'm your host, Mr. Jason.
Join me weekly as my team and I produce content that's informative, positive, fun and uplifting.
Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders and inspirational stories
with an international flavor.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International
Community School of Bangkok.
In today's episode, we'll be having a conversation with Mrs. Heather, a school counselor, about
the importance of proper work-life balance.
Whether you're a student, a working professional or a state home parent, maintaining a healthy
balance in your life is essential for your well-being.
But before we jump into this topic with Mrs. Heather, let's hear the quote of the day
and get some headline news.
Our quote of the day comes from Katie Thermis.
She is quoted to have said, you can't do a good job if your job is all you do.
This quote seems to emphasize the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
When someone's job becomes their sole focus and consumes all their time and energy, it
can have negative consequences on their overall personal well-being.
And now, onto some recent business and tech news.
Due to imposed sanctions, Russia has had to reduce their oil prices.
As a result, India is now able to purchase oil at cheaper prices, which has benefited
its economy, allowing the country to invest more in its oil industry.
As the world's third biggest importer, this has greatly benefited India.
However, due to it reselling some of that oil to European countries at higher prices,
the EU has started to crack down on the practice.
Moving on to our technology news, Chinese tech company Baidu's recent public release
of its AI chatbot Ernie a few weeks ago as a Chinese alternative.
To open AI's chat, GBT is part of an international race to develop AI technology.
This leads to ethical concerns involving inappropriate or dangerous usage of publicly available AI
tools.
Unlike its US alternative, Erniebot is more restrictive in its response, such as censoring
controversial topics like Taiwan and Tiananmen Square.
As for our local news, Thailand's Pue Thai Party, which has promised a 10,000 baht payout
to citizens aged 16 and up, has reaffirmed that by February 1st, the money would be sent
via a digital wallet app.
Doing so would cause a short-term stimulation in the local economy throughout the country.
And that ends our headline news.
Thank you for our quote and news.
I've got to give a shout out to Yen Hao for finding us interesting and relevant news for
each episode.
So thank you.
Now let's jump into the first part of our conversation with Mrs. Heather about the topic
of work-life balance.
Welcome to the podcast, Mrs. Heather.
Would you mind introducing yourself and tell us a little bit about your current role here
at ICS?
Yeah, thank you for having me.
I am Mrs. Heather and I am one of the high school counselors.
And so that means that I work with you guys, helping you with your academic counseling,
your scheduling, that kind of thing, but also helping to meet your mental health needs,
your social-emotional needs.
And I have been here now for almost a year.
Thank you so much.
We usually start off our guest segments with some lighthearted questions.
Our first one has to do with ice cream.
If Baskin Robbins made an ice cream flavor about you, what would it be and why?
Oh, okay.
Well, I don't know what it would be called, but I can tell you it would have every possible
version of chocolate that you could find.
So it would be some sort of dark chocolate with chocolate chunks, probably some peanut
butter swirled in there.
I haven't thought of a good name yet, but lots of chocolate, yeah.
Have you ever tried the chocolate, do you know, like hot pot kind of thing?
Oh, yes.
Like the fondue, chocolate fondue?
Yes, that's right.
I'm all about that.
I love that.
Okay, here's another fun one.
What's one thing on your bucket list that you haven't done yet and don't think you'll
ever be able to do?
Something that seems out of reach.
Okay, well, let's see.
I actually don't like to say that it's completely out of reach because you never know.
Right?
Oh, that's true.
So I don't think I'd go as far to say that it could never happen because things can happen.
I used to want to skydive and maybe with age and maturity that has changed.
Having children and you know, maybe I would still skydive, but it's not quite as high
on my bucket list anymore.
Most of my bucket list things have to do with traveling.
So I would love to go to Machu Picchu in Peru and hike up to that really old ancient city.
Go to Iceland.
I haven't been there.
But I'm not going to say that that's not going to happen.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, that sounds like a really great skydiving though.
I really want to skydive one day.
Yeah, a good list.
