Finding work-life balance in sports - Perceptions from harness racing catch drivers

Objective The purpose of the study was to examine work-life balance in sports. The purpose was to get perceptions from harness racing catch drivers. The study focuses on how catch drivers perceive their work-life balance and which issues affect their work-life balance the most. This master’s thesis also examines wellbeing in harness racing. This study focuses on wellbeing from three point of views; social, physical and psychological. Catch drivers are self-employed, which makes working different from people who are employed by a different person or company. This study also examines work-life balance and wellbeing from a self-employed person’s point of view. Methodology This research was qualitative and narrative research. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted among Finnish harness racing catch drivers who were in the top 15 in Finnish driver league during seasons 2017 and 2018. Three of the interviewees were older catch drivers and three of the interviewees were in their twenties. That way it was possible to get perceptions about work-life balance from people who work in the same sport, but have very different private lives. Narrative research was appropriate because the interviewees talked about their perceptions and lived experiences regarding the research topic. Findings The younger catch drivers have been thinking about their wellbeing and work-life balance more than older catch drivers have. In general, professionals in harness racing do not have as much free time and days off from work as people who have normal nine-to-five jobs. Taking a week off from work to go on a holiday is almost unheard of. Catch drivers feel passionate about their profession and are driven by their success, but at the same time their wellbeing is sacrificed in many ways. Their heavy workload affects their wellbeing and work-life balance negatively, and at the moment catch drivers themselves do not have solutions to how they could improve their situations. However, they perceive their work-life balance to be better than what it would seem from an outside perspective