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I recently got headhunted by a much larger engineering firm than the one I used to work for. This week would be my 3rd week. They gave me a pretty sweet deal and pay increase (50% pay increase) to join their management team.
Right off the bat, I found out that they demoted someone for substandard performance and brought in me in to fix the things he screwed up on. When I say screw up, I'm talking about half a million dollars worth. It can still be fixed, just takes lots and lots of time and know-how.
So, they gave me 2 weeks to get situated. This is my third week, and I've been working from 6:30 am to about 11pm everyday. Last week I put in about 65 hours. This week, I've already passed the 60 hour mark as of yesterday (Thursday). Today I'll probably work 12-13 hours and tomorrow I'll come in to the office for half a day.
The weird thing is I'm not feeling tired. I don't look at the clock all the time like some people do. I work the extra hours purely as voluntary, although I'm charging them by the hour on top of my base salary. My boyfriend is already giving me dirty looks when I get home late at night.
Am I a workaholic or will I be crashing and burning next month?
Last edited by MetroWord; 07-10-2015 at 08:22 AM..
workaholic? eh. 60 is getting there though. i work right around 50 without a lunch break and it gets fairly annoying. i think much over 45 is pushing it, unless you're getting paid overtime.
wI don't know you well enough to diagnose you as a workaholic, from what I read, it seems that you are excited about your new role, who wouldn't be with 50% pay increase, you feel grateful to your new employer, plus, you have a real chance to prove yourself here by fixing the huge mess your predecessor left behind. Also, you are getting paid for the extra hours on top of your salary, so it's not like you feel that the company is taking advantage of you. One thing to be careful about, however, is your relationship with your girlfriend, if things are serious between you two, and you already see that she is not happy with the amount of hours you have been putting in, explain to her that it's a short-term thing, and I strongly recommend doing something extra romantic in whatever spare time you have left.
Congrats! Sounds like you are enjoying this new position. Since you are charged with cleaning up someone else's mess, long hours may be necessary.
I will warn you though....You are setting yourself up to put yourself in the position where these long hours are expected of you. A good way to think about this would be to cut back after you've gotten things back on task.
And, what you really should be striving for is a life in balance. While you may not suffer soon, as you age you will be suffering from this overwork mode.
A smart man would like his work and love his life. Look towards making things more balanced.
wI don't know you well enough to diagnose you as a workaholic, from what I read, it seems that you are excited about your new role, who wouldn't be with 50% pay increase, you feel grateful to your new employer, plus, you have a real chance to prove yourself here by fixing the huge mess your predecessor left behind. Also, you are getting paid for the extra hours on top of your salary, so it's not like you feel that the company is taking advantage of you. One thing to be careful about, however, is your relationship with your girlfriend, if things are serious between you two, and you already see that she is not happy with the amount of hours you have been putting in, explain to her that it's a short-term thing, and I strongly recommend doing something extra romantic in whatever spare time you have left.
First of all, my apologies about the boyfriend/girlfriend thing. When I typed up the post, it was just habit that I referred to my boyfriend as my "girlfriend". A company I worked for in the past forced me out after they found out I had a boyfriend. So, after that I went back into the closet. It's worked wonderfully for me since. Amazing how when I was out at the work place they evaluated me as a substandard but after I went back into the closet I've been excelling quickly getting one promotion after another and pay raises... but that's another story. Just wanted to put this out there before someone notices I said I had a boyfriend in another thread and thought I was being inconsistent and therefore I must be lying on here.
I understand about the relationship thing. The heavy work load thing is definitely a short term deal. I've tracked down specific problems and I think I might be able to get this resolved soon. I'm also going to change some procedures in the office to avoid such problems again.
Agreed. You probably can't (and shouldn't) sustain this over the long haul. If that is necessary, then staffing might be the issue. I would assume you'll naturally start to temper your enthusiasm in the next month or so. If not, you might actually be a workaholic - which by the way isn't a good thing. Workaholism is more about the individual's self identity than it is productivity.
Right off the bat, I found out that they demoted someone for substandard performance and brought in me in to fix the things he screwed up on. When I say screw up, I'm talking about half a million dollars worth. It can still be fixed, just takes lots and lots of time and know-how.
I have seen this more times than I can even count, and I'd be looking for another job. Management failures are often not what you are told and sometimes you don't see the real problems that led to the prior failure until well into the job. It's typical for senior management to blame a former manager for every single problem, because it makes sense politically. But it usually doesn't actually fix the systemic problems that led to the failure. So what I'm saying is, if you have to keep working 65+ hour weeks to un-screw a problem, the company is not committing to a fix. The 65+ hour weeks may be indicative of issues that led to the prior failure, such as task saturation.
On the topic of burning out, the length of time it takes to burn out depends on you.
I have seen this more times than I can even count, and I'd be looking for another job. Management failures are often not what you are told and sometimes you don't see the real problems that led to the prior failure until well into the job. It's typical for senior management to blame a former manager for every single problem, because it makes sense politically. But it usually doesn't actually fix the systemic problems that led to the failure. So what I'm saying is, if you have to keep working 65+ hour weeks to un-screw a problem, the company is not committing to a fix. The 65+ hour weeks may be indicative of issues that led to the prior failure, such as task saturation.
On the topic of burning out, the length of time it takes to burn out depends on you.
I should make something clear. They're not expecting me to work that many hours. It's just when I start something it's hard for me to put it down.
Regarding the problems and upper management, yes I've sensed that since the beginning when I was fully aware of what was going on. They're not something that can't be fixed. I does take competence to unscrew the problems.
I brought this up a couple days ago, actually, with my immediate supervisor. I told him I'll be working a lot of hours and will be charging them on top of my base salary. He said no problem just bring everything up to speed and he'll be happy.
This company is huge. Its revenue last year was close to $2B. So, me getting this position and getting this opportunity to show them what I've got really is a good opportunity for me to move up. My previous company seemed big before. All of a sudden, it seems so small now.
Also, I'm not the only one working on the problems. They brought in a couple other people to help fix them as well as what we are fixing is just a part of something bigger. I guess you could say we're trying to fix something that came from mismanagement before it becomes a bigger problem.
You seem driven to make a difference in the company and you love what you do. Set the expectations that you are not going to work these extreme hours constantly, and do something nice for your boyfriend.
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