All right, moving on to the next question.
This one has some historical significance.
So NASA's Apollo 11 mission carried the first humans to the moon in 1969, before any of
us in this room were even born.
When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon's surface for the first time, he's quoted as
he said, that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
If that was actually you stepping onto the moon for the first time and the entire world
was watching, what would you have said?
You're right.
I was not born.
My parents were born and my mom, my mom like tells me about what it was like when she watched
it live, like in her school.
I guess she would have been like 10 years old.
That seems pretty crazy to watch it.
Okay.
So really there's no chance I would have ever been there because I get really motion sick.
So I would probably step off and be like, I cannot believe I'm here.
I feel like I'm going to throw up.
So unfortunately, I don't think I'd have a really amazing quote because I would probably
feel very sick.
Well, wrap up our last lighthearted questions with this one.
As a school counselor, what subject do you wish was taught in every school?
Oh, okay.
Oh, I don't know that I feel like this is lighthearted.
I think that everyone needs to learn about how to take care of themselves, their personal
like self care.
That's what we call it in the counseling field, right?
So how to like take care of all parts of you.
So we do PE, I appreciate that, right?
There's PE, there's, I mean, I don't know, like there's just a lot more to us than just
the academics.
So something that actually taught you and maybe gave you practical experience with how
to take care of all of your needs.
Yeah, I definitely agree.
I feel like especially as we go on with life, that would definitely come in handy.
So schools, every school should teach that.
Yes.
And now moving on to our main topic of work life balance.
And this segment is focused on student.
What's some of the issues you've observed with students in this area?
I think that we often put a lot of emphasis on obviously on education and our academics
as students, because that's kind of the biggest thing we have going on in our lives right
now.
So that's what I think the biggest area is neglecting other parts of our lives for focusing
on the academics and actually telling ourselves that that's good, that other things in our
lives are not as important as academics.
Yeah, I agree.
So like we did a survey in our AP side class, and then most of like the vast majority of
the students, they only sleep five to six hours.
Yeah, but we actually should sleep more than eight hours.
Yeah, is that what you learned in psych?
Yeah.
That's a great class.
I agree.
I mean, yeah, eight or even nine hours.
I used to hear that 10 hours for teenagers was important, which is ridiculous.
Like we could never even imagine getting that.
But five or six is, you're never going to feel like you're fully rested.
Yeah, because like the students have the mindset to study at night and it's more, and you have
like more focus along the same idea.
What are some of the reasons you think students struggle with maintaining this balance?
You know, I think a lot of it has to do with what we prioritize, right?
We were just talking about the sleep and the reason that students, I mean, and adults too,
aren't getting enough sleep is because we aren't prioritizing it, right?
So I think it's we're saying we're telling ourselves that the academics are the most
important thing and yeah, they are very, very important.
But if we have, if we put that as the biggest priority, then we're going to be neglecting
some of the other things.
And so I think it, I think one of the reasons that students struggle is kind of, is that
we aren't quite prioritizing things well.
Yeah, that's really insightful and that makes sense.
I wonder though, like, I feel like many people would have more priorities as well.
So you have to like think about how you want to balance those many priorities as well.
Now, I like to hear your thoughts about which different aspects do you think factor into
how each student maintains this balance?
Yeah, well, I can think that this can kind of go along with what we're prioritizing.
And I mean, you just said it, we have a lot of things, right?
So factors can be how many things are we trying to fit in?
How many things are we trying to make a priority?
And if we have too many things that we're trying to achieve, well, then there's a good
chance we're not going to do well at all of them, right?
I would say the factors are, I mean, yeah, stopping and really stepping back and say
what really should be the priority, right?
Even though there might be a lot of great options, a lot of great things, a lot of great
opportunities, which ones do I really want to prioritize and do well at?
Because sometimes for me personally, I just can't let go of sports.
Like I just can't do academic.
I need to do both because that's part of me.
So I don't know, is that my ambition or not?
I just can't put that apart from me.
