Everyone is familiar with the mantra, “work hard, play hard.” It’s ingrained in our culture that you can work your way to the top of anything, no matter where you start. But is there a limit to how much we can accomplish with the number of hours we’re given in a day?
We are going to discuss overworking, how it can negatively impact your business culture, and how you can prevent overworking within your organization.
Technology has made many day-to-day tasks much easier, but instead of leveling the playing field to allow for more free time, it seems to have everyone wanting to work even harder to remain ahead of the game.
More input doesn’t mean more output. When “overtime” becomes “all the time,” longer work hours don’t always equate to higher productivity. In fact, one study found that in an 8-hour workday, most people are the most productive between hours 2 and 6, and by hour 9, productivity levels drop.
You’re more likely to make mistakes. Overworking makes it much harder to perform usual work tasks. Sometimes working long hours can feel rewarding. But when we make a habit out of it, we feel stressed, upset, and experience an unhealthy work-life balance.
Companies that overwork their employees may have a high burnout rate due to unhappiness with management and satisfaction with work-life balance.
Just like our muscles, whenever our brains and bodies get exerted, we need ample time to fully recover between work sessions. Think of the law of conservation of energy. When energy gets exerted, it needs food, rest, and water to replenish – it won’t automatically regenerate itself.
A heavy workload is one of the primary causes of stress among employees. In a 2017 survey, 60 percent of workers said that work-related pressure has increased over the past five-years. More than one-third of respondents cited excessive workloads and tight deadlines as their biggest concerns. Another 22 percent were struggling to balance work and personal life. As a manager, it’s essential to realize the negative impact of excessive workloads on your employees and take the steps needed to reduce stress on the job.
Here are the most common negative side effects of overworking your employees:
- Unhealthy Employees
- Unhappy Employees
- Diminished Work Quality
- Expensive Mistakes
- Poor Workplace Etiquette
- Rising Health Insurance Costs
- High Turnover
A stressed workforce can have detrimental effects on your organization as a whole. Your employees may lose their motivation, engage in conflicts and have a difficult time completing tasks.
An emphasis on your company culture prevents overworking
Everyone wants to work better and harder but there needs to be a goal and purpose towards what your employees are working towards. Creating an emphasis on culture and values at your workplace will prevent overworking among employees. There are a variety of ways you can prevent overworking at your company.
Here is how TalentLaunch puts a strong emphasis on culture for our employees to have a healthy workload.
The TalentLaunch Network is committed to a common purpose – to motivate the world to unlock its unrealized potential. Culture is the foundation of our success and having one common purpose helps our team, work towards one goal.
Our culture is based on six pillars that we constantly practice as an organization to help fuel our positive and healthy company culture.
- Accountability
- Vulnerability
- Gratitude
- Competition
- Active Learning
- Engaged
TalentLaunch thrives off of these six important pillars. We believe that if all employees leverage the pillars in the right manner, it will help our employees conduct their everyday work successfully and move the company forward in a meaningful way that helps TalentLaunch reach our mission.
To prevent overworking at TalentLaunch here is how we live and breathe our six pillars.
Accountability creates trust in the workplace. Here at TalentLaunch, we hold our employees accountable for their work. Accountability keeps employees motivated and productive. The best way to set this up in your organization is to lead by example. Make sure employees understand what you expect of them and that you’re holding yourself to the same high standard. Follow through on your promises, own up to your mistakes, and give feedback even when it isn’t easy.
Vulnerability is something we encourage employees to actively practice. Having open communication in your workplace and regular one on ones with managers and employees is a good first step to solving an overwork problem. This will demonstrate that you’re proactively addressing heavy workloads and demonstrating to your employees you’re serious about promoting a healthy work-life balance.
Gratitude and appreciation should be demonstrated in any work environment. Showing your employees you value their work and overall effort is critical to your teams’ success. If your employees don’t feel valued then they won’t feel the need to perform their everyday tasks. Whether it’s a simple “thank you” or an office party thrown in your favor, everyone likes to be appreciated. Expressing gratitude is good for employee engagement, motivation, and retention.
Competition fuels our sales floor on a daily basis. We host power hours and other contests for our sales teams to help them reach and exceed their goals and to push one another to be better while at the same time creating games to keep it fresh.
Active learning is something the TalentLaunch Network encourages all employees to participate in. For example, we host “Lunch and Learns” to give employees the opportunity to continue their professional and personal development.
Engage in activities outside of their 9 to 5 duties because it’s important to their health. It will help employees feel less drained and give them something to look forward to. Also encourage team building, workshops, and other social activities. At TalentLaunch we host happy hours and team-building events to build and foster relationships across all disciplines within the organization. Hosting events like these at your organization will help your employees bond, reduce their stress levels and create loyalty as a valued employee.
Now that you know what fuels us here at TalentLaunch, are you ready to create a company culture that improves efficiency and productivity in a healthy way? Start incorporating our pillars into your everyday business practices. We guarantee that you will see positive results. Learn more about our company culture here.
