Regardless of whether you are working on-site or from there, there will be many stressful times. Consequently, it will be hard for you to juggle between life and work, even if you can do it all from home. Things can get even more challenging when you have a lot of things to handle at once. Following a study conducted by Owl Labs, approximately seventy percent of all full-time workers in the United States are working from home during COVID-19. Of these, seventy-five percent of them are productive as they used to be or even more while working remotely.
Stress, Productivity, and Burnout
This surplus productivity that the companies are enjoying does not come for free. If truth be told, the primary drawback of working from home is that the very line between home and work is blurred. If you feel that your professional life is leaving you feeling overworked and overwhelmed, trust us, you are not alone in this. You are taking up more work because your boss feels you are home, so you have ‘more’ time. Is it adding to your stress levels? If you reply negative, we will say you are lying. A further study conducted by Owl Labs concluded that, on average, workers spent 26 hours extra every month while working from home. Another independent study conducted by FlexJobs stated that thirty-seven people worked longer than usual hours as part of this remote working setup. More so, of the seventy-five percent of workers who experienced work burnout, forty percent claim they shared it during the pandemic.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Extra Work
Benefits
- Great way to depict your sincerity for your work
- It can be an excellent way to improve your skills and experience career growth
- Can be good leverage when seeking a promotion or raise
Disadvantages
- Hampers your work-life balance
- Can cause burnout
- The manager may pile on and take advantage
Advantages of surplus work explained
Natasha, an associate with offers online database homework help, says that I love keeping myself busy, so I took up extra work as a means to grow in my career. When you take up extra work, it is your way to tell your manager that you are doing more than just the bare minimum. It can be a great way to add some new skills to your career, which can bring in better prospects for you in the times to come. Lastly, when you are seeking a raise or a promotion, you can bring this up indirectly. Thus, going above and beyond your responsibilities is an excellent way to see success in your job.
Disadvantages of extra work explained
There is a flipside to it. When you take up every task or assignment, which comes your way, you will have a lot on your plate. At times, your plate may already be full, and when you add more to something that is already full, there will be an overflow, right? At times, managers have a bad habit of piling on more responsibilities on their subordinates, even more than they can individually accommodate. More so, there may be times when you have taken up extra work on your manager’s pressure, and some contingencies arise, maybe one of your family members falls sick, or you have some urgent things to handle. This means that you no longer have the time to squeeze in the extra work or work late nights.
A primary disadvantage of taking up every job that comes your way is that now your boss knows that you are someone who never says No. Now, when this image is formed, it may be a bit inconvenient for you to come out of this loop. Consequently, you may be loaded with more work than you can possibly handle. A lot of work builds pressure and often leaves me feeling overwhelmed, and that only amplifies my stress levels, shares Tanya, who offers do my java homework for students. It can even lead to burnout, which may be bad for your health. More so, having an overwhelming things-to-do list may not always result in a dependable or solid work schedule. At times, it may result in neglected tasks and sloppy errors. This will make your manager feel that you are disgruntled or lazy.
How to tell your senior that you are overworked?
Here, we will look at some tips to tell your manager that you are overworked.
Speak to your mentors or colleagues
See, always follow the hierarchy, and do not reach out straight to your manager. Before you take any action, it would be good to speak to your colleagues and get feedback from them. Having an outsider perspective can be an excellent way to figure out whether you are overworked or your own stress is delaying your work. Further, these people can also provide you with some potential solutions. Such solutions can either be a. few things that can help you increase your productivity or some ways to propose your problem to the manager.
Schedule time for this discussion
After you are ready, you have to schedule a time and discuss this situation at length with your supervisors. When you are having the talk, you should be 100% prepared. It will enable you to support your concerns with proper documentation. When I decided to discuss my situation with my supervisor, I first made a list of things that I handle daily to give them a background of my situation shares Zoe, one of the top online finance tutors. Yes, it can be quite helpful for you to list down the projects you have or are working on.
Further, you can also write down how long each of these tasks takes. You may also note that your manager is not even aware of the difficulty or the time-consuming nature of certain tasks. While at other times, the manager may give you alternative approaches to ensure that the task is done faster. The solution to your problem lies in thorough communication. So, communicate everything, and then maybe things will work out in your favor.
Suggest solutions
Now, you have shared the problem with your supervisor, make sure you even tell them about the probable solutions to this problem. So, you do not directly go ahead and say, ‘I have a lot on my plate, and it is causing me a burnout.’ Instead, you will sugar-coat it and say, ‘Can we shift a few deadlines?’ or ‘Can we hire some new resources for this task?’ or ‘Can I take help from XYZ for this task, as it feels a lot for me.’ Alternatively, you can ask for suggestions directly from the manager, but it will always be better if you have some remedial actions. It will minimize the back and forth, and you can probably find a solution in the same discussion.
Do not get negative
This is an important conversation, and throughout this conversation, you must strictly keep it positive. The idea is not to complain, but rather inform the manager about the problem and find a solution to help reduce your burden. Never criticize your boss for assigning a lot of work to you. Further, at all costs, do not compare your workload with people in a competing organization or other people in your office.
Bottom Line
Employ these strategies listed above, and please bear in mind, the solution to all problems starts with self-acknowledgment, followed by communication. So, understand the cause and reason for stress, and start trying to do more than you can handle. You might pull this stunt off for a day, a week, maybe a month, but eventually, it will lead to burnout.