These are struggling with both my aspect, like from study and sports.
Yeah, it's kind of a balance, huh?
But I didn't find the balance yet.
I'm trying to though.
Our last question for this first segment is what advice would you give to students about
this topic?
How do you consult them in this area?
You know, one question that I ask and maybe many of you that have come to talk to me is
what do you want?
It's a really simple question, but sometimes what we want, the actual answer to that is
not what we're doing, right?
Even if we have all of these, you know, things that we're prioritizing, all of these, you
know, great opportunities, all of these goals that we're going for, sometimes they aren't
actually what we want.
So it's really simple, but maybe just I would get my advice would be step back and ask yourself
what do I really want?
That's really great advice for students.
Thank you.
We'll be talking about this same subject and how it relates to working professionals in
our second segment.
So stay tuned.
One, two, three, four.
Long time no see, people of ICS.
For sports, our girls and boys varsity volleyball team are going to list this Saturday.
Moving on to music, the Thai-Japan Iconic Music Fest 2023 is scheduled from September
22nd to 24th at ICON Siam, Bangkok.
The annual music festival, marking the 50th and 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan's friendship,
promotes Thai and Japanese pop culture and features performances by over 50 renowned
bands from both Thailand and Japan.
We are back with our second segment with Mrs. Heather as we continue to talk about the subject
and topic of work-life balance.
For this segment, we'll shift from talking about students to talking about working professionals.
So to get us started, Premi will start us off with our first question.
So, Mrs. Heather, what are some of your thoughts about the importance of work-life balance
in a professional setting?
I just want to say that even though I'm speaking to you students saying you got to know your
priorities, I am also speaking to myself and I'm sure that all of your teachers would say
the same thing.
Work-life balance, it's tough, okay?
I think one of the most important things is once again, knowing your priorities.
So being confident in what you really want and being able to say no when you need to.
That's definitely important.
What would you say is a good ratio between work-life and personal life?
I would say that you need to have space for personal life and that it's okay.
Sometimes we tend to think that our professional lives are the most important, kind of our
achievements are the most important.
But if there's not a good balance, if you're not enjoying yourself, if you're not finding
times to have fun with your friends or your family, then it's going to be really hard
to even meet some of those goals and those aspirations.
And so I think it's really stopping and asking yourself, am I really giving myself the attention?
Am I allowing myself to stop and take a rest and enjoy and do something fun in this process?
And what kinds of things or ways do you find that are helpful when it's wanting to spend
time with friends and family outside of work?
This is a great question.
And I think it's actually really helpful to stop and think what are the practical things
that you actually do to make this happen?
Because we talk about this a lot, like you should prioritize what is important.
So how do you actually do that?
That's a good question.
Okay, so for me personally, one thing, actually this made me think of a story.
An early job that I had when my kids were really young was actually working from home,
which sounds great because I get to be with my kids even when they were really little,
like still babies.
But it was really hard because my work and my home life was all in the same place.
So it was hard to separate those.
Yeah.
So it was like I was always working and I was always being a mom, but I couldn't really
ever stop either one.
So I had to really learn to actually set aside my time.
Like this time right here, these four hours are when I'm working and when that time is
done, then I am at home with my family and I'm not going to look at my work.
So I think that's what I've tried to do as I've gone on and had other jobs is to always
set aside time for my family.
So right now it's when I get home, well, six o'clock for sure because we have dinner at
six o'clock.
So from six to about eight, I don't do any work or any of my schooling that I'm in right
now.
I really try to focus on my family and being with my kids.
So it might take something like, yeah, really looking at your schedule and scheduling in
time to not work and actually rest and spend time with those that are important.
I totally agree.
So because I also met the same problem for the past few weeks.
For example, like my Sunday, we need to go to church.
So I need to separate my church time and also my homework time because I can't do my homework
during church when pastor is preaching.
Yeah.
And it's hard to control yourself from doing your homework if you're not done with that.
It's really hard.
I mean, absolutely, because there's always more to do.
