Working too much? (Human resources)

At the end of a long day, have you ever felt guilty about not working harder and longer? Have you felt guilty about not spending more time with family and friends but still kept working? Have you worked long hours but wondered whether you were making progress?

If any or all of these feelings are common in your life, ask yourself if your life is balanced. Many managers working with turf believe their job is a seven-day-a-week one. Turf health is critical to business productivity, but so is the physical and emotional health of you and your family.

Let’s explore why we get into tough life-balance situations and ideas to ensure outstanding course conditions and a satisfactory balanced life. Start by thinking about why people work too much. Four possible reasons emerge:

1. The facility’s financial status or maintenance budget doesn’t have enough funds to hire sufficient labor to support the superintendent and/or assistant superintendent working reasonable hours.
2. No one else is capable of doing the work.
3. Time working on the course is more urgent even though not more important.
4. There’s nothing important to do during nonwork time.

The fourth reason is rare, but for those it fits, my response is simple: Get a life. The first is, at least partially, an easier justification to oneself and others for second and third reasons.

Those who work too much do so because they believe consciously or subconsciously,  intentionally or unintentionally they must be present or the necessary work won’t get done. People try to work less, unfortunately trying isn’t sufficient. One informal definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting the results to be different. Consider the following four suggestions:

1. Make balancing life a priority. In Stephen Covey’s book, “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People,” he popularized a focus on quadrant two. (See chart above.) Quadrant two includes everything that’s important but not urgent presently. For you, this quadrant includes many of the work activities of leadership, management, training, coaching and professional development. It also includes much of your personal and family time.

Success as a manager requires expanding the time available for quadrant two activities. This is accomplished by making these activities a priority and establishing personal operating rules and structures that ensure sufficient quadrant two time. Remember, time management isn’t about time, it’s about priorities.

2. Plan for a balanced life. A manager in a business I consult with is struggling with life-balance issues resulting from the birth of a first child. Bill consistently has expressed the need to finish work no later than 5 p.m. several nights a week. Although his supervisor is supportive, Bill almost never leaves work before 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. Why? Bill’s answer is there are always uncompleted tasks remaining that only he can do.

Many are like Bill. They work too much because they don’t have a plan to do otherwise. Here are some ideas:

• Outline what needs to be done;
• Determine what can be completed reasonably in the time available;
• Complete high-priority tasks only you can do first, even if they’re tasks you tend to avoid;
• Delegate tasks to others; and
• Become more efficient during your work time.

3. Train others to complete some of your tasks. Several years ago, I listened to a small business owner talk about his success managing employees. He said 90 percent of the difficulties with employee performance is a result of something he did or didn’t do. Failing to recognize this possibility, managers underestimate the capabilities of their employees too often.

Stop focusing on the weaknesses of your employees and look for the strengths and potential in each of them. Based on these strengths and potential:

• Select one task you do that one or more of your employees could complete successfully;
• Develop a plan to create excitement about the new task for the employee(s);
• Provide the training required;
• Establish performance expectations;
• Coach and provide feedback including comparing actual and expected performance expectations; and
• When this employee(s) is well on his way to success, select another task to transfer from your task list.

You’re making time for more quadrant two activities including personal time, and you’re enhancing the productivity and job satisfaction of your employees.

4. Enhanced personal efficiency. The demands of graduate study present significant life balance challenges. When I was completing my Ph.D. course work, many in my class had a policy of getting away from our studies on Friday night. Our hope was to return refreshed early Saturday morning. One classmate invariably would be at the office Friday night. As we were getting back to our studies on Saturday morning, he would drag in, tell us how frustrated he was that he had to study on Friday night, how little he accomplished and how little motivation he had to study.

Do you feel burnt out and inefficient? This is when you get an “F” in balancing life because you’re accomplishing little or nothing at work. Reschedule work so you have sufficient personal and family time to avoid being inefficient at work.

Here are suggested habits to relieve the stress of work and create quality time for yourself, family and friends:

• Schedule time during the day when all family members are together. Talk about the day. Ask each person to share one or two positives from their day – a new friend, an accomplishment, something learned, an exciting experience with an old friend.
• Go for a walk. Don’t look for weeds in the turf or problems with the greens. Listen to a bird sing, watch a butterfly flit by, marvel at a beautiful flower or the quiet of the countryside.
• Read something you enjoy. You need not spend a long time. A chapter or a few pages a day adds up. A short period of reading or reflection is important to many successful people. GCN