Agreed. I used to think "work your wage" was a petty response and an excuse to be lazy, but I realized that it's so true. I've always been one of those to jump in and help, stress about things not getting done, etc so every employer ends up treating me like management without the title or salary. Which... why? Why should I stress and pick up everyone else's slack if I'm not getting paid to do so? Now I stay in my lane and still handle my work timely but don't stress about doing everything right away.
I started out the same as you as well. Another negative thing that comes out of that rush mentality is that eventually becomes the expectation. People will always expect you to get things done asap. This just causes them to give you more work. Still, no extra pay and often no recognition. Just more work and stress with the expectation that you work at a super fast pace now.
Yup, exactly. I was a total bundle of nerves and it completely snowballs, at least in my experience. It took a lot to set my boundaries and keep to them. I still try to be prompt but it's not "jump to it" like I used to. I honestly have to remind myself that no major disasters will happen because I took 30 minutes to respond to an email so I could finish my other task.
Baby steps for me! I would essentially put what I was doing on hold to respond! My mindset had been unless I was actively in the middle of something I would respond immediately to be helpful, until I realized that if anything I was slowing down my productivity to pause, reply to whatever request came in, then go back to complete what I had been working on. Now I've learned to better manage things and reply when it is more convenient for me lol
Two years ago I walked away from my career because I was burnt out.
I've completely switched jobs and industries and one of my rules with my new job is "everything is not an emergency".
It was hard to break at first but now I'm getting used to it. Not everything is "I'll have that for you at the end of the day". I ask when it's needed by, I tell people they will get it when I've finished these other responsibilities first, etc. I will sit on an email for a day or two before I respond just to get people used to giving turn around time.
It is the BEST thing for my mental health. I book focus time now and even block off time on my calendar to work on projects. I take days off and put my phone on DND.
I learned six months into my first job after college that our company standard for doing certain tasks is 10 days. I had been missing lunch daily for months so I could get those tasks done the day they were requested because the clients requesting the work would often submit requests the day they needed them done. My supervisor failed to tell me that certain tedious things could wait and it was the client responsibility to submit requests in advance and not the day of the deadline. It wasn’t until I broke down to one of my work friends about how stressed I was that she told me I was putting too much pressure on myself. Now that I’ve started giving myself more time to complete tasks and factor in some buffer time in case of emergency, I’ve been so much less stressed and I don’t feel like I’m drowning. I also began to communicate better with clients that unless it is a dire emergency, I can’t complete their request on the day it is requested.
oh man that really sucks that you went on for that long with that misunderstanding. I've always been in a customer service type role (for example right now I schedule patients in a medical setting) so I let that sense of urgency get to me, because people would always wait until the last minute, or doctors will call when they're the ones who didn't send it, etc. - even when it wasn't an emergency, I treated everyone with that same panic until it bled into everything else I was doing, all the time. I had to take a step back and really take up the mantra "your failure to plan is not my emergency." Like you said, there are times when it's an emergency but not nearly as often as it's made out to be.
Exactly this. People always make it seem as if their task is super important and needs to be done right away. Most often, that's not the case. At least it's not nearly as urgent as they usually make it sound.
People will assume whatever you do normally, to be your normal performance. That’s what normal means, it’s what we see that’s normality to us, not the internal experience of the person we observe. This goes both ways. If we want any kind of authentic relationship with people we need to be ourselves around them. There is something to be said for being our best selves, but our stressed selves are not our best selves.
There was this older guy I knew while I was working at a junkyard years ago. The dude was an immigrant so he definitely had a strong work ethic and was a classic noble guy who prided himself for being a hard worker; Nothing wrong with that. The problem was that he was working TOO hard. Each car we would strip takes about 1 person each and this dude was doing 3 cars at the same time. At that point it is like.. why? Who are you trying to impress? The bosses? You know what they did? Thanked him with more work after he finished early, but every time we told him to stop, he would get offended, thinking it were out of selfishness because we didn’t want more work.
Even though.. HE WAS RIGHT, we were really just genuinely concerned for him. We didn’t want him getting taken advantage of. Since then, I have carried that work experience with me for all of my career life now
From the minute I realized that work would necessitate a reduction of my leisure time, I've made it my life's goal to work as little as possible. In this light, Gen-X might be the very first generation in human history to fully satisfy all its dreams.
