It has been a talking point back home, too. In a video that has done the rounds on Instagram, the 30-something from India put it this way: you don’t know what work-life balance is until you’ve spent an evening in Europe. ‘Life just kind of winds down after 6 p.m.,’ she says, and in that stillness, you start to value your time and the people in it a little more.
The moment evenings changed
Four years in Germany will do that to you. According to Sharma, the routine here is a 180. The stores close, the office is done with you, and you are left to your own devices. It’s as if the very structure of the day is telling you to have a breath.
Back in India, the contrast was stark. She can remember being at a dinner table but only half there in spirit, phone in hand, the conversation moving at a clip because everyone had somewhere else to be. You get used to it; it’s the way things were.
From rush to presence
Then you come here and something else takes over. ‘If I ever make my way back to India, I think I’ll miss how things mellow out in Europe once 6 p.m. hits. The shops are closed, you’re off the clock, and you can actually get on with your life,’ she told me.
You see it in the local haunts. ‘In a European cafe, you can put in for hours with a single drink. People have a proper talk, they put the phone down and enjoy the day. There’s no one glued to a screen all the time,’ she adds.
What she hopes India embraces
For Sharma, the change was as much in her head as it was in her calendar. ‘Europe has a way of teaching you to be where you are. I’d like to see a bit more of that at home, to be honest.’
She didn’t mince words in her post: ‘After 4 years in Germany, the biggest thing for me has been watching people unplug from their jobs and plug into life.’ It’s a matter of attitude as much as anything.
Now that she is on to her next thing, she is holding on to that. ‘I’m not talking about putting in fewer hours, but making them count. As I get ready for Dubai, that’s a lesson I’m not leaving behind,’ she wrote.
To put a finer point on it, here is how she sees it:
– Put work where it belongs after 6 p.m. and have your evening back
– A coffee or two and a long talk with someone
– A walk in the evening for the sake of it, not to run an errand
– Being with people and not your phone
Why the post struck a chord
You can tell by the comments that she hit a nerve. One person put it well: ‘India could stand to learn this. We can’t be running on deadlines 24/7.’
‘Evenings are for you,’ was another’s two cents. And then there’s the reality check: ‘Try that in India and your boss will still be on WhatsApp.’ For a lot of people, it’s a question of whether the extra money in the bank is worth the stress.
One comment put the whole issue in perspective: ‘A big salary doesn’t mean much if you have no life.’ It’s a sentiment you hear more and more from folks who want to draw a line in the sand when it comes to their time.
What comes next
Sharma’s point isn’t so much about geography as it is about having the discipline to set some boundaries. When you let the culture and the habit of it protect your time, you end up having better conversations and making memories.
Berlin, Bengaluru or Dubai, it’s the same proposition: make an end of the day with some thought. So I’ll leave you with this: what would it take to put the screen away for an hour and have some of that time for yourself?
