random corporate advice
Jan. 25th, 2021 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kradeelavhappened to be talking to somebody about how i handle overwork/not-being-burned-out on the dayjob to somebody today - and the advice seemed useful / potentially relevant enough to immortalize over here. (with the caveat it's not a perfect fit for every situation.)
context: I've survived three... four? corporate design teams as far as them being burnt out / pushing themselves too hard. i believe in the concept of being proud in your work, making your boss look good by going above and beyond to a point, and not halfassing shit, but also - crucially - being incredibly resilient and resistant to deliberate overwork.
my golden rule: three times out of the year, i will do whatever it takes to get a big project to the finish line, no questions asked. ~8 hours of a weekend, that amount of overtime over a week, this isn't just "oh i'll take an hour extra' push. (I am also very much a stickler for the exact 9-5 clock-in-and-clock-out). but conversely: after those three strikes up, any future tire fires are the company's problem, not my problem. full stop.may be a little infamous for not being afraid to say no.
Interestingly, even the most micro-managery/controlling of my managers was very amendable to this rule. If I had to guess, she genuinely liked the fact that I put an explicit "number" as far as what she could eke out of me with extra work. There were no guessing games as far as when we needed to hire a contractor or push the bullshit back up to the VP and say 'this is unrealistic and not going to happen'. An added bonus - I never went AWOL or quit in terms of slipping up when the actual shit was on the line, when unfortunately, it happened quite a lot with the dears with big hearts who were consistently guilt-ed into doing "just one more fridays" work. Sometimes you have to be cold to the process in order to be warm to the people within.
Anyway, hope it helps somebody, or gives some food to think.
context: I've survived three... four? corporate design teams as far as them being burnt out / pushing themselves too hard. i believe in the concept of being proud in your work, making your boss look good by going above and beyond to a point, and not halfassing shit, but also - crucially - being incredibly resilient and resistant to deliberate overwork.
my golden rule: three times out of the year, i will do whatever it takes to get a big project to the finish line, no questions asked. ~8 hours of a weekend, that amount of overtime over a week, this isn't just "oh i'll take an hour extra' push. (I am also very much a stickler for the exact 9-5 clock-in-and-clock-out). but conversely: after those three strikes up, any future tire fires are the company's problem, not my problem. full stop.
Interestingly, even the most micro-managery/controlling of my managers was very amendable to this rule. If I had to guess, she genuinely liked the fact that I put an explicit "number" as far as what she could eke out of me with extra work. There were no guessing games as far as when we needed to hire a contractor or push the bullshit back up to the VP and say 'this is unrealistic and not going to happen'. An added bonus - I never went AWOL or quit in terms of slipping up when the actual shit was on the line, when unfortunately, it happened quite a lot with the dears with big hearts who were consistently guilt-ed into doing "just one more fridays" work. Sometimes you have to be cold to the process in order to be warm to the people within.
Anyway, hope it helps somebody, or gives some food to think.
