Engineering Managers Must Do This To Avoid Work Overload
You’re in the middle of the work week and you see that your work desk is full of documents that need to be finished within the day. You try to fit in everything into your busy schedule, but no matter what you do, you just can’t make it work out. You begin to panic, and your stress level exponentially rises. Before this even happens, it’s important to understand that obsessively trying to schedule everything and doing everything on your own is counterproductive and stressful. Start looking at the bigger picture and start delegating to avoid work overload.
1. Outsource
If you have matters that can be outsourced instead of doing it yourself, then have it outsourced. For example, your schedule for the day goes this way: work, grocery shopping, send mail to the post office, clean your apartment, cook, go to bed. Instead of doing all these yourself, save yourself a few hours by hiring cleaning services to clean your home.
2. Make Use of Technology
Be updated with the latest technology and apps to help you get your work done easier. New tech was created so busy people like you can work more efficiently. For example, make use of a database app to check on important company files instead of spending hours checking out their hardcopies on the shelves.
3. Share Your Knowledge
Sometimes, we get too individualistic with our work. We think that to be able to get things done, we have to do them all ourselves. This isn’t true. Smart planning involves proper task delegation. By assigning tasks to other people, you will be able to work more efficiently and more productively.
What Is Work Overload and Why Does It Happen?
Statistics show that engineering managers work more than ever before and the numbers continually grow. Even though technological progress allows engineering managers to do more in less time, we dedicate long hours to work. According to the American Time Use Survey, in 2019 full-time employees averaged 8.5 hours of work time on weekdays they worked, and 5.5 hours on weekend days and holidays they worked. And with the rise of remote work during a pandemic, the overwork time grew even more.
Why do we work so much? Is it because we love to spend our free time in the office enclosed with four walls? While for some engineering managers, a job is a hobby, not many employees feel happy about spending extra hours at work. But with today’s great technological advancement and fast pace of the world, especially in business, we often get caught in the rat race. The long-hour workweek gives us the feeling that we can do more, better, and faster so we take upon more assignments than we can do.
And that’s when work overload happens. In engineering teams, defining its cause may be more tricky as the problem often lays deeper than just in an excess of tasks. And then it becomes a problem both for the employer and employees.
There may be many reasons behind work overload but here are the four most common:
- Lack of clearly defined priorities: when your engineering team doesn’t know what to focus on, it might cause multitasking and, eventually, lead to opening too many tasks and projects.
- Too many responsibilities: every business should have departments dedicated to specific sectors, for example, marketing, sales, IT. There should be a clear boundary between responsibilities. On the other hand, too many departments may lead to creating organizational complexity where people are forced to constantly communicate and collaborate.
- Bad company culture: when an organization doesn’t have clearly defined values, mission, and a unified engineering team, things might get out of control.
- Employees are afraid to admit they have too much work: this can happen out of fear of losing a job, or not being understood.
Work overload is a common problem for engineering teams and the effects can be bad for business. It may result in employee burnout, underperformance, and even high employee turnover. It can take a bite out of your budget and limit opportunities for development.