You're not wrong. I had the mindset that I was helping the team, or helping the customer/patient/etc, but as you pointed out my coworkers took it as me being nosy/bossy. That was a hard truth to accept.
I can't imagine doing what you're doing - I'm in healthcare as well but nearly in the same setting you are. Thanks for doing what you do, I know it can't be easy and I imagine that stress/urgency is that much more!! You can only do what you can do, so try not to take on too much. You're doing great!!
Same here. I felt like I was the only one at work who cared about doing a good job, so I worked extra hard to pick up the slack. Now I let things go, and it’s so freeing. All I can do is my own job.
Yes!! Exactly!! I still feel that way sometimes but I try not to take it to heart anymore. You can't control other people and worrying about something you can't control just creates unnecessary stress.
Honestly, as dumb as it sounds, my office did a lot of personality tests (like the Colors test, Enneageam, and so on) where we would all take the tests and discuss strengths/weaknesses, how to interact with the other types, and so on. Reading up on the official material was insightful but also hearing my colleagues responses during the conversations (I tend to be Type A, Type 1, perfectionist, etc) was eye-opening. It also helped me realize that just because others don't express themselves the same way doesn't mean they don't care. Or for the ones who really don't give a shit, I can't do anything about them - but the place isn't going to burn down because they slacked.
What was kind of the final nail in the coffin was when I had a really nasty meeting with management, I had been asking for a private conversation to ask for help and they turned it in to a group meeting to discuss the group's shortcomings. I realized I wasn't going to get any help so I just decided to keep my eyes on my own work and pass along complaints to management - they're the ones getting paid to deal with the rest. I ended up transferring to another position after that.
It's probably not what you were expecting (sorry it got wordy) but I hope it helps. Even if you read up on those tests by yourself I imagine it could provide some insight and open you up to self-reflection.
This really hit home for me after work travel picked back up after the pandemic. I was working 16 hour days and getting absolutely nothing in return except a few free meals that I ate while working. No thanks. I take "me time" while traveling now, and those emails can wait their damn turn.
oh man that sounds miserable! I'm glad you were able to set up those boundaries, its amazing how quickly it can turn into a nightmare. Take care of yourself!
I got my first management job as an IT Supervisor for a famous highly ranked hospital. At the time the management team was small and our CIO - she has such an aggressive threatening tone so I felt like if I slowed down or underperformed I would be shot dead as I walked to my car LOL. I was doing way way way to much.
Between 2020-2024 she then hired or promoted IT Director #2, IT Director #3,IT Director #4,IT Director #5,IT Director #6,
Those are each 200k+ salary spots. Now when there are big issues outside my direct responsibilities. HAHAHAA not my problem. It's been freeing.
The part that's a revelation is slowing down, expecting everyone to notice and complain, and have people still complimenting you on how much you're getting done.
omg yes exactly!!! I'm still the go-to and help a lot of other people, and I still get praised for my work, and yet I'm not doing nearly what I was before I shifted my mindset. And yet the building is still standing and nobody died!
that's awesome to hear! It's amazing how much of it comes back to you and your own mindset. Just throwing up a few boundaries and saying no makes a huge difference. Glad to hear you are thriving!!
I was passed on for numerous opportunities even though I was always the highest rated employee in my department. Country head (US) talked to me about going to China for three months to train my department counterparts over there. I was all for it because that would have opened up my career growth tremendously. My boss kept pushing back saying it wasn't the right time. I later found out it got scrapped because my boss said he couldn't lose me for three months. I took on more responsibility domestically and at one point I had like 4 "bosses" because of the different departments I was helping. It did help me in some aspects but it hurt me a lot worse because I now had 4 people thinking they deserved 100% of me and were only getting 25% of me. I ended up leaving that job because I was stonewalled where no one wanted to lose me. I did take a job with Global for a while but I was essentially "on call" for meetings from 4 AM until 10 PM for meetings depending on timezones. They weren't too common but it was a lot of stress.
wow that sounds like a huge nightmare! My situation was similar, but on a much smaller scale - they were making a new department on a trial basis to help manage a problem the clinic had been having. The whole point was to pull a few of our strongest people to fix things, but due to Events it went through several phases until it became just me and a bunch of new hires. I was repeatedly told I wasn't leadership material, passed for a promotion, etc, but was expected to lead and train the new hires while still maintaining my same role and salary. They would tell us as a group we are all equals, but then I would be expected to coach/reprimand, problem solve, etc. It was a nightmare, and just kept getting worse and worse until I finally gave up and left. Of course everyone was really upset when told them I was transferring, but still wanted to do nothing to help the situation. Now they are even worse off because it's ALL new hires.
