How Can I Manage Mandatory Overtime and a Healthy Work-Life Balance?

Unfortunately, the nation has experienced an influx of shortages since the pandemic, including limited staffing across almost every industry. Companies all over the country are struggling to retain employees and are trying to find ways to compensate for the work they are behind in. The short-staffing crisis in corrections has been addressed by enforcing mandatory holdovers. 

When understaffed jails and prisons enforce mandatory overtime shifts, there is a point where staff may feel that their job is their life, spending more time with inmates than their own families. In any healthy job, there is a sense of work-life balance. However, it can be difficult to separate your work and personal life when there are few available staff and mandatory overtime shifts.

This blog shares tips on how corrections staff can consciously separate their work and personal life mindsets, uncovering the healthiest work-life balance possible.

The Repercussions of Overtime Work

Agencies put pressure on their staff by enforcing holdovers and mandatory call-back days which directly impacts the mental state of every officer. This is an attempt to compensate for current staffing shortages. When this overtime rule was instilled, it wasn’t taken into account that the individuals working these required shifts were the same individuals who just completed one before starting their overtime. Thus, they didn’t have adequate time between shifts to decompress, recharge, and mentally prepare for their next shift. 

We’ve all had those days where we show up to work feeling like a zombie. Whether you didn’t get satisfactory sleep or your coffee wasn’t strong enough, working while exhausted drains you much more. Any officer working behind the walls who isn't 100% focused on their assigned duties puts themselves and the rest of the facility at risk. This negligence could result in short-cutting procedures, incomplete tasks, and inaccurately reporting what they did when they, in fact, did not. Working on mental overdrive is a dangerous game to play. 

Working 12-hour shifts can’t be compared to the common 9-5 job. That time comparison alone is a 4-hour difference that is spent off-duty and recharging for the next shift. These 4 hours can result in missing dinner with your family, or sleeping while your kids are getting ready for the school bus. Potentially even overlooked birthday celebrations, missed t-ball games, forgotten anniversaries, and so much more. Thus, the time that officers have off work must be used wisely, whether it’s catching up on sleep or connecting with loved ones, it gives the phrase “time is precious” a whole new meaning.

Keeping Work at Work

Having a work-life balance is one of the utmost keys to this profession. It’s important to be mindful enough to shut off your work mindset and tune into your personal life. Blending these two sectors doesn’t allow for a solid framework for a work-life balance. Even so, it isn’t that simple to just “tune out” of work mode and focus on what’s happening at home. Assuming the transition between work and going home is simply that easy is far, far off. 

For example, you’d assume that an officer who just finished a 12-hour shift would look forward to going home, putting their feet up, and watching the football game until they peacefully doze off. What you forgot to assume was how their shift was. Those who don’t work every day in corrections tend to forget what officers endure while on their shift. 

Let’s assume the same officer had a hell of a day at work. He witnessed a gang rivalry fight break out between ten different inmates who beat each other until the rec room floor was flooded in red and later watched one of the inmates carried out in a body bag. Do you think this officer is still looking forward to going home and watching football? Probably not. And do you blame them? How is it possible to go from one extreme to the next in a matter of a couple of hours? It’s nearly impossible. 

One cannot simply flip a switch from being a professional correctional officer to being an average member of the community. “Finding the balance” between the two is like comparing the difference between Earth and Mars; two different worlds. The transition from work to home can be staggeringly different when you think of all the time spent within the walls working with inmates. 

To leave the locked confines of your jail or prison where you serve as a professional staff member and go home where you serve as a husband, wife, father, mother, or friend, you experience completely different environments. Outside of the professional setting, you’ve likely been reminded by your family or friends with a friendly reminder, “You’re not at work.” You are humbled back into your role of being who you were before you entered corrections and remember that when you signed up to take the job, your family and friends didn’t sign up to have you come home and still act as if you’re on shift.  

Be Intentional About the Balance

To be fully invested in your job is a phenomenal asset to bring to the table, professionally speaking. However, if you catch yourself using it as an excuse to miss out on social events in your personal life, consider taking a step back to think about your priorities. Being fully invested in your job doesn’t mean you have a pass to miss out on family gatherings or outings with friends. Creating a deliberate differentiation between work and personal life helps to reflect on what is important and ensure that time allows for those priorities. 

For instance, if your mandatory overtime hours happen to fall during the time of your kid’s soccer game, you will need to find a way to focus your attention on being a parent. Being intentional about things important to you isn’t too difficult if you can find an appropriate balance to fit it all in. Using a 15-minute time gap on the phone with your loved ones is a prime example of how to find a balance between your work and personal life. After all, talking over a screen is better than not talking at all.

If spending time with family or friends isn’t something that you see yourself doing during your time off work, consider getting involved in your community. Naturally, spending so much time with inmates makes it easy to create a warped view of the community you serve. Remember to stay connected with people you trust in your community and recall the positive things that balance out your perspective. Luckily, there are many ways to be involved with your community, you just need to find something that fits your interests. 

For some, it's coaching a youth football team, being a scout club leader, volunteering at the neighborhood garden, participating in mentorship programs, meeting with a group at the local church, and so much more. In case you’re thinking, “I already spend my working hours serving the community, isn’t that enough?” then look at it from the perspective of furthering your career. Proving that you have work or volunteer experience in your community or connections with community leaders on your resume looks great in all fields of law enforcement. Whether working in your community sounds like something you’d entertain or not, keep in mind that it has helped other correctional staff recharge their batteries before starting their next shift.

We stand with those who struggle to grasp the reasoning behind enforced mandatory overtime. We also stand with the facilities that are struggling to retain employees. We stand with everyone who works in corrections because our team (made up of professionals with 200+ years of combined corrections experience) understands the hardships this profession brings. We know that staff work with the same inmates day in and day out and we understand that seeing the same things gets old. We empathize with staff as we recognize that it’s difficult to want to stay with a job that takes time away from your family and loved ones.