Workplace overload is becoming the norm

Last month I buried a friend, and considering the size of the audience, so did most of the Inland Northwest. It often takes a life-changing event like death to wake us up to life. The lessons regarding this loss have been many over the past year as I watched him fight cancer, while he continued to hang onto every bit of life around him.

Last month I also watched three people melt down under the pressure of high-paying, demanding positions that require 60-plus hours a week to accomplish. In context of other events in my life recently, the contrasts have been striking.

Sadly, I have witnessed too many good people leave great positions because the corporate leech had taken all they had to give. Employers are always talking about how difficult it is to find good people, and harder yet to keep them. I think there’s a connection here. What are the issues?

•We keep cutting staff and are asking more of our high performers.

•The workload is so large that vacations are nearly impossible.

•Constant transition never allows us to become that finely-tuned machine.

•People can’t put in extended hours over long periods of time without it affecting productivity and other parts of their lives.

Sometimes we don’t see the meltdown coming. Take a look around your organization; do you see any of these symptoms?

•Lunches are gobbled quickly at the desk, if at all.

•When the boss arrives at work, half the staff is already there.

•On a weekend day there are staff members at their desks.

•More work is being taken home.

•Tempers are shorter; there is little joy in the workplace.

What are we doing to our staffs and ourselves? Short-term overload is part of business, I understand that. But it’s beginning to look like overload is the norm, not the exception, and the toll it’s taking on the workplace is high.

We are creating an adversarial relationship with our staffs, as they take positions to defend personal time. If we continue to take advantage of the person without seeing the entire picture, they will feel abused and undervalued.

To create a culture of dedication and service, we must treat them with respect, and appreciate that they are not an endless pool of energy. They have other demands in life.

Often, we don’t know there is a problem until they quit, leaving us even shorter-staffed.

I think we can all learn from Zan Deery, the BBB’s communications director, who recognized the problem before it caused her to leave, burn out or blow up.

“I like my job enough to not want to lose it in a blind way. I saw the freight train coming, and allowing the job to consume me would be crippling,” she said. She went on to talk about how overload saps your personal strength and that can affect all facets of life. How unfair to family and friends that your job should get all of you. Nobody likes a constant diet of leftovers.

You might think you are handling everything, but Zan talked about how important it has been to shift priorities to make time to engage with co-workers and work on solutions, processes, projects and relationships. That’s how we all get more productive and build a healthier workplace.

Next time you lose a great staff person, look to yourself first for reasons why.