Joel Bastarache of Androssen, Alta., made the shift from a military life to living as a civilian. He has found the typical trappings of his generation have put new demands on his time.

He got in touch with Cross Country Checkup through our Facebook page, and contributed his perspective to our conversation on work-life balance. Listen to his interview with Checkup guest host Susan McReynolds.

Susan McReynolds: Tell me a bit about your story.

Joel Bastarache: I'm a former military man, and I found when I was in the military I had a better work/life balance because there's a lot more structure. I was away half the year so for the first three years of my daughter's life I was away for half of it.

Since there was more time off and you had a very limited amount of money you could make, you knew what you had and you knew what you could do with your time off.

After I switched to be a civilian, I feel less trapped ... but as a civilian I have more freedom. But since I have more earning potential, I get stuck trying to earn far too much money.

SM: Stuck trying to earn too much: what makes you feel that kind of pressure?

JB: I've found people in my age group—I'm 32—we want everything now. And we, I'm not guilty of this, we want the RV, the hot tub, the big property, the trips across the world, all those things. And then you get mired down in debt. My guilty thing is I got too much house, too soon, too far from work. So now I find myself working 50+ hours a week trying to maintain that, plus I have an hour's drive each way.

SM: Is there anything you can or would like to do to change it?

JB: Well, I have a lot of debt left over from a previous marriage, so my goal now is to pay that down. But it makes it much more difficult for my wife now because we have four children at home, and I work over 50 hours a week, but her life doesn't stop. She doesn't get any sleep. We have two small children at home and she's the one who is the true worker. And she brings herself to the breaking point all the time.

SM: That is something that's maybe taken a little for granted, and a little overlooked at times and you're quite right to point it out. Joel, thank you for an interesting tale of somebody who has really seen the story from both sides.