The balancing act

摘要

Achieving a reasonable balance between work and private life is not always easy. Engineers, perhaps more than most professionals, may feel this pressure, since the job can involve long hours, significant commuting both within Ireland and abroad, and the added weight of responsibility for others in the workforce. For some, these pressures are part of the buzz of the job. Civil Engineer Brian Hanrahan is a typical example. Brian has worked on major engineering projects in Ireland, the UK and South Africa and has loved every minute of it. One project took him and his South African born wife Annthy to the Kalahari in Botswana for 18 months building a 130km road across the desert, where they lived with other couples in a self-sufficient community seven hours drive from Pretoria. From there, the couple moved back to London where they first met, and now, with their two young children, they are living in Kilkenny, with Brian having being enticed home in part by an attractive career opportunity, but also by the potential for his children to grow up in a rural setting.