Robbie Tomkins on maintaining a work/life balance in the session world
By Sophie Nutt | 17 October 2019 | Feature, Tech Talk
As I’ve mentioned before, working as a session tech is unlike any job I’ve had before. Working in an office, salon or even as a mobile tech usually involves some sort of parameter as far as time is concerned, such as working hours and days of the week. I found out rather quickly, however, that the session world is hugely different in term of set working hours – as in there aren’t any.
Magazines, production companies and celebrities can confirm artists literally hours before the shoot or red carpet event, which effectively means you have to be available pretty much 24/7. This does of course mean that it can be tricky managing the life side of things. As a tule of thumb, my agency asks me to let them know as soon as possible whenever I have a social event, holiday, birthday or something special and will ‘book me out’, meaning they mark me as ‘unavailable’ in my diary. This sounds simple enough, but often once I’ve booked time off I’ll receive a call about a mega job that is just too good to miss, so I often have to rearrange things even when I’ve said I’m not available.
Onto the fun stuff: I think there has never been a more important time to focus on the things that make you happy. I am a huge advocate of mental health, having suffered with depression and anxiety myself in the past. I have found that in order to achieve any sort of work/life balance I have to make time for the things in life that make me smile, lift me up and nourish me both physically and mentally.
One of the things I love most of all is travelling, visiting new places and experiencing different cultures. Recently, I went to Greece for the first time, which was epic, and also went quad biking in Marrakech. Another thing that I find invaluable to and something I’ve practiced for a few years now is meditation. I’m a big fan of the Calm app, which I use most mornings, especially when work is really busy. As my working week varies so much and can include weekends, I bought and unlimited cinema pass, as I absolutely love watching movies. I love to read and always have a good thriller or horror book on the go, which I find really helps me switch off. My favourite thing, however, is to spend time with my better half, Joel. As we both work different hours, we try to set aside at least one ‘date night’ a week where we go out for dinner, switch our phones off and catch up on the week.
To wrap up, I think it’s important to find whatever makes you happy and make time each day to do it. It doesn’t matter what it is but do something that makes you smile and makes working worth it.
Follow Robbie’s session nail journey on Twitter & Instagram and check out his columns in Scratch magazine throughout 2019.