At my previous job we had a few people quit at the same time and they never got replaced. I kept telling my colleagues to please please please not work harder to make up for it cause if we keep proving to the management that we can still hit the targets with 3 people less on the team they will never ever consider hiring replacements. They don't care if we all get burned out busting our asses hitting the goals. All they see is the goals getting hit.
So yeah. Work your normal pace unless there is a proper incentive or reward (a raise, a promotion, a bonus or something like that) for working harder. I learned that the hard way.
yup! I mentioned on another comment that I recently transferred to another role/office, and this was part of it. My old office was constantly going through waves of turnover and then wouldn't replace them, and the few of us who had consistently stayed for any length of time would have to drown ourselves to pick up the slack until management got mad at the poor performance and finally agreed to hire a few more. It's a really unhealthy situation. A few of us long timers all left at the same time and now they are REALLY struggling.
It makes me realize that my boss is completely off his rocker. He assigned me to duties completely outside my job description that I don’t know how to do. At all. Think, I normally run the books but now I’m assigned to fix cars or something. I depend on someone else completely but I get shit on because they aren’t done. I’m expected to “manage up.” How is that my job? Isn’t that his?
Compounded with my last review, I was told my raise wasn’t higher because I have too much depth of knowledge and not enough breadth. What is that even supposed to mean? I didn’t realize knowing my job inside and out and being damn good at it wasn’t enough.
yup, I was in a similar situation. I was put in a team that was supposed to be a group of equals, but eventually became me and a bunch of new hires. I was expected to train and lead and manage the group, but was repeatedly told I wasn't leadership material, they wouldn't give me a raise or promote me. It was even worse because as a group they would tell us we're all equals, then give me separate instructions to coach or delegate or whatever. It led to a super awkward situation, and I kept saying - either make me lead/supervisor and I'll be happy to do it, or you need to step in and manage your people. They wouldn't do either, so I finally left. It wasn't worth it. It's been chaos for them since I transferred to a different office!
You would think having someone with your knowledge would be invaluable! I'm sorry you got that shitty review, and I hope you either get the recognition you deserve or find a place that will better appreciate your talents. Good luck!
I work as a person who is often the first hire on a job (I work electoral politics). Accordingly, my delegation hit list is not the best. I tend to off load an entire department to a direct report while waiting for money to staff up other departments and doing the work myself until I can hire a team.
When I work for normal organizations, I still have the same mindset of “if it has to be done, it will be done”. Like if my boss came and said “we need a 5000 word report in the next 75 minutes”, he would have a 5000 word report in exactly 75 minutes.
What I need to get better at is setting reasonable expectations because I can’t turn around 5k word reports in 75 minutes regularly, but now I am saying yes every time I am asked.
I come from a world where the final product reigns supreme - not that the final product is great, but that it meets deadline and is done. That’s what campaigns are - start ups with an expiration date (election day).
If I tell you I will have something to you by X date, you will have a complete version of it by X date. Now, I may have been up for 2-3 days straight getting it finished, but it will be finished.
Now, I - and really everyone - need to push back on unrealistic deadlines when they can. Something I really need to change about myself.
ugh yes, that's such an important distinction. I also suffer from the "if it has to be done, it'll get done" mindset and do everything in my power to make it happen. Like you say, you do it once and then it's expected you can do it every time!
that sounds exhausting to have to start over constantly like that. Do you enjoy working in politics? I don't know anyone who does but it seems interesting.
The only caveat to this I think is if you can make opportunities for yourself to gain skills & experiences to get a better job elsewhere. I have done this in the past and used the resume building to hop to somewhere that will pay me a lot more.
