Boston Globe: Overworked? Here’s How To Deal (Work-Life Coach)

March 7, 2010 – Boston Globe – USA

The good news is you still have a paycheck. The bad news is, as staffing ranks have shrunk, your workday is lengthening and your in-box is bursting at the seams. What’s an overwhelmed employee to do? Try these eight tips from career counselors.

Nearly 10 percent of Massachusetts workers are out of a job, and the other 90 percent may be counting their lucky stars. But a recently released University of Puget Sound study, which followed thousands of workers at Boeing over a decade, suggests that people who get laid off may fare better over time — be healthier, less depressed, and less prone to substance abuse — than those people still at their posts. After all, while unemployed job seekers face a difficult path, layoff “survivors” sometimes find themselves on an impossible road: a doubling or a tripling of their workload. “People left behind are forced into overwork,” says Cambridge career counselor Phyllis R. Stein. “Some of my clients are trying to absorb three different jobs.”

If you suffer from overwork, you may feel you have no choice but to grin and bear it; when layoffs still loom, who wants to be the one whining about working weekends? But local career counselors say there are steps you can take. First, you need to make sure you’re overworked, and not just driven to work a lot. “Some people define themselves by saying, ‘Look at me, I work 16 hours a day,’ ” says Stein. “They wear it as a badge of pride.” But if that isn’t you — if you’re just scrambling to get all your assigned duties done in a day — then see if you can find a little time to check out our eight tips for the chronically overworked.

1. GET HELP First, you have to recognize that your situation is untenable, or nearing it. Maybe it’s when your family stops setting a place for you at dinner. Maybe it’s realizing you haven’t been outdoors in daylight since Scott Brown was still a little-known state senator. Maybe it’s finding you’re gaining weight, drinking more, sleeping less. Whatever your moment of recognition, says Sharon Teitelbaum, a work-life coach in Watertown, your first step should be asking for help. Read more.