Work Life Balance

Chris describes the challenge of balancing life and work obligations as an engineer.

Bob Fallowfield (interviewer): “What would you say is the biggest challenge of your job?”

Chris Fox: “The biggest challenge…”

Bob: “I mean there’s several challenges,”

Chris: “Yes, there is. I would say…”

Bob: “What’s the biggest challenge?”

Chris: “Getting your rest. You’ll hear this from every railroader, the work-life balance is hard on the railway, it really is.”

Bob: “Even with scheduled passenger commuter service?”

Chris: “Sure because I have a split shift in the middle where I, basically, have an extended lunch, to make it simple for everybody.”

Bob: “Like a school bus driver.”

Chris: “Like a school bus driver.”

Bob: “You work morning, you work afternoons.”

Chris: “Correct, yeah. I have an extended lunch in the middle. The company provides us with a rest area where we can lie down, if we want, we can have showers, we can have some bit of entertainment, that type of thing. My entertainment, to myself, is coming to do preservation, so I usually come over to the TMC and I’ll futz around over here getting things done. I may get two or three windows in Evanston and then, you know, back to work.”

Bob: “There’s no grass grows under Soup’s feet.”

Chris: “No, I’m always working.”

Bob: “Man on the GO.”