Recently I have made a poll in my stories asking if you are practicing weekend work. The majority of the responses were positive, which means many of you are working on weekends.
Today we are going to talk about the work life balance.
Today we are going to talk about the work life balance. We will discuss why people work on weekends and take an extra mile in working overtime. What is more, I am going to share my experience in this ocean that I have earned during let last 5 years of work; and I will tell you why I finally changed my mind.
Working on Weekend-Myths
To be honest, I cannot say I was surprised with the proportion of responses in that poll. And this simply because I practiced overtime and weekend work extremely often. I cannot say now I am not doing that at all, but the approach and the process is tremendously different from the one I have got used to before.
Now, why do people work on weekends? Many guys believe this increases their productivity, and the forming could be:
- I will be able to do more than my colleagues and will earn a promotion.
- I am running out of time on a project and late hours and weekends are the only chance to get back on track.
- I am able to produce more during the weekend time as during the week I have no chance to work – too many meetings and chats.
- I have to do more as my manager demands this and a business day is not enough.
- Other people work on weekends and I have to do the same otherwise I feel guilty.
How much familiar does it sound for you?
Earning a promotion
Wow – wow- wow…
Now let’s stop and think. Are these reasons really evident and is there any dark side behind them?
Earning a promotion by taking overtimes. Now let’s see why this is a false conclusion. Could this help? Well, if these working weekends help you get results – maybe. Otherwise, it will be a wasted time.
So, you are doing more, you are getting results faster, your manager sees your fascinating productivity and you are finally getting the new desired role.
Looks amazing, right?
How long could you be able to maintain the same mode and working extended hours?
I am asking, as you have got a benefit as you were constantly going the extra mile. You can be productive and efficient, and by granting the promotion your manager anticipates you will maintain the same efficiency further.
And here is the misconception – you wanted to go the extra mile for getting a promotion which assumes you could return to the regular working mode afterwards; while your manager was giving a promotion as he / she sees your new productivity and wants this to continue.
Getting back on track
Running out of track on a project and taking extra effort in order to get back on track. I bet all of us have done this.
I agree, sometimes this could be a reasonable solution. If the situation demands, if we have an opportunity to save the day , we use it.
Another question is how many times and on how many projects you have to do this?
If every project constantly demands this, something could be wrong with your project plans.
Need to concentrate
Meetings and chats district me from work during the week, thus I am working late hours or on weekends. This could be the reason when you need to concentrate on something very important. However, if you practice this often, the more you do this, the less energy you will have further.
Business day is not enough
My manager demands working more as a business day is not enough to complete all the work.
Here we definitely have an unhealthy situation. The problem could be either in your ability to concentrate and to be efficient; or the problem is in the bad working environment. In any case, here there is definitely something to think about.
Do like I do
Last and not least, you are working extra time as everybody else in the company does this and you feel guilty or you feel like an outsider when you do not do the same.
The problem I see and the reason why so many of us are getting in this trap is because overtimes are often encouraged by others.. Nowadays there is finally a tendency to stop encouraging people working overtime. However, many companies still practice positive reinforcement for those who are taking extra hours constantly and that is a big problem for people.
Unhealthy Environment
I am speaking about the cases above as I have been in all these situations myself and now I see this is not a healthy approach.
The minimum you can get out of it is a burnout, the worst case is when you are getting health issues as a result, and I have seen such cases too.
During the research I saw a tremendous amount of videos like – why should I work on weekends; and almost none on – Why I should not work on weekends.
WHY I AM NOT IN
Have I experienced all the above – yes.
Have I stopped working on weekends completely – no.
Do I want to stop working on weekends at all – hopefully.
Why this happens – the simple reason, it is already a habit for me.
And when this became a habit, I always felt guilty when I haven’t done anything for work during the weekend even if there was no direct reason for doing this. I felt satisfied after the weekend work and I was admiring myself for the weekend work.
And that has definitely negatively impacted on my motivation, on my health as it reduced the possibility for doing sports, and additionally it has impacted negatively my private life.
Where all the benefits are?
Now I am recovering from this and trying to reduce the weekend work as much as it is reasonably possible. In contrast to what I had before, now I admire myself when I have managed not to work on weekends.
You see, all the reasons and pros for working on weekends are false in most cases. And in most cases you could get a negative effect as a result.
Let me know if you have found yourself in any of these cases. Also, let me know if you would like me to cover any of these cases in more detail.
Chat soon!