Imagine working only four hours a day, nine months a year and earning all the money you need to do exactly what you want with all your free time. Does that sound like your life?
That’s the life a futurist of the early 20th Century predicted the average worker would be living by the 21st century.
Yet despite the introduction of many labour-saving devices in the workplace and home, Harvard University Economist Juliet Schor found that by the 1990s, people were working the equivalent of one month a year more than they did at the end of World War II.
For example, Schor explained in her book, Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, how the introduction of automatic washers and dryers led to an increase in time spent doing laundry. Laundry that had previously been sent out now stayed at home, and standards of cleanliness improved.
Laundry isn’t the only task that has grown over the last century. It seems that whenever a significant new “labour-saving” product or service is developed, we use it so much that our workload actually increases.
After all, wasn’t our work supposed to be made easier by voicemail, fax machines, cell phones, and email? On the contrary, many of us find that we are constantly on call, frequently interrupted, and overwhelmed with communications that people expect us to respond to immediately.
That’s on top of the already heavy workload existing in most organisations. For employees, the consequences of this overload can include stress, burnout, and illness. For an employer, it can result in high turnover and poor performance.
Addressing the problem of overwork can help companies keep good employees. A recent study by AON Consulting found that management recognition of an employee’s need to balance work with personal life is one of the top five drivers of employee commitment to a company.
To help overworked employees, managers should be trained to notice signs that employees are overburdened. Such signs include consistently working late, working through lunch, coming to work even when sick, taking work home, rushing to meet very tight deadlines, expressing frustration, and not taking vacations.
Employees who are overwhelmed with work may not always tell you how they feel, so make the effort to ask how they are doing. For some employees, having the opportunity to express their concerns and hearing appreciation for their extra effort may help alleviate stress during a temporarily busy period.
If an employee’s heavy workload is more than temporary, you can help them brainstorm solutions to alleviate their situation. And if you are the one who is overworked, you can try some of these solutions yourself. Here are some steps you can take to get your workload under control:
Spend your time working on things that are important. This may sound obvious, but many of us are tempted to work on easy tasks first so we can have a sense of accomplishment. Time spent on those “easy” tasks can quickly add up, creating even more stress when there appears to be insufficient time left for the important work.
To find out what your time is being spent on, start keeping an “activity log”. Every time you start and end a new activity, including taking a break, make a note of the time. Most workers who are paid by the hour have learned to do this automatically. If you’re not accustomed to tracking your time, it may be a slight adjustment, but within a few days, you should be able to identify any time-wasters you might not have been aware of.
Set daily goals. When scheduling your time, assume that something unexpected will come up and build in a cushion of time to deal with it. To minimise the stress of meeting self-imposed deadlines, avoid making promises about when tasks will be completed. If you must commit to a date, be conservative. If you consistently underpromise and overdeliver, you could earn a great reputation while reducing your stress.
Aim to meet or exceed expectations, but don’t strive for perfection. Wherever possible, delegate routine tasks even if you think you can do them better than someone else.
Unless you are expected to be on call, work on eliminating interruptions. Select a time of day when you will return phone calls and emails. During other times, let your voicemail take messages for you. You can also create an autoreply for your email to let people know their message has been received. If your email says you will respond within 24 hours if a reply is required, it may deter someone from repeatedly trying to contact you in the meantime.
Avoid letting other people’s problems become yours. As Richard Carlson, author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff at Work, says, “If someone throws you the ball, you don’t have to catch it.” Some managers find themselves solving their employees’ problems instead of empowering employees to find their own solutions. When someone comes to you with a problem that isn’t yours, try limiting your contribution to advice instead of taking on the task yourself.
When you are feeling overwhelmed, say so. Companies want to keep good employees, so most bosses will want to know when you are having difficulty. However, instead of saying “I can’t do it,” offer some possible solutions.
For example, if you won’t be able to get a major report completed by a particular deadline, perhaps you could tell the boss you can either complete a condensed version of the report by the deadline, complete the entire report by a later date, or meet the deadline if you get some help from co-workers or temporary staff.
These techniques probably won’t help you enjoy the life of leisure envisioned by those early futurists. However, they can help reduce your stress and may make your work both more manageable and more enjoyable.
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