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Workload issues lie behind much of the stress we experience. Not only can a heavy workload be tiring in its own right, it often drives us to work much longer hours than we would really like. This means that we spend time working that we'd prefer to use for the things that give life value. It also means that we're working when we should really be resting. Worse than this, a heavy routine workload leaves us little time to deal with the emergencies that come up from time-to-time. This adds to the feeling of being 'out of control' that is so much part of stress. Successful workload management is therefore vitally important for your job satisfaction.
Understand the Reality of Your Job
To do a good job, you need to fully understand what is expected of you. While this may seem obvious, in the hurly-burly of a new, fast-moving, high-pressure role, it is often times something that is overlooked.
By understanding the priorities in your job and what constitutes success within it, you can focus on these activities and minimise work on other tasks as much as possible. This helps you get the greatest return from the work you do and keep your workload under control.
Job Analysis is a useful technique for getting a firm grip on what really is important in your job so that you are able to perform well. It helps you to cut through clutter and distraction to get to the heart of what you need to do and it shows you the tasks you should try to drop.
Note: This tool from MindTools.com takes two forms - the one in this section assumes that your organisation is already well organised and that its job descriptions, review criteria and incentives are well-aligned and correct.
Conducting a Job Analysis
- Review formal job documentation
- Look at your job description. Identify the key objectives and priorities within it
- Look at the forms for the periodic performance reviews. These often show precisely the behaviors that will be rewarded and, by implication, show those that are not respected
- Find out what training is available for the role. Ensure that you attend appropriate training so that you know as much as possible about what you need to know
- Look at incentive schemes to understand the behaviors that these reward
- Understand the organisation’s strategy and culture
- Your job exists for a reason – this will ultimately be determined by the strategy of the organisational unit you work for. This strategy is often expressed in a mission statement. In some way, what you do should help the organisation achieve its mission - if it does not, you have to ask yourself how secure the job is! Make sure you understand and perform well the tasks that contribute to the strategy
Similarly, every organisation has its own culture – its own, historically developed values, rights and wrongs, and things that it considers to be important. If you are new to an organisation, talk through with established, respected members of staff to understand these values.
Make sure that you understand this culture and make sure that your actions reinforce the company’s culture, or at least do not go against it. Looked at through the lens of culture, will the company value what you do?
Check that your priorities are consistent with this mission statement and the company culture.
Find out who the top achievers are. Find out why they are successful!
Inside or outside the organisation, there may be people in a similar role to you who are seen as highly successful. Find out how they work and what they do to generate this success. Look at what they do and learn from them. Understand what skills make them successful and learn those skills.
Check that you have the people and resources to do the job!
The next step is to check that you have the staff support, resources and training needed to do an excellent job. If you do not, start work on obtaining them.
Confirm priorities with your boss!
By this stage, you should have a thorough understanding of what your job entails and what your key objectives are. You should also have a good idea of the resources that you need and any additional training you may need to do the best you can.
This is the time to talk the job through with your boss and confirm that you share an understanding of what constitutes good performance in the role. It is also worth talking through serious inconsistencies and agreeing how these can be managed or corrected.
Job analysis is a five-step technique for:
- Understanding and agreeing what you need to do to perform well in your job
- Ensuring that you and your boss agree on the areas you should concentrate on when time gets tight and the areas that can be de-emphasized during this time
- Making sure that you have the resources, training and staff needed to do a good job
By using the Job Analysis technique, you should gain a good understanding of how you can do your job well. You should have a clearer view of the things that you must do and the things that you can drop. If, after reviewing your workload, you are still overloaded, it gives you much of the information you need to negotiate for more help.
Reference:
Stress Management from Mind Tools
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