Overall, my job is very good. However, I generally find myself working a 50-hour workweek. There are times when it goes up to 60. After my 9-530, I find myself working at home, and having to sneak in a few hours on the weekends. This seems to be a common thread on our team though.
How would I communicate this with my boss with the goal of 1) perhaps lightening the load or 2) understanding why some things take time to complete – at the same time sounding enthusiastic about the job, and showing I am ready to work hard?
Thank you!
18 comments
How much do you make? If it’s close to, or over 100k, 50-60 hours is very normal.
If it is a common theme for your team, maybe approach the situation as a team?
You book a meeting and you tell him
This situation depends on the environment. I would say to avoid “too much work” or “more time off.” Instead, subtly weave the importance of ‘work-life balance’ into everyday conversation. If your boss isn’t an idiot or an asshole he’ll see that your time off is not only important to you, but a potential motivation. I’ll actually praise the worklife balance of a job, even when it’s not at its best, just so they fear that making it worse could cost losing me.
Do you need to book your hours?
The problem is just coping has led to it becoming an expectation. If I am not getting paid, I am not logging on after work hours.
Sounds typical under resource for the workload but if the team just copes, management will never acknowledge it as a true issue.
You need to set realistic boundaries and then ask your boss how to prioritize within those boundaries. The conversation might look something like this:
“Hey boss, I have [item 1, item 2, 3, 4… etc] on my to do list. I understand [items 2 and 3] to be pretty urgent and important, so I plan to complete those by Friday. I’ll make sure [items 4 and 5] don’t slip past next week though. [Item 1] is due by Aug 15, so I’ll work on that when I am waiting for dependencies on the others. Does that sound right to you?”
If you get pushed to do more, communicate that you’ll need to work after hours to get to those things, and confirm they need to be prioritized with that level of urgency.
If you’re constantly pushed to do more than you can, you’ll need to figure out why your workload and your work day don’t match (which could be due to several reasons).
List out all of the tasks on your plate. Include meetings, prep work for those meetings (are you building a slide deck, contributing to one, working through an issue, etc…) and other deliverables. Include due dates and as much detail as possible. Then schedule a meeting with your boss and say you want to discuss prioritization. My general rule of thumb is that no task I touch takes less than 30 min when it comes to time budgeting.
This has multiple benefits. For one, you can see for yourself where your time is going. You may even be able to identify non-value add tasks or items you can quickly drop. Otherwise, it does have a nice list for your own records when it comes to review time. There have been times where I’ve identified certain tasks that I did and just stopped completing them. I’ve found that if you ask someone if they still need something they will automatically say yes just because it’s always been that way. If you stop sending a random file for a week or 2 and no one mentions it, they didn’t need it. Just retain the SOP.
It also shows that you aren’t just broadly complaining about work. You’ve analyzed where your time is and what the constraints, issues are.
You say this is common among team.
Have it as a team discussion.
Seems like you need another staff member if common.
Next time you get work dumped in you ask where it sits in the priority list. Is b more urgent than A? Let them know C will have to be pushed back now and may not happen this week.
Make it a managers issue to manage and prioritise. Its polite if done right as you give all the power back to them, except for the power to take your unpaid time
Ask for a raise and back it up with the work you have been doing (assuming you do a good job).
You ask them to prioritize your assignments. And be honest about what you are able to accomplish in the time frame. Starting with whatever work is the highest priority.
They will help you negotiate your workload for their maximum benefit.
As a tradesperson, so this may be different, I ask for clarity on priority. My bosses have always taken that as I have too much too get done in a day.
Learn to say no without saying no. Best way is when your boss brings something else to you with a tight deadline, you say, “Sure thing! But I’m already working on this. Would you like me to deprioritize my current work or do this after?” Whatever the response, provide an updated timeline for the task that was pushed back. And make sure you provide that timeline based on the fact that you are only working normal hours.
Basically, he either has to agree with the updated timeframes that respect your work-life balance, or he has to explicitly say that he expects you to work nights and weekends. If the latter, you then have to decide whether this is a role you want to stick with or move on from.
It differs based on office culture. If your office tries to estimate work, you approach it as the team’s work being chronically underestimated by about 25-35% based on your numbers. That says to me that work velocity is estimated without accounting for overhead (meeting, time deploying if in software, other non-personal tasks).
If this isn’t a project type job, then it’s a meeting about task prioritization and a passive refusal to work overtime outside of exceptional circumstances. Basically you teach people what you’ll do by doing it. You go home. Most people are conflict avoidant and won’t say anything.
All this said, there are offices and companies that just have a chronic overtime culture. SpaceX is the current good example. They tend to work crazy hours and self select for willingness to do that. Other offices in the same sector really don’t do that and appeal to people who need balance for younger kids. If your desired work culture does not fit what your company is going for, you may need a change.
Slowly claw back the hours while looking for a new job
Tell them you have more than you can accomplish in the allotted time and ask them which items you should prioritize.
Stop working at 5. Let the work pile up. Tell your boss you are too busy. They are taking advantage of you and you are enabling them. Set the boundary. 9-5 thats it. The rest of the time is yours.