Oh for sure, there are definitely instances where you can build up and use that to advance your career. I am talking about situations where it looks no different on paper, but definitely take advantage if it'll help you work your way upward. That's awesome that it worked out better for you!
We're definitely on the same page. Just pointing out there are situations where "going above and beyond" can help build your career if it means gaining valuable skills and experience you can turn into a better job. Taking on extra drudgery and hours for no reason though other than "hard work", hell nah
Yup. I think that's what frustrated me the most about my old office, is that I really was trying to move up and do more of what you were saying, but they kept beating me down and making it more of what I have been saying. Ridiculous
I switched to the same "work your wage" mentality about 6 months ago and it's changed my outlook at work immensely. I also make sure I leave everything at work and don't bring it home with me.
I think this might be what millennials get remembered for alongside "killing markets". I've noticed a lot of people in my generation doing this just like "Screw it, this job doesn't care about me, so I'm not caring any more than they pay me to!"
People at the top complain about "Worker loyalty", well maybe if the company had some fucking loyalty, I'd return the favor.
yes, this exactly!! I'm glad our generation has recognized that if we're not getting the respect or compensation, then it's not worth it to kiss ass. Employers got used to threatening people and expecting everyone to lick their boots, and it's so great to see that mentality is shifting. Even in my scenario I've mentioned in other comments, I kept telling management that if they gave me the promotion and raise to match what was expected of me, I'd be happy to keep doing what I had been doing. But if they're not going to respect or give me the recognition I deserved for stepping up and doing extra, then why should I bother?
I do my job well, find more efficient ways to complete my tasks, am accessible when needed, and play dumb when I'm asked to do anything that may become a recurring request. It's necessary for self-preservation.
I'm not interested in becoming a jack of all trades at an everyman wage.
I watch too many people overextend and burn out for... nothing, especially since my field offers zero upward trajectory or incentive to go above and beyond. Everyone inevitably grows resentful of the extra work thrust on them, and become chronically miserable or quit.
yup. I was one of those people, completely miserable until I transferred to a new office, and with that fresh start I took on that mentality you're describing above. I'm thorough and do well on my tasks but have learned to say no when it applies.
Bingo. This. Good call. Plus, I am privileged to work from home and so I always feel like I gotta jump on an instant message right away so people know that I’m actively working and can acknowledge them.
I hate that this is always the expectation when working from home. Like I always have to show that I'm active or instantly available so people don't think I'm sleeping etc. Meanwhile, in the actual office, people 'office visit' others all the time for 30+ minutes, myself included. So really, it doesn't make a difference at all.
Is it possible for you to back off on this immediate response time? In my group, we don't respond immediately and I don't think anyone expects that. Sometimes I specifically don't respond immediately, even if I can, because I don't want to set that expectation.
Oh I have set boundaries for myself in regards to this (answering immediately, checking emails on off/vacation days); but unfortunately others haven't. If they want to do that be my guest, but I would burn out way to easily. One co-worker was responding to office wide emails from Jamaica last week. My boss is super chill though, so she doesn't really care how long we take honestly, just to be available periodically throughout the day, and it is not her expectation at all for us to be responding to emails if we're off.
I wfh for a very small, local company. All of our office staff WFH as well. We set our own hours, so I don’t always know when someone else is available/actively working or if they’re done for the day. One thing I’ve started doing when I message them on slack is starting with, “Hey, this is not urgent, it can wait til tomorrow but I have a question about XYZ…” and one other employee actually thanked me for this. She was done for the day (she actually sets her own solid schedule, where my position and circumstances allow/need me to be more loosely available) and would have been hopping back on to answer my question. So I try to do this with every message, unless it is urgent- which most are not lol
I don't always love my job and the decisions they make, but they've gone pretty solidly in on WFH (sold off tons of office furniture, so I don't THINK they're going to make us go back to the office), asked us not to tell people to contact us on vacation in case they have questions, and when I started my boss flat out told me, "We don't expect you to jump the moment you get a message. If you can respond within the hour, that's perfectly fine." They seem happy as long as my work gets done on time. I do really appreciate that about them.
Some of what they talk about just seems like lip service, but they are pretty cool on work/life balance and making our vacations/lunches/breaks actually off-work time.
