A Zillennial’s Guide to Work-Life Balance: Working in Non-Profit Arts Administration 
By Tiffany Fajardo, Patron Experience and Community Engagement (PEACE) Manager, Berkeley Symphony 

Hi, I’m Tiffany, a 2018 college grad, born in the year 1996, right on the cutoff between the youngest Millennials and the eldest Gen Z. For some context, I missed my 6th day of kindergarten because 9/11 happened. My generation, the weird gap between the kids who grew up with their only internet source being the computer room at their school libraries and the kids who were born with internet readily available in any room in their homes, has seen the tail end of the “college is the only way to be successful” and the rise of the “college doesn’t actually give you much of a leg up and actually just leaves you with a ton of debt” narratives. This perspective has shaped my own relationship with work-life balance to a pretty solid science, and I am here to share with you my wisdom on how to embody both sides of the coin.

I’d like to provide you, dear reader, with a glimpse into a week of my life, one that I may define as a typical week, inclusive of a few monthly obligations that don’t necessarily all happen in one week. This is not an example of a concert week, which we all know lacks any life outside of work and that’s just the truth of the matter of working for an orchestra.  

With the disclaimers aside, let’s dive right in.  

As we can see, I’ve got a scheduled non-work “extra-curricular” pretty much every evening. My Type-A brain thrives in a schedule, so having a dedicated activity for each evening after work really brings a robust sense of deep connection to my local community. My schedule is unique to me, so let’s dissect how each of these activities enriches my work-life balance.  

The Breakdown 

If you’re reading this blog post and have gotten this far, I assume that you also work for an orchestra in some capacity. (You are subscribed to ACSO’s newsletter, right? If not, do so! You get access to so many great things!)

I am the Patron Experience and Community Engagement (PEACE) Manager at the Berkeley Symphony where I spend my days cultivating an exciting patron experience, ensuring that they feel the warm welcome of Berkeley Symphony from the first moment they call our office to when they leave the concert hall. I also am working towards building out several new community projects that include outreach to our local school districts and local music stores to ensure that there is a concerted effort to utilize the free ticket offering for students in the area. To round out my responsibilities, I serve as the primary coordinator for our Special Events Committee and as the liaison for our volunteers. My role at Berkeley Symphony really leans on the "other duties as required" to fill in any administrative gaps that may arise.

Full-time work for an orchestra tends to consume our lives because we love what we do. It’s truly a dream to facilitate the production of accessible and innovative orchestral performances. Here’s the hard part: Even if you love your job and are passionate about your work, you cannot surrender yourself to the beast that is your work. You are worth more than your productivity and impact on the industry. Doing so will only breed resentment toward the work you do, the people you work with, and the world around you. You can love what you do, but you should always love yourself more. Sometimes loving yourself means doing the difficult task of closing your laptop and doing things outside of your comfort zone.  

Here’s where I’m going to throw you a bone, my dear arts admin work-a-holics. There are ways to contribute your incredible professional skills and knowledge and the fulfillment that you get from work and put that into something that will bring you a greater sense of community.  

I volunteer my time with two non-profit arts organizations: the Hayward La Honda Music Camp and Calliope East Bay Music and Arts. For the summer camp, I serve as a member of the Artistic Advisory Committee, an oboe coach, and a counselor, all of which are ways to exercise the educational muscles that so dearly contribute to that musician pipeline we spend countless hours in workshops trying to find the answers to.  

For Calliope, I serve as their Board President and primary livestream technician. Here is where I can bring that wealth of knowledge and skills around grant writing, box office, production, and community engagement to a young (only founded in 2020) arts presenter in the East Bay.  

Finding organizations in my area that are in alignment with my values, whether it be a music organization or not, to volunteer with has been essential to creating the deep roots in my community. Being fully engaged with my community has always been at the epicenter of my priorities, and if you’ve been involved in the arts admin world for the last 10 years, you’re also probably looking for ways to be an active participant in your community.  

As an oboist, I find myself glad that I didn’t pursue performance full-time. I was burnt out from it right after college and admittedly didn’t even want to play all that much anymore. I was glad to have a change of pace, where my playing wasn’t for an income, it was for fun again.

Oboe lessons have been and will always be one of the highlights of my patchwork career. Working with students in a one-on-one capacity always helps keep me grounded and encourages me to continue finding new and creative ways to teach. 

In addition to teaching, my weekly ensemble rehearsals keep my chops up, and many of the members of this ensemble are also folks I work with at La Honda each summer and are friends and colleagues I have made over the years. One of the tremendous assets of playing with this group has been that the musicians in the ensemble are made up of a diverse group of people, many of which are music educators, admins, corporate workers, and more. Find something that sparks your inner musical soul and reignites the reason for coming into arts administration in the first place. Everyone comes together for the mutual goal of creating music together once a week, and that’s a priceless reminder of how important music is in our lives.  

You’re probably wondering, “Tiffany, why is your personal life way down here at the bottom?” Dear reader, you may not know this yet, but everything you do is part of your personal life. I’ve only put this down here to serve as a catch all for everything else I do to cultivate a balanced life. Here are a few of my priorities surrounding the time outside of my scheduled work, volunteer, and musical endeavors: 

My final part of my routine, the most cherished and valuable of them all, is rest. I will not get any less than 8 hours of sleep per night. This is a complete non-negotiable. If I have to stay up into the wee hours of the night finishing up a grant application that is due in the morning, I have to be honest with myself and say, “Where did I go wrong earlier in the process to lead me to this point? Did I overload my plate at work? Did I procrastinate and sabotage my own time management?”  

When you find yourself sacrificing your sleep and restful periods for work, something has to give (and it isn’t your health). Here’s where you must learn the following: I work to enrich my life through the funds that I am paid to do work I find meaningful and impactful. If the work no longer feels meaningful and impactful AND you’re not being paid enough to live a healthy and balanced life, something needs to change.  

The Formula

TLDR (too long, didn’t read): Here’s my unique (but probably super applicable) formula for achieving the work-life balance you’ve always dreamed of. 

Work: Meaningful + Impactful + Pays you the amount it costs to live a life you want to live.