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Any small businessperson who currently swims in the swirling mass of a high-pressure workplace doesn't need another study to tell him or her that they have reached their limit. However, just in case your overflowing email inbox and chaotic to-do list weren't proof enough, according to a national study released earlier this month by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute, one in three American employees are chronically overworked.
"Ironically, the very same skills that are essential to survival and success in this fast-paced global economy, such as multitasking, have also become the triggers for feeling overworked," reports Ellen Galinsky, president of Families and Work Institute and a lead author of the study. "Being interrupted frequently during work time and working during non-work times, such as while on vacation, are also contributing factors for feeling overworked." Key findings of the study included:
Fifty-four percent of American employees have felt overwhelmed at some time in the past month by how much work they had to complete.
Twenty-nine percent of employees spend a lot of time doing work that they consider a waste of time. These employees are more likely to be overworked.
Only 8 percent of employees who are not overworked experience symptoms of clinical depression compared with 21 percent of those who are highly overworked.
In addition, as we round the corner into summer, the study also found that 36 percent of employees had not taken and were not planning to take their full vacation days. Ironically, however, of the employees who did take one to three days off, 68 percent returned to work feeling relaxed, and 85 percent who took seven or more days away report that they returned more refreshed.
As for the source of these warrior work habits, the study highlighted several key factors including:
Lack of Focus. Fifty-six percent of employees say they often or very often experience having to work on too many tasks at one time and/or experience interruption during the workday, making it difficult to get their work done. Sixty percent of employees who very often have to work on too many tasks at the same time feel highly overworked, compared with only 22 percent who sometimes experience excessive multitasking.
Job Pressure. Eighty-nine percent of employees agree somewhat or strongly that they never seem to have enough time to get everything done on the job, and those who experience greater pressure feel much more overworked. Fifty-four percent of employees who feel highly pressured on the job are highly overworked versus only 4 percent of those who experience low levels of job pressure and 18 percent who experience mid levels of pressure.
Low-Value Work. Twenty-nine percent of employees strongly or somewhat agree that they spend a lot of time doing things that are a waste of time. More importantly, 51 percent who feel they have to do a lot of low-value work are highly overworked versus 25 percent who don't feel this way.
Accessibility 24/7. The electronic leash of cell phones, computers, texting and email has blurred the lines between when we work and when we don't. The study showed that the respondents who were in contact with work once a week or more outside of normal working hours more often reported being highly overworked (44 percent) than those who had little or no such contact (26 percent).
Wait a minute; wasn't technology supposed to be the panacea that would automate our most mundane tasks and bring us the leisure time needed to improve the quality of our relationships with friends and family? Apparently not.
While there are no simple solutions to how a small business owner can keep his or her staff and self on the sane side of productivity, there are some standard practices to consider implementing, including:
• Offer more flexible work hours so staff can customize their schedules to meet their personal needs to a greater degree.
• Experiment with telecommuting to allow more work to be conducted from home, lessening travel time.
• Do a quality workflow audit of your business to determine where wasted efforts and rework exist.
• Create a no-cell phone/text/email policy in meetings. The meetings will go faster and be more productive.
• Train all staff in the skills of time literacy, including how to manage interruptions, overcome procrastination and use focused time planning to get maximum work done, in minimal time.
Oh, and for heaven's sake, please take a vacation this summer -- your small business will thank you.
What are your biggest overwhelm and overwork challenges? We would love to hear your comments.
Karen Leland is a best-selling author, marketing and branding consultant and president of Sterling Marketing Group where she helps businesses create killer content and negotiate the wired world of today's media landscape -- social and otherwise. For questions or comments, please contact her at kl@karenleland.com
