Ask the CHO Overwork - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Ask the CHO Overwork - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Heres a question that came in an email on Sunday(!): Hi Alex, Ive just being surfing your website after typing in overwork in Google and found it most interesting. Im an environmental consultant working in a medium size risk management consultancy. Ive just been working on a report for a client on Sunday while my two kids and husband wait for me to finish. I am contracted to work 4 days per week but usually end up working 5-6 days. My company has an unstated policy of never ever saying no to work, no matter how small the job. We have won several large tenders lately which has resulted in massive increases in workload for everyone (I am currently on 216% of my target for the month). We deal with the clients ourselves (which is usually empowering) but if work isnt completed on time or of the quality they require then we get the nasty phone calls or emails. I am usually known in the company as having good client relationships and lots of repeat business but I dont answer the phone anymore. Sorry for the sob story but could you offer any suggestions? Cheers Kirsten This is an interesting follow-up to my previous posts on working at home, flexibility at work, The Cult of Overwork and this question from another reader. I asked Kirsten if I could post her question here and ask for your input and she agreed and is looking forward to reading any input we can give her. So what do you think can be done in this situation? Is this typical? What if the problem is more systemic to the way the the whole business is set up? Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related