If you have taken our quiz, you’ll know that there are different reasons for working long hours.
Of course our quiz is just a bit of fun. It’s not scientific. But it does aim to make you think about why you work long hours. This is the first step in trying to deal with them.
We reckon there are five main reasons why people do unpaid overtime. Once you have worked out which applies to you, you can then work out what needs to be done – and whether it’s up to you; your manager; or you and all your colleagues to tackle it together.
Of course, there may be more than one reason for working long hours, and therefore not a single solution.
So aren’t long hours just about time management?
There’s another reason to think carefully about why you work extra hours. Too often if you complain about too much work, you are told that you lack time management skills. But too often this is blaming the victim – you really do have too much work to do.
You are then quite likely to be sent for training by a time management guru. If you’re unlucky they will tell you that if you adopt their particular system of different coloured notebooks your life will change, and you will discover hours of extra time each day. Some systems even tend to be a bit like cults, with their true believers claiming if it doesn’t work for you, then that’s your fault – not that of the system.
Of course many people could manage their time better and we’ve got some tips here if that is part of the reason you do extra time. The more say you have over your own work, the more real choice you will have about how to order it. Time management tips and training can help.
But we are just a bit suspicious of time management gurus who peddle systems. Their ideas may well work for some people, and if they do, that’s great. Yet people are different. What works for one person, won’t work for somebody else. And it won’t work for anybody whose problem is not down to time management in the first place.
People who manage their time well – and there are usually some in every workplace – will all have their different approaches. If coloured notebook system X works for you that’s fine, but please don’t feel guilty if it doesn’t. Good time management training gives you the space to work out your problems, and helps you develop your own systems and techniques for overcoming them. Bad time management training teaches a one size fits all approach.