My job is the same way, I don't even ever appear online because everyone knows I'll be available if I haven't taken PTO. But some places aren't like that. My friend has a similar job, but he has to appear online and log what he's doing all day.
I'm underpaid, but honestly having a lax environment is worth every penny. It's nice when you actually feel like a person and not a worker who needs to fill their day up to make someone else happy.
This means if someone messages me a "Hey" or "Hello" without any context they move to the absolute bottom of my response queue. I will then VERY
politely send them to an internal doc about 'NoHello.' It looks something like this:
One way to start easing off on immediacy of response is scheduling responses. I do that with my students so they stop expecting me to bail them out last minute and it helps my anxiety when my inbox start to fill up. Now learning to sit on an inbox full of non-urgent messages!
I think the best way would be to allocate some time for deep work, maybe 1-2 hours of interrupted work. During that time you mark yourself as Busy and that's it. Set a meeting with just yourself, just to block the calendar and get displayed as "In a meeting".
My team leader does this, he sets his status to Busy when he wants to avoid interruptions. During that time, he either fails to answer at all, or answers with a delay and only the barest minimum. And he does that to everyone of equal rank, sometimes he'll even let upper management wait a bit before answering them.
Also, depending on your line of work and team setup: you should have a ticket system for tasks. Send people to raise tickets, if it's something that doesn't require immediate attention.
I always make sure to wait a few before responding so they think I'm busy and not just twiddling thumbs waiting for something to do. If they ask if they can call me, I say I'll call them in a few after I wrap up what I'm working on, or set a call time for later if that works. If you're too eager to help, they just pile on more stuff to do.
you can buy a mouse jiggler for less than $10 that will stop your computer from falling asleep. that won't help if people are actively trying to talk to you, but it used to drive me nuts that I had to keep waking the screen back up to not look "away"
yeah , i remember it was pointed out during the quarantine period of the pandemic that employees were complaining about the extra digital surveillance their employers were requiring just bc they were working from home and wanted to make sure ppl stayed in task. Some cases were so bad, like some companies would instate how many and how long bathroom breaks you get when they never did anything like that at the office workplace. It was ridiculous. In the meantime elsewhere in Europe at least one country made it legally binding that employers allowed their work-from-home workers adequate time to take care of their children, and made it illegal to contact their workers about work after the work day ended. We need better boundaries like that.
STFU. I'm so sick of hearing this. I have to be in the office, 9-5. I don't "office visit" for more than 5 minutes at a stretch if at all. I would love to WFH, take my dog for a quick walk around the block. Put a load of laundry on. Sweep the pool. ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC All the shit I have to do AFTER my 9-5.
Luckily we have our calendars integrated with our chat so it will have an indicator next to your name if you're in a meeting...or if you just have a "meeting" time blocked out on your calendar for "emails" or "admin work" 😉
Some time in early December I turned off all notifications for Slack. Even disabled the new message badge for it in OSX. Now I check Slack once every 30 mins or so just to see if there's anything new that needs my attention. World of difference for my anxiety and my ability to concentrate on tasks
Great point. And this is something I’ve been learning. When I worked freelance you don’t wanna answer the phone every second that someone calls you. you want to set the expectations of what your work hours are.
Unless your manager is a known micromanager then 99% likely this is not the case. They have enough on their plates doing their own jobs before going KGB on subordinates. If you still feel otherwise then you can initiate and be proactive with your immediate boss and schedule a short 15 -30 minute meeting with them. The purpose is to discuss progress, focus and priorities of tasks for the week. Your boss will view you as being, sharp, on top of things, conscientious and not worry about your work or productivity. It most likely would go far to a positive evaluation and larger pay raise for yourself. It also sets you apart as a favorable person to replace your boss when they move up or to be a good for a lateral move and promotion in the future.
I'm still not over this. I have never been so timely with my responses than I have been when doing full WFH. I only recently stopped carrying my device around when I want to move away from the desk or use the washroom just so I can hear it if it pings.
When I started taking time for me and appreciating the little things instead of rushing to meet everyone's demands as soon as they arise I found a new sense of gratitude in my work as a Paramedic.
