Have you ever had a week where you started with one issue and while trying to solve that another appeared and then a third. Eventually you get all the issues solved and ‘put to bed’ just as a new bigger one appears followed by bigger again? As one this is finished two more bigger issues appear.
I have been in early and out late (very late today) and still can’t get on top of everything.
What do you folks do to put the work problems behind and relax at home? I once was better at separating work and home. These days they just blend together.
Seriously though, if you take too much of this on You lose perspective quickly and soon the hangnail is equally important as an amputation… I discovered that most issues weren’t mine to own and it became less personal if something failed because I was tied up with something that was important to me.
I live in NS much of my life. Lose perspective is such an understatement. I am finding it difficult to separate my work and home. I think you are right, it is hard to let go of the work stuff sometimes it just dominates everything. Since my partner passed it is harder and harder to keep the work crisis out of my mind at home.
I fully understand. Loss unhinged everything and nothing looks the same when you try and put it back together. Any and all advice sounds like silly cliché.
Working from home for the last 2 years has obliterated the lines between work and home for me. I used to complain a lot about the commute from downtown every day but I now realize it was a forced stop where I could take some time to transition between work-me and home-me. Right now I work until the last possible second then immediately am either trying to make a meal or pay attention to my daughter or whatever. And all these people that were complaining about how bored they were during the pandemic can go take a flying leap! I’ve never worked harder in my life… I have to remember to give myself permission to take breaks now and again.
I hear ya, It’s a very hard balancing act. Try not to allow your work to interrupt your family time or your time. If you just want to sit and do nothing for an hour, Look at the clock remember the time, and don’t check your e-mail or answer phone calls for that period of time that is for you or for family. Nothing is so critical that it cannot wait for an hour.
Remember to do something every day that you enjoy, Be it playing candy crush, watching a new youtube video or going for a walk around the block or driving to the beach. Everyone needs a bit of destressing, Everyone needs a reset. Without the reset, the problems just keep piling up. Almost every day on my way home I get myself a coffee and find a quiet parking lot for 20 mins, Just some me time.
That is exactly what happened to me too, I am now commuting again my I am available all the time while home has translated to I get home and there is new work waiting. Its the worst part of working from home and the worst part of commuting jammed together. I thought I had never worked so hard last year I was wrong. This year is worse. My colleagues are the same we have lost 25% of them in 6 months. That makes more work for the rest of us.
My best part of the day is the drive from work to home. I need to make a change. We all do. Jason is right I really need to set some time away to just be. Maybe we all do. It has been a hard couple of years, I hope you all find balance too. Thank you! Alex
You can only do so much in a day and if your management doesn’t know that then tell them. Its up to them to solve the problem not you. If your remaining employees continue to work yourselves at the rate, which could be harmful to your, then your management will conclude it is a good deal for them in regards to having fewer employees to pay. Never kill yourself for a paycheck or a company.
the unfortunate part to most of this is that we all have pride in our work to want to complete it, go the extra mile and such. If work keeps getting completed to management there is not a problem. There is only a problem with work doesn’t get completed.
“work” in general has to fail or not get completed in most cases to make others realize that something is broken. 6 less staff and the work still getting done says you didn’t need the 6 staff anyway.
Less staff and work not getting completed means “we really needed them”
I deal with a lot of companies that sent their offices home during the pandemic. I could almost pick the ones that were going to have trouble with it ahead of time. One, in particular, had 3 office managers (they each had different titles mind you) These were pretty highly-paid guys that managed everything (and also caused a lot of drama to be honest) They were there because management was used to their faces and they over the years got to hire the folks under them. When everyone went home it because clear that these guys really only bottlenecked the whole operation with processes bouncing between them before anything could go continue and actually get done. They became the trusted voices and I’m petty sure during the belt-tightening periods this place went through over the years these guys stayed while they got rid of R&D, Maintenance, and people that knew how stuff worked and why they did some things they usually did in the house that were now sent away. During the pandemic, this all fell apart very quickly because now on a single zoom meeting you could see how the whole place worked. That illustrates what you’re saying here really well. when things work companies can put up with a crapload of bad management as long as they are making money. if it goes on too long then a competitor can easily destroy them because, and probably not consciously, the people in the middle justify their own jobs. You’ll never hear an accountant say they have too much staff, the money can be found elsewhere.
Well both of you described where I work. For me the sad part is if we let it break the students suffer first. Few if any of us are willing to let that happen so we suffer with too much. We continually ‘make it work’ I was speaking with a small group. We have not had a lunch that was not interrupted at least 4 times, most don’t eat lunch at all. Most come in early and leave late and nobody takes the breaks we are entitled too.
Glenn at one point we had 3 maintenance people, with 2 supervisors and a department head. You have described my work place.
I have started to just get out on time. What is done is done and what is not is not.
It’s always a cause and effect. The problem is, its people and it takes time for the effect to show because like you said people pick up the slack so everything seems fine to management and you are all just whiners. I don’t know what sort of environment you are in. Personally, I never responded well to the politics in big companies so was either not able to play for long or made the company change … the ones I changed are all still operating the ones that I left didn’t last. Students (I know this is university level) also need their teachers to show them how to navigate this exact situation because some are so eager to please they just hurt themselves.