sonnestrahlen

This is an extract from Narayan Murthy's speech on Overtime work.

I know people who work 12 hours a day, six days a week, or more. Some people do so because of work emergency where the long ours are temporary. Other people I know have put in these hours for years. I don’t know if they are working all these hours, but I do know they are in the office this long. Others put in long hours because they are addicted to the work place.

Whatever the reason for putting overtime, working long hours over the long term is harmful to the person and the organization. These are things managers can do to change this for everyone’s benefit.

Being in the office long hours, over long periods of time, makes way for potential errors. My colleagues who are in the office long hours frequently make mistakes caused by fatigue. Correcting these mistakes requires their time as well as the time and energy of others. I have seen people work Tuesday through Friday to correct mistakes made after 5PM on Monday.

Another problem is that people who are in the office long hours are not pleasant company. They often complain about other people (who aren’t work as hard); they are irritable, or cranky or even angry. Other people avoid them. Such behaviour poses problems, where work goes much better when people work together instead of avoiding one another. As managers, there are things we can do to help people leave the office.

First and foremost is to set an example and go home ourselves. I work with a manager who chides people for working long hours. His words quickly lose their meaning when he send these chiding groups e-mails with a time stamp of 2 AM, Sunday. Second is to encourage people to put some balance in their lives. For instance, here is a guideline that I find helpful:

1. Wake up, eat a good breakfast, and go to work.
2. Work hard and smart for eight or nine hours.
3. Go home
4. Read the comics, watch a funky movie, dig in dirt and play with kids etc…
5. Eat well and sleep well.

This is called recreating. Doing steps 1,3,4 and 5 enable step 2. Working regular hours and recreating daily are simple concepts. They are hard for some of us because that requires personal change. They are possible since we all have power to choose to do them.

In considering the issue of overtime, I am reminded of my oldest son. When he was a toddler, if people were visiting the apartment, he would not fall asleep no matter how long the visit, and no matter what time of the day it was. He would fight off sleep until the visitors left. It was as if was afraid that He would miss something. Once our visitors left, he would go to sleep. By this time, however, he was over tired and scream through half the night with nightmares. He, my wife and I, had to pay the price for his fear of missing out. Perhaps some people put in such long hours because they don’t want to miss anything when they leave the office.

The trouble with this is that events will never stop happening. That is life!!!
Things happen 24 hours a day. Allowing for little rest is not ultimately practical. So, take a nap. Things will happen while you’re asleep, but you will have the energy to catch up when you wake.