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Where I work at and for almost 10 years now, whenever someone left or went somewhere else, mgmt. would not fill the vacancies, and everyone who was still there ended up being assigned all of their responsibilities. So work that used to be done in the past by 2, 3, 4, 5, or more people are now being done by say or 1 or 2 people max...most of the time even just 1 now. As a result and since there is just not enough total time to get everything done in, I usually work long very hours in the office every week, even many times every day of every week
Knight, why are you allowing them to treat you this way? You are effectively teaching them that they did not need those 5 employees... you are willing to do the work of 5 for the pay of 1! They're getting a sweet deal out of it by taking advantage of you, and the only person who is going to speak up on your behalf is you.
If this really is a problem of not hiring replacements rather than the standard practice for your industry, I would stop coming in on the weekends. I would work the hours I am assigned to work, very efficiently during the hours I am paid to be there. And then I would leave when it is time to go home. And if things didn't get completed, I would make a point to ask my manager to prioritize what they wanted done first.
They will continue to abuse you until you draw the line where you should be treated. Learning to set that boundary for myself was one of the smartest things I did.
Friend invited me to some hotel event a couple weeks ago. I said I need to stay home all week and catch up on work because I was off 4 days on vacation. She said "Wow, L A M E !!!"
I told her to "s t f u".
This week she invited me out to happy hour with her.
If it's a temporary thing, that's one thing, and regardless you have the right to live your life as you need to. HOWEVER, friendships have to be cultivated, and that requires some amount of time and investment. You can't expect those friendships to continue to be of any quality if you let them wither and die. Continue this way, and you will find your friends have moved on to other people who ARE willing to put in the time to cultivate the friendships. They're not books you can store on the shelf and retrieve 3-5 years later and find everything's still the same.
If my friends want to put towing the company line, making some CEO richer, over friends and family, then I don't need'em.
Life's too short to work all the time. But someone has to make the rich richer. Keep up the good work.
While I agree in principle that life is too short to work all the time, sometimes working hard is the right choice. If a person is just starting out and needs to get established, has a family to support and really needs his or her salary, is self-employed, or maybe just really likes their career, then they are responsible adults. I, personally, would be proud to have them as a friend. Making someone else rich isn't the only reason to have a job and apply oneself. You don't sound like a true friend as much as someone who needs a posse.
While I agree in principle that life is too short to work all the time, sometimes working hard is the right choice. If a person is just starting out and needs to get established, has a family to support and really needs his or her salary, is self-employed, or maybe just really likes their career, then they are responsible adults. I, personally, would be proud to have them as a friend. Making someone else rich isn't the only reason to have a job and apply oneself. You don't sound like a true friend as much as someone who needs a posse.
Starting out, yes. Decades of overwork while remaining a virgin with no romantic or social life tells me you are not assertive enough to set boundaries and that is not a good look.
I was wondering: does anyone please have any advice, on what to do when friends are not understanding of a person needing to work long hours at the office, and they write you off because of it? I have lost multiple friendships because of this, but it's not like I really have a choice in the matter even if I wanted to do something differently, since otherwise I will not be able to get mandatory work done that I need to at work, and will get into trouble because of that (I'm talking about really long hours, such as 60+ hours a week, on a regular or on-going basis and for months on end.) Any advice anyone could please provide would be deeply and very much appreciated, thanks
Working such long hours at a stretch can be detrimental to your health and well-being. Forget friends; you ought to focus on yourself instead!
If everybody is saying this all the time, you are likely a workaholic.
Hey, I work hard. There are times when I work until 2 in the morning, or get up at 4 in the morning to get things done, for I'm in a business with uneven, cyclical demand. Just this week, I was working almost around the clock to complete a lengthy report for a client. But then there are those times when I am not terribly busy or the work load is something I can handle in a few hours on a given day. This is the joy of being self-employed. When I'm busy, I make no bones about it. When I'm not, I enjoy it (Unless it goes on TOO long. Then I get nervous).
But I've also noticed a wholesale celebration of busyness in our culture, where some people make a point of saying how hard they're working, how much they have to do, how behind they are, or how their jobs are dangling by a thread if they don't have the umpteenth revision of a report on the boss' desk by 9 am the next day. It's almost as if people are terrified to say to other people, "Ah, I'm having a slack period right now and I'm really enjoying it."
So if you really are working non-stop like this, pulling 16 hour days or working every weekend, month after month and year after year, then it's a life examination moment. Either you are doing something terribly wrong in your career or you have so fetishized work that you've come to see if as a substitute for life. I've found that a person who is working 60-hour weeks for protracted periods of time tends to fit in one of several categories: a) Can't delegate, b) Can't plan, c) Is a control freak, d) Can't say no to any person at any time, e) Has the professional equivalent of Münchausen By Proxy syndrome, f) Has nothing better to do with his or her free time, or g) Owns his/her own business.
But even the last option should not be an open-ended time suck. I've been self-employed for 24 years now. And while there were times when I did burn the midnight oil, there have been times when I strolled out of the office early to catch a game, or let the troops off work at 1:00 on Friday when things were slow. Work is not life, and it's important to understand the difference between the two.
Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who wrote back, for everyone's helpful feedback and thoughts.
Where I work at and for almost 10 years now, whenever someone left or went somewhere else, mgmt. would not fill the vacancies, and everyone who was still there ended up being assigned all of their responsibilities. So work that used to be done in the past by 2, 3, 4, 5, or more people are now being done by say or 1 or 2 people max...most of the time even just 1 now. As a result and since there is just not enough total time to get everything done in, I usually work long very hours in the office every week, even many times every day of every week
Oh, I get it now.
The first time it happened, it was their fault. The second time it happened, it was your fault.
You are being a martyr and kind of like it. Either that or allowing yourself to be exploited in this way. Take your pick.
The first time it happened, it was their fault. The second time it happened, it was your fault.
You are being a martyr and kind of like it. Either that or allowing yourself to be exploited in this way. Take your pick.
How much do you want to bet he is the only guy on the team working those hours? People (even employers) know a sucker when they see one.
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(I'm talking about really long hours, such as 60+ hours a week, on a regular or on-going basis and for months on end.) Any advice anyone could please provide would be deeply and very much appreciated, thanks
