Work in the 21st century?

When I was working in my team being a regular member, just a peer, I never realized the harm people do to themselves by squeezing every last drop of energy and effort into their work. Ever since I stepped onto my professional career path in July 2013, I have spent a lot of my personal time on my work projects. Meaning I went to work as early as possible, often skipped lunches, did longer days, planned my work tasks at home during evening hours, worked on weekends, etc. All of that because initially, I felt bad about being a junior. Looking back at it, I am a bit puzzled. Being a junior at the start of your career path is not supposed to feel bad. It is logical that without experience I am at the beginning of my path to learn and evolve. Even though I learned quickly and evolved a lot and moved on from a junior position, I was still pressuring myself all the time to get a new promotion, get more responsibility, get a better title, get better results, get a better salary, take on more projects and tasks, not to ask for help, always say yes, look strong and work - all because I wanted was to be outstanding in my field of work. Therefore I put a lot of energy into competing with myself and others (whoever they happened to be) and ended up working myself into pieces. Looking back I do not see any of this as something I should be proud of.  

“Sustained exhaustion is not a badge of honor, it’s a mark of stupidity.”  ― Jason Fried, It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work

Therefore I created my own habit of taking on everything that is handed, not complaining about having too much on my plate and just grinding. At one point this turned into me not knowing how to end the workday or how to turn my thoughts off from work or how to focus on other areas of my personal life (heck, were there even anything left of my personal life?). Yet still, I was not seeing that as a problem. Fast forward many years and different organizations and roles, I then stepped into a team lead role. Leading the team that I previously was already a part of, and therefore stepping into leading people I know and now seeing how it is actually bad to not know how to draw boundaries. When you are in the motion, you do not see the harm you might be doing to yourself but leading your people leaves you exposed to a new level of worry for their wellbeing.

Awareness on who and why

With witnessing this I have grown in the awareness that there are actually 2 counterparts in this equation: the person who is putting in their 100+% without letting themselves catch their breath and the organization/company/employer/team lead, etc. who is allowing it.

There can be countless reasons why people are throwing themselves at their work. For example me in my junior role in 2013, where I felt the internal drive to prove myself. Some people are overworking out of a lack of confidence in their professional selves or maybe are experiencing fear of losing their job. It can also be being just too committed and passionate about your work, the company, and the mission. Sounds like every CEO's dream team? Unfortunately not. And this is also no team leads dream, just as chaos should not be the natural state at work nor being overwhelmed the emotion you get from your everyday tasks. 

Is it a win for anyone?

Why think about it, if the organization is getting more with fewer people? I would challenge the thought that allowing something wrong to take place is any better than forcing something bad to take place. In my eyes, both have equal weight and should be intervened. Setting boundaries can be initiated from the organization's side or the employees - either way, both sides need to be aware of (a) overworking is happening; (b) it needs to be stopped, (c)that it is a shared responsibility to reach the destination of a productive and happy employee and successful results for the organization.

One step at a time

Once a person makes a decision that they are conscious about not being great in their role by working and constantly pushing their limits, but working smarter, then you might assume this solves a lot of issues? Well, it doesn't at first. Most likely stepping from working 11+ hours a day into a new rhythm you will experience confusion from your organization's side. This will be the make or break moment for your employer to step up and realize that just because they are letting a person do the work of 1,5 or more people, does not mean that now the productivity is lower. First of all, no company should ever allow and encourage their people to overwork. Secondly, it is the companies responsibility to analyze workload, calculate capacities, plan to hire and make sure that teams are not carrying more than they can. Once we have moved away from the basic knowledge that getting a 5 person job done, you need to have 5 people for that, only then can we start talking about productivity hacks. I could write 10 posts about ways to manage time, plan work or be more efficient, but this time let's start with getting to the agreement that you can't expect great results if you do not give your people time to execute.

“You can only do great work if you have adequate quality time to do it.”  ― Jason Fried, It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work

Leading by example

One thing that I know is my responsibility is to be an example. If a leader chooses the path of self-sacrifice, then that is a silent cue for the team to do the same. People do not always overwork because their boss tells them so. They do it because they have already taken as part of normality to get lost in their work. And even if I aim to be an example for people around me, then I acknowledge first of all that I am working on my boundaries for my own sake. I am doing this for me, so my team would do it for themselves. I am the creator of my work and personal life balance and I do it so:

• I would wake up in the morning with a sense of adventure and passion for the day. 

• my life would have more in it than my professional accomplishments and work.

• I would have the energy to share my knowledge, inspire, and be inspired.

• my work would have better results.

PS! If interested in getting more acquainted with Basecamp or the book "It does not have to be crazy at work" I recommend to read the review and make your way to purchase the book ;)