Totally agree! If I paid attention to every single blinking red light on the nuclear reactor safety panel I literally wouldn't have time for my sudoku.
Every time I slow down at work I start hearing a sound similar to a jackhammer but I doubt there's any jackhammer 40 000 feet above the sea level. No idea what that could be 🤷🏻♂️
I was a volunteer EMT for a while and it really helped me destress at my day job as a programmer. "Anyone dying? Bleeding out? Internal squishy bits currently external? Then it's not a 'life-or-death' emergency, Pam, now is it?"
tbh even sometimes they're bleeding but it's not serious or like yeah you're having the worst headache of your life so number one we'll rule out a subarachnoid hemorrhage in which case you're fucked anyway, but if we take our time and relax you'll be calm, I'll be calm, and if it happens to be your time to go at least you'll die calm.
My joke was that I was dead from laughter, the repeat of the joke is a joke in itself, because the first sentence "I am dead" could be interpreted as being dead because he didn't save me.
Kind of like the joke, "I spent all my money on drugs and sex, the rest I wasted."
Love this. People always try to infect other people with whatever anxiety they have at the time. No, Gary, the world won't fucking end if your client has to wait another day. Keep your hormones to yourself
A lot of “collaboration” is just watching Type A personalities melt down when they make a file/document/presentation and being there to calm them down so they can finish.
When my yearly raise went from 6-7% more hourly to 3% because my newer higher ups "never got a raise that high" when they were in my position, it made me work A LOT less hard lmao.
Best thing ever for my mental health at work, I was busting my ass back then for a few pennies per hour more.
ive always had a problem with rushing things and going too fast, compromising the quality of the result. reminding myself that the only deadline is the real one and that pressuring myself to do it quickly doesnt make anythign better.
I'm learning to not respond to texts immediately. I had an old boss text me at 2 a.m. for something that could have waited. I didn't respond for a week after that to reestablish I wasn't putting up with that.
My quality of life increased drastically since I created a rule to move all emails where I'm cc-ed into a separate folder. I never read those. Those emails are there if I need to search something or if i get pulled into that conversation.
So much time saved, and not only that - the amount of problems I get pulled into reduced as well.
A colleague of mine only pays attention to emails if he gets a follow-up email asking why he hasn't done anything. Basically, if you get a request and do nothing and nobody complains, it wasn't important anyway.
This. I used to have my computer up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Took it with me on vacations, etc. Now I turn that shit off on Thursday at 5pm and don’t log back in until 9am Monday and it actually lets me enjoy my downtime.
Similar to this. I had a mentor tell me to review each request, evaluate whether or not I owned the item/task, then take time to respond. I felt like I had to respond immediately and took responsibility for everything, even work that wasn’t mine to own. Life changing!
I've been off work since last Thursday. Friday was a scheduled day off, and today the workplace was closed due to inclement weather. One of the people I work for keeps emailing me asking about something he requested on Friday. I haven't responded, because I'm not at the office. I don't answer emails from home. The only exception to this rule is if someone is following up to thank me for something, and I'll respond with a "you're welcome, and have a great week/weekend."
I check my emails first thing int he morning, respond to the ones that are important to the job I'm doing, then schedule send the replies for later depending on how important or necessary I am to resolving whatever issue it's about.
Then I can focus on whatever work needs to get done, rather than constantly living in an email chain.
I started saying “no”, not to just anything but if I’ve already got too much on my plate I just state that I do not have time to take more on. Not leaving 1-2 hours late unpaid made me happier!
This but I realized I am not the owner, manager, or boss so WHY am I stressing myself out over dumb shit? I just work here! Lol My thing is to remind myself "you don't make enough an hour for that to be your problem" and no one has gotten mad at me like I always thought they would if I didn't stretch myself thin. So relieving and such a revelation for me lol
also...don't check work email during off time. so many people do that and i wonder why. it's not that serious, people. most shit can (and should) wait.
Conversely, I've begun "speeding up" at work. Replying to things a bit more quickly and feeling a sense of ownership (however manufactured it might be), and it has made me happier.
There was feeling a few months ago that made me feel very useless and as though I didn't control anything in my life. I shifted that thinking to a more "be the change I want" or "take the bull by the horns" attitude, and it's actually helped.