Same with work.
So what about the habit of bringing work?
How do you advise a working professional in this area?
You're talking about when you bring home work.
I think this actually is really similar to what we were just talking about with having
your boundaries.
So, yeah, sometimes you have to bring home work and I get that.
But all of this kind of builds on it, right?
Like what we were talking about before with knowing your priorities.
So if you know your priorities, if you know what's important, you know, time with family
perhaps, time for fun, time with friends, then you'll value it and you'll find ways
to protect that time.
So that's what I think with bringing work home.
Sure, maybe we have to bring work home sometimes, but maybe we build in space for when we're
going to do that, like with your homework.
You know, during this time on Sunday mornings when I'm at church, that's not a time I'm
going to be doing it because I'm dedicating it towards this that's important.
But perhaps, I don't know about if this is what you do, but perhaps after church, like
Sunday afternoons from, you know, two to four, that's when I can do my work.
Yeah, I agree.
Setting boundaries and like setting space for each activity is definitely important.
And certain careers can bring more stress than others.
Have you experienced this in your different jobs you have had?
Yeah, definitely.
You know, I've had a lot of interesting jobs actually, because most of my jobs have actually
been from home until working here.
And yeah, at different times, I think either the job, the career can bring stress, but
also just whatever's going on in my life can add to that stress.
So my living situation or things going on in family, right, that adds to a lot of that
stress.
So now we're getting into how do you manage stress.
And I will tell you that with my profession as a counselor, I mean, a lot of what my job
and what I'm taught to do is to talk with people who are going through a lot of hard
things.
And so it is very common for counselors to almost take on that stress as they're hearing
the stress that other people are dealing with and all of the hard things that other people
are dealing with.
And so it's actually in training and learning about counseling, you learn how to not carry
that for yourself.
So I am so thankful that I have learned how to take on these kind of stresses without
carrying them and holding on to them.
Everyone, it might look kind of different, but well, for me, really, it's through prayer,
praying and just asking God to carry it instead of me.
A lot of times this stress that we carry is not really worth carrying.
It's not really something that we can fix or change anyway.
And so learning to kind of release it for me is through prayer, through perhaps listening
to worship music, sometimes writing are ways that kind of help release that.
That actually reminds me of like a Bible verse, like put some burden on God and God will help
you to carry that.
And that's incredibly insightful.
Thank you for sharing that with us.
What inspired you to pursue this job you're currently doing?
Well, I love people and I love students.
I love you guys.
I love your age.
I love this stage that you guys are in.
I pursued counseling because I see that there's a need for people to have a safe space to
really be able to be real and explore what they're dealing with and in a place that they
are fully accepted and loved and will not be judged.
That's why I pursued counseling.
And then here specifically at the school is because I love your age.
I love what you guys are going through and I love being able to help you guys walk through
this kind of period in your life where you're not kids anymore, but you're not adults yet
either.
It is confusing.
It is.
It's confusing.
You're dealing with a lot.
There's a lot of pressures and stress and expectations.
So I hope that I can help in any way to kind of be able to join you where you are and offer
you a safe place to be able to process.
Oh, that's really heartwarming.
Thank you.
And as we wrap up this last segment, what advice would you give to other working professionals
about this topic?
I give this to all of us.
Know what you want to commit to and what you don't want to commit to and allow yourself
to say no.
That's really powerful.
That's great advice as we end this segment.
Thanks again for your time and insight into this important subject of work-life balance.
As we close out this episode's topic of work-life balance, Mrs. Heather has provided some great
advice for both students and working professionals.
You may have heard of James Howell's popular proverb, which goes like this, all work and
no play makes Jack a doll boy.
It basically means without time off from work, we can become both bored and boring.
So true, so true.
Stay tuned for our next episode as we talk with a local design professional about his
career in the broader design industry.
As always, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international
student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of Pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives
sharing copyright free images, videos, and music.
And we are signing off until next time.
Be your Students Incorporated, because your voice matters.