WORKPLACE SPECIAL... OVERWORK

OVERWORK

An overworked employee is detrimental to an organisation's growth. Ways to deal with the issues arising from this workplace menace


Are you stressed at work? Are you reeling under the pressure of too much work? And are you amongst those who work beyond limits? Well then, you are not alone! A large number of employees in India Inc feels overworked and overwhelmed!
When employees feel overworked, it really isn't a pleasant situation. According to a study 'Feeling Overworked: When Work Becomes Too Much' by the Families and Work Institute, overworked employees are more likely to report making mistakes at work; feel angry towards their employers; resent co-workers who do not work as hard as they do; and look for a new job with another employer.
But first of all, an organisation needs to understand how and why the situation of a disgruntled employee arises and who is responsible for it. Srimathi Shivashankar, associate vice president, diversity and sustainability, HCL Technologies feels that organisations need to ensure that in order to achieve the required business output, it is imperative to attain the precise proportions of employee and skills. "This can be done by clearly defining the roles of the employees along with offering them the correct understanding of their deliverables - this also ensures transparency. In the absence of such planning, it can lead to burnout that can manifest itself in dissatisfaction at work, high attrition, drop in productivity, absenteeism, illness, a lack of decisiveness, indifference, apathy, a lack of motivation or creativity and low productivity," she states.
According to Chandarkanth BN, cofounder and MD, Theorem India, "It is quite normal for workloads to fluctuate from time-to-time. And when it's heavy, often managers delegate a bulk of the work to their trusted employees, the ones who have proven themselves capable in the past. Companies usually have strong HR policies to recognise and reward such high-performing employees and they normally receive higher rewards during their performance appraisal. However, if the workload is consistently heavy and also if there are no differential rewards for these employees, it could lead to a situation where they might feel over-worked."
Yaatesh Srivastava, CMO & head talent, Aegon Religare Life Insurance opines that if this is indeed the case, then this is a case of poor resource planning. "These sorts of situations arise when the organisational structure is
built sporadically and not holistically and structural inputs of functional heads are not calibrated across the organisation. This leads to employee disenchantment amongst both sets of employees. This sometimes arises in functional pockets when managers tend to overload a few of their 'trusted' lieutenants while ignoring the others. However, sometimes this issue may be just perceptual - the more efficient managers, may be seen as working less - thus becoming the targets of envy," he explains.
Tulika Tripathi, MD, Michael Page, India, feels that such situations always call on shared responsibility. "The organisation needs to ensure that if it is really the case, then headcounts are assigned to departments according to their work loads, managers need to coach their employees in their ability to delegate and employees need to understand that by getting frustrated like this, the only person they are affecting negatively is themselves," she asserts. Hence, if you can see telltale signs of overworked employees in your organisation, it is time to get up and take action.

Yasmin Taj ETHF121204