Overtime

It’s not only your family and other priorities that suffer when you can’t tear yourself away from your desk at the end of the day, your health’s at stake too.

So leave on time – tell your boss we said so! “Leaving ‘early’ or taking sick leave could be viewed as a weakness in the workplace as the habits of working hard are ingrained in our culture,” says PE-based life coach Karen Kelly. And it’s not just our culture. February 23 was named Work Your Proper Hours Day in the UK, after trade unions found that the custom of unpaid overtime was still pervasive, and not good for employees’ health.

STRATEGIES TO GET YOU GOING

Don’t expect an award and recognition for your overtime – it’s not going to happen. Take responsibility for your own time, by doing what you can to the best of your ability within the normal working day, and then leave and enjoy the after hours – guilt-free. If you’ve still got work to do after the work day’s over, maybe it’s time to look at your efficiency. Are you spending your eight or so hours as effectively as possible?

Make sure you know what’s expected of you in terms of your output, and try to exceed those expectations, but there are no brownie points for hanging around longer. “If you work smart, you don’t need to put in extra hours. In fact you are probably not as efficient and effective in your job as you ought to be if you constantly need to work late to ‘catch up’,” says Elsabe Manning, Johannesburg executive coach, owner of Success Factory, and author of Up the Corporate Ladder – Professionalism in the Workplace (Umuzi).

GET SOME PERSPECTIVE

“Changing your perspective about your time is the key to reducing guilt, stress and getting everything done on time,” says Kelly. Your time is valuable, and leaving on time gives you precious “me” hours, to spend with yourself, your family, walking the dog, or exercising. Making the most of your downtime ensures you are well rested, and more balanced to tackle the next day. “Creation of a work/life balance can only be achieved if it becomes your top priority. It requires constant attention to your personal life road map,” says Kelly. Guilt and resentment are the result of believing one thing, but doing another (such as: “I should be home with my family, but I have to finish my work”).

Negative, hindering feelings can be alleviated by believing and doing the same thing – you should be leaving now, so do! Manning recommends a “work hard, play hard” approach. “After all, why are you really working? You shouldn’t live to work, you should work to live!” We should work out what “living” really means to us – create your own definition of “good living”, advises Manning. “Then do everything in your power to be true to your definition and the values you attach to good living. Life’s too short to not have what we really, really want!” Of course it helps to love what you do. “When we truly live our purpose, we will work hard, and enjoy what we do,” adds Manning.

SAY IT OUT LOUD

Once you’ve learnt to work efficiently, put things in perspective and prioritise. You can leave with a clear conscience having done your best each day. Announce that you’ll be leaving on time from now on – or at least on certain days. Your colleagues will then expect you do as you say, and you don’t need to feel guilty when you head out the office. It also encourages people to request things from you earlier in the day, and not leave it to the last minute. Once you get into a routine it becomes easier. Your colleagues may even be joining you!