The Financial Cost Of Overworking Yourself
It’s the first couple of weeks of December and you’re starting to feel the strain of a year of full-time work. Suddenly a week of holidays is within grasp, and you’re basically salivating for it. At this point of the year, it’s easy to feel burnt out and like all you need is a good old-fashioned break.
If you’re feeling completely burnt out, maybe it’s time to think about how many hours your workplace is demanding of you, and what it’s costing you in the long run. Apparently half of employed people feel they are being overworked, so chances are this might apply to you.
Health
Work is an important part of our lives- it helps us feel fulfilled, engaged and productive. People can simultaneously love their job and be overworked. Even when we love our job, you don’t need to be a brain scientist to realise that overworking doesn’t do much for the state of your health.
You can’t get to the gym, get enough sleep, or relax enough to feel truly healthy. This might not have obvious financial costs, but in the long-term, any health concerns are likely to end up costing you money. On top of which, it will cost you peace of mind, which is (as a certain credit card deigns to remind us) priceless.
Productivity
People tend to overwork because they feels as if they can’t get all their work done in normal hours, because there is an office culture of overwork, or because their worried about their job security should they refuse to do extra hours. Sometimes it comes from the employees, sometimes from the employers. Irregardless of the reasons people overwork, in the long run, it’s likely to become more costly from an employer and employee perspective. Having time constraints leads to effective work habits- if you have staff who are working all hours, they are unlikely to be working at full capacity.
As an employee it costs you your ability to maintain work boundaries, or explore other projects and interests, limiting you solely to your (theoretically) nine to five workplace. On top of every thing, if you have no time you’re likely to let other aspects of your life get out of control, such as a maintaining your finances properly.
Sanity
Too much work will cost you your peace of mind. One of the boons of living in Australia is that we have an amazingly good work-life balance, and people have fought for that for a reason. If you haven’t got enough ‘life’ in that balance, you’re likely to get stressed and unhappy. If you find yourself getting unhappy, why not discuss the problem with your employer? Suggestions to make could include discussing the number of people assigned to each task, and maybe increasing the size of the team.
Sit down and work out how to improve communication within the workplace that will cut down on time wasted on miscommunication. Or maybe examine your own work habits. Can you delegate? Or are you likely to take on all tasks and overwork as a result of organizational practice? Having well-developed processes and open communication channels could be the key to decreasing your hours. If all this fails, sit down and talk to your boss about the hours.
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