Yes because they will lose interest. My experience has been it's not motivation for them to try to make it work, it's the opposite.
I can see when they are stressed and not coming to meetings and not responding to emails about meetings and events. They usually take a backseat role and let others take over. I help by having them decide what strengths they have and then they decide what roles they can play and it appears to them they've made a decision to change and help and gives them motivation on their own.
Laura,
You are correct! What signs do you notice that might indicate that an employee is overwhelmed and what strategies can you use to help them?
Jamie
I believe they will because they have too much on their plate. They need not be bored, but too much will overwhelm them and they will decline doing work.
But delegating to someone else only passes the buck. I think when the team is struggling, the leader must prioritize for the group. This will allow the most important tasks to be completed without over stressing the entire team.
Audrey,
Good points! Learning to pace your team is an important skill for managers. It sounds like you lead from example, so practicing good time management is extra important for you.
Thanks for your insights.
Jamie
As a new manager, I realize have numberous challenges with my team. Some perform above and beyond, others battle along and fight me at every opportunity.
We all face challenges. One of mine is to teach them to work smarter and not allow themselves to become overwhelmed. (This has been something I have had to learn for myself.)
Laura,
You make a good point. Employees, like students, can get fatigued and frustrated with changes in schedule even though the result is not an increase in actually work or class hours.
One way to minimize fatigue is to prepare the employee well in advance. What other strategies might you use to minimize fatigue in employees that are required to work various shifts?
Jamie
Yes, the hours of work may be the issue some times. If there are not enough workers to cover the shifts, am workers may be asked to cover pm shift and pm to cover am. This can cause fatigue even if the number of hours does not increase.
Greg,
I disagree with you on this one. An overworked member can bring down the whole team.
One must be an observant leader to see fatigue.
Once recognized, action is required. I don't know what industry you are in, but it happens in my realm of business!
This is very true. According to the course , in terms of maintaining the culture of the team, it seems that there has to be an ear that listens to the issue and works to get input from others to ..as was said. "negotiate" a resolution rather than have them dictated.
In tough economic times, it is very easy to dictate , esp because there truly may not be other options that are feasible or legal but the approach is very important.
Instead there are nothing but an environment of dictatorship and fear. And with meetings of fake demeanor, most people can see thru this.
Instructors are now granted no prep time... How is that even possible?
And interms of where I sit, I knew there were many hats to this job but the beaurocratic machine says to be efficient when in fact it is less so.
More is done and thrown at staff, that it dissolves the team atmosphere and any respect for individuals to a team in terms of them as autonomous thinkers and responsible adults. For me though, I am going to take this information and watch as it grows thru the students in the program .
Yes, they will not perform well if they are overworked. They must have clear instructions and guidance. If they are too overwhelmed, then I would remove a task and delegate to someone else.
I believe that most employees will perform worse if they are overloaded.
However, if properly motivated they will perform above and beyond their capacity. I have instructors who are developing new curriculum with only four hours a week of preparation time in a degree granting program. The four hours are the only amount of time allowed by the corporation.
It is a difficult task, especially, since the faculty are paid hourly. The only way for these instructors to complete their work is for them to work countless hours unpaid from home. Their motivating factor is our team goal: “to provide the best quality education possible for the studentsâ€.
As a manager, it is important to realize what level your different team members can work at. You have to know your team.
Hi Trampas,
This is true, but many times team members are simply unorganized, lack focus or do not have the skill set to execute the task at hand in a timely manner.
A strong leader knows the difference between too much work and a need for more specific direction and tracking.
Best,
Greg
yes, their performance quanity AND quality will suffer due to being over worked -- their is a point where production will suffer due to workers being "burnt out"
Hi Farley,
You have a great perspective on "reasonable" workload. As you progress in your career, you may eventually move into an administrative leadership position and all of your team members may not have that same perspective.
Challenge your team to work smarter rather than harder. Many times it is the team member and his or her limited ability to execute that creates the feeling of an overwhelming workload rather than the actual tasks at hand.
Always focus on improving the execution before reducing the workload.
Best Regards,
Greg
As a Culinary Instructor it is easy to get caught up in the crowd that feels like they are being overworked but it is important to remember what working in the industry was really like. 14 hour shifts 6 days per week makes our jobs seem like a cake walk. Reevaluation of overworked should happen from time to time to be thankful for the job that we have that allows us to spend holidays and weekends with our families.
Yes, we are in the process of restructuring our duties as we were being handed more and more tasks to complete on a daily/weekly/monthly basis but no additional time to complete them. "Something has to give". It was no longer an option to complete all of the tasks but rather which ones were the most important and needed to be completed first.
Hi Michalina,
You are correct. Individuals will get overloaded in certain situations. However, the leader must understand the difference between a "c" level player being overwhelmed with a normal workload and an "a" level player who is overworked because he or she has taken on more than a reasonable load.
Don't let your "c" player push work off of his or her desk and onto your "a" player's desk.
Best Regards,
Greg
