Managing a Work-Life Balance in Broadcasting

Sportscasters work hard. Sportscasters work long hours. Sportscasters miss a lot of family events and sportscasters sacrifice a lot for their career. But it can be all worth it if you’re passionate and devoted enough. But despite all that, the most crucial thing a sportscaster must do in their career is strike a solid work-life balance. Without that balance, you run the risk of losing your career, your personal relationships or both.

James Brayshaw is an Australian sportscaster and former football club executive for the North Melbourne Football Club (Australian Rules Football). Not long ago he stepped away from his role at the football club, and more recently stepped away from national broadcaster Channel Nine as an analyst and commentator.

The reason? A poor work-life balance that cost Brayshaw a lot including a marriage and putting stress on the relationships with his kids. The following is an article from Melbourne, Australia newspaper The Age on Brayshaw’s choices, his regrets and his message for others looking to strike that perfect work-life balance.

Now that James Brayshaw has hung up his two most prominent caps, at Channel 9 and as chairman of North Melbourne, he admits that having several of them jammed on his head at once took a toll that he hopes he can remediate. The severest was on his family. Brayshaw, 49, is divorced with four sons, aged nine to 22. “I’ve got to get better at being a dad, and a partner, being around a bit more, not being stressed and knackered when I am,” he said. “That’s the part of my life I’ve got horribly wrong for too long. That’s priority No.1.”

There are also his parents, Ian and Joan, who he visited recently at their home in southern WA. “It was the first time I’d been to see them for two-and-a-half years,” he said. “That’s just appalling. I have no doubt I got the balance wrong. “In our business, you do run the risk of becoming a bit lost in yourself. I have, anyway. I’ve been guilty of letting what I do dictate the life I lead. I have the chance to do better.” 

Click here to read the full article.