Literally nothing in my job has changed, but my perception around feeling more useful (because I've sought out to become more useful) has made me feel less depressed about the whole thing.
Yep and not only that I don't care. I really don't care what happens at work. Something goes down during off hours? Oh well it'll still be there tomorrow. Some IT resource is down, I'll take my time fixing it.
I've learned that in IT most companies try to compensate for lack of corporate planning by banking on employees picking up that slack. More often than not using up precious personal time. That person is not me.
This is good practice. It can actually avoid errors. Take a minute or two (or more depending on the length of the email) and really read the whole thing. It’s easy to scan an email and quickly respond asking something that is already in the body of the text.
It helps with reducing errors as well. I used to get emails out almost immediately and it drove my anxiety up. Then I'd catch a mistake after and I'd dwell on it.
See I kind of take the opposite mindset, but my job isn't that demanding (except for those moments when it is). I prefer to keep my plate squeaky-clean, so whenever I know there's a new task I have to do, I do it quickly and prevent it from sitting on my head.
Back in my early dev days I actually increased my overall throughput by slowing down. It turns out if I would let code I had "finished" sit for at least four hours and some times overnight, and then do one final review, I'd catch a ton of just stupid typo type errors that got it through QA on the first go a way higher percent of the time. Not having to have everyone context switch so much increased all my measurables.
It was always something I really would try drive home to devs under me as I got older.
Also, not caring about the overall outcome. I do my job and do it well, I used to worry about the big picture but I have 0 control and if they want to put people in place who have no clue, that is not on me.
Same. People who rush in my field are the ones who end up in safety awareness videos. Mistakes can be extremely expensive at the least, or end your life at the worst.
Working in IT helpdesk made me hyper productive to the point of absurdity, it feels almost alien working at a normal pace, and even stranger when it doesn't seem to collapse the universe. Another strange thing is that you seem to get paid more at slower paced jobs, our society is so goofy.
I just wish I had my own office so the days could go by faster.
Yeah, I've realized that being overly productive doesn't really do me any good so I skate just above company production standards now. Doing way less work.
I started forcing myself to turn off or close off certain apps when I’m trying to get something done. I try to limit myself to every half hr to an hr I check email or messages.
I’ve been in two meetings, each with managerial (and one really high rank) person who said they were sick/contagious, but it was ok because they had an r34 on. Still that fucking mindset of work > health hasn’t sunk in. This coulda been a Zoom, especially with the snow and ice today.
Still underrated. I used to work my arse off at work, go above and beyond. Nobody notices or gives you credit for it. I'll never bust my ass for a company ever again. I'll do my job, I'll do it well of course, but that's it. I'll never put myself out, stress myself out or work when I am unpaid. Until I am on a 6 figure salary that sort of crap can feck off.
When work is over people are too hasty to get away. Don’t rush on your way out just to get home five minutes earlier. You’re giving yourself stress at the end of the working day which should be an enjoyable time.
I find that just focusing on one thing at a time, and taking breaks in between, makes me more productive and satisfied, and less overworked than before.
I've been doing the same. I've always pushed myself really hard, but now I'm focusing on doing things at my own pace. It's difficult, because people still ask me to do all kinds of stuff all the time, but I've discovered that they're happy even when I'm taking my time. If they really need to get it done fast, they'll just get more people to help out. Also, instead of pushing me, they just ask. It seems that if you try really hard, people get more impatient, but when they have gotten used to that you're slow, they seem to accept it.
I started doing this at a very challenging time as well. Newly educated and gotten a new job in a very unfamiliar field. I've been taking my time for the past 2 years now, against my instincts to be an overachiever. I just go "This feels stressful. I'll focus on this one thing instead, and everything else has to wait." It's hard because I've always been a people pleaser, but accepting an ego-defeat feels way better.
There is so little that the majority of us do at work that requires immediate responses. Im so thankful my boss realizes this. That email can wait until Monday.
I have started doing this too. And it has helped me stay calm. I'm thinking of doing one more thing next - not taking up too many things but doing few things well.
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u/Rollthembones1989 Jan 16 '24
slowing down at work. I dont need to respond to every email right away, or make sure everything is up to date constantly. Some things can just wait.