When work overtakes life

Work life in the present times is anything but easy. As the lines between job profiles become blurred, overwork is easily becoming the prime reason for employee burn out.

Ishita Mukherjee is depressed, annoyed and upset. But most of all she is angry with herself, for letting her work take charge of her life. She is unable to manage her time, or meet deadlines or even attend to her familys most basic needs. Reshuffling of priorities didn't help any. She felt she was overloaded with work all the time. And it wasn't bad time management either.

Work life in the present times is anything but easy. As the lines between job profiles become blurred, overwork is easily becoming the prime reason for employee burn out. Companies are today moving away from traditional job descriptions to having more flexible, cross-functional teams. It is less clear whose work any given project or task really is. The work could be given to anybody including the people who are already overworked. And this has become the bane of work-life for people like Ishita and others. The fact that it is not your job just doesn't cut it any more.

This was not the scenario even a decade ago. Extra workload never seemed to hurt anyone before. But suddenly everything seems to have well, changed. The increased speed and complexity of work is leaving everyone - from the executives to junior level employee - suffering from a workoverload syndrome these days. Ishita tried looking within herself and others, for reasons to her problem but no one seemed to be talking intelligently about it let alone do anything constructive to solve it.

No one just opts for extra work because they enjoy it. However, modern day business economics like downsizing, skill shortage and low employment rates demands that employees give more than 100% just to stay employed! So much so that organisations have taken it for granted that employees would not only take any work overload but also stretch their working hours if necessary. What was once considered crisis - mode work pressure has become the norm now.

Unfortunately, what the organisations refuse to accept is that this collective burnout, though nothing new, has insidiously worked its way into workplaces without anyone realising the depth of the problem. Hefty rewards in the form of stock options, benefits and compensation are magic panaceas only up to a point.

Making overwork a corporate necessity has invisible drawbacks. Research has proved that employees who feel trapped in a job, about which they are powerless to do anything, tend to burn out faster. If only HR managers across organisations could start thinking outside the box about what really needs to get done, it would help relieve a lot of people's workloads. Things like unscheduled meetings, interruptions and loads of extraneous information can often translate into workload, which one can do without.

All work E

Crippling job stress is too often treated medically or with counselling rather than by making changes in the workplace and in workloads. According to Terry Alan Beehr, professor of psychology at Central Michigan University, Michigan, and an authority on organisational psychology (Psychological Stress in the Workplace), managers are often guilty of making the mistake of resisting organisational change instead of altering the source of job stress, such as long workdays, technological advances, work overload and role conflict (having two or more tasks that are incompatible).

Organisations today need to take cognisance of the fact that work overload has been one of the fallouts of downsizing. One of the solutions that has time and again proved helpful is, to re-think on workflow and reengineer workloads to increase productivity. This is a matter of recognising what work is important and what isn't and this has to be determined with the workers' involvement. One way to redesign work effort is to have the employees analyse, dissect and reorganise the work so that they feel that they have more control over their workloads and schedules. Focus on the things that are really important to the organisation and its clients. Flexible timings can be worked out for the benefit of employees or even allowing them to work from home more often or giving them compressed work weeks.

When this approach was adopted, albeit temporarily, by an MNC in India, the turnover slowed down and overtime costs and absenteeism came down appreciably. As for the employees, they had no complaints as overtime and commute time as well as the workload were slashed. There was a democratic distribution of work when the organisation thought on lines of not who should do the work but who could do it.

Smart HR strategies like job reorganisation and role redefinition can work wonders with employee morale. Priortising work and letting the employees know what the company considers to be important goals, can also nip such problems in the bud.

Balancing act

Proactive thought coupled with innovative processes can relieve much of the stress and strain of `do-more-with-less'. One organisation for instance, never schedules meetings between 8-9 O' clock. The idea is to give people that hour to talk and catch up. The furniture is the kind that almost invites relaxation. There are potted plants and paintings on the walls. A rock garden with a fountain et al where people liked to de-stress just that little bit. The ambience had been created thus to make the employees feel that there's more to life than just working.

A few suggestions to help employees not feel so stressed out:

* Vary the workloads of each individual.

* Rotate people on assignments.

* Set a time for individual and group rejuvenation.

* Give people a time out-both on the job and off the job (i.e. vacation).

When it comes right down to it, perhaps one can't prevent work overload from impacting people's lives altogether. One can however, learn to manage and control it more consciously and intelligently. Recognising that the problem exists and that it can be destructive can be the first step towards dealing with it.

Padma

padma.hyd@careercommunity.co.in