| How to Keep Your Job Without Losing Your Mind
reprinted with permission from the HP Small Business Center Finding a good work-life balance is difficult in many professions, but the business field is one that is particularly associated with long hours, unusual schedules, and a general inability to leave work at the office. The volatile and demanding nature of the job leaves many professionals wanting to reduce their work commitments to make more time for their personal lives. If you’re one of those overworked souls, here are a few ways to avoid burnout and restore sanity to your work schedule. 1. Learn to delegate and share work wisely
Effectively managing your workload is key to making sure you’re not working more hours than you should be. Delegating work to someone else can be difficult, but if you’re swamped, it’s a good option. To get started, make a list of all the activities and tasks you must complete during the week, taking note of which could be handled by someone else. Next, match each assignment with the person who has the right skills and experience to handle the task. If you can’t delegate, consider swapping certain tasks. Both managers and employees should focus on tasks that use their strengths, so if you’re not an Excel whiz, ask a more spreadsheet-savvy colleague to take on the task in exchange for one you’re more suited to. Utilizing the right skills appropriately saves everyone time. 2. Perform a workload triage
To effectively prioritize, and to determine the tasks that can be delegated or shared, you have to be able to decide which items are critical. In a disaster situation, “triage” is the process of sorting victims by medical priority in order to increase the number of survivors. So let’s apply that approach to the battlefield that is your to-do list. Here are some questions you can use as part of your triage process: -
What are the repercussions if this task doesn’t get done in “X” amount of time? Who will be affected if there is a delay? -
Could part of the project be done now, and the rest left until you have more time/resources? -
Can you implement a simpler solution? 3. Make sure you’ve got a backup
We all like to think we’re indispensable – it’s good for job security, right? But the flipside is that if no one is able to cover for you during your holidays, you may have a hard time persuading your boss to let you leave! And even if you do manage to sneak away, you’ll probably end up fielding phone calls and answering e-mails instead of relaxing. So if you’re a manager, you need to have a second-in-command that knows processes and policies well enough to be able to handle some high-level issues while you’re away. If you’re not a manager, it’s a good idea to make sure your colleagues understand and can handle certain aspects of your job. 4. Help users help themselves
For IT professionals and admins in particular, it’s an all-too-familiar nightmare … users calling and e-mailing at all hours for even the simplest issues (“Why is my computer running so slowly?!”) If this frequently happens to you, it might be time to start teaching people how to do their own basic troubleshooting and PC maintenance. This will improve their efficiency, decrease your support time and after-hours calls, and lessen everyone’s frustration. Consider assembling and distributing a basic guide with answers to common questions or issues. 5. Implement a rotation to cover special projects and to staff after-hours duties
Some projects require full-time monitoring and crisis response, as well as working at odd times to avoid disruptions during business hours. But it shouldn’t be an unfair burden on any one person. Staff scheduling is an important part of making sure that nobody – especially you – gets stuck always working nights and weekends, or is constantly on call. A rotating schedule should be put in place so that weekends, off-hours, and crisis responsibilities are distributed equally. |