Oops, I did it again! – Overtime At Work

Oops, I did it again! – Overtime At Work

Will you necessarily be liked for living life on your terms? Do it, anyway. The question is, are you willing to take the first step?

With no boundary been drawn between home and work space amidst lockdown, there are increasing posts from professionals of how overworking has become an everyday thing for them. It’s more like switching from household work to office work the moment you get bored by doing the other of the either. 

Why it is advisable for youth especially to set work-life boundaries as early as possible? Earlier the investments, higher the returns in long run. Work life balance needn’t be seen as not giving importance/take ownership of work, it is solely about refraining from overworking at a cost of personal life, relationships and growth.

 

We’re getting into a controversial topic -OVERTIME hours at workplace. Leaving on time at workplace, has been a shush-shush topic where professionals prefer not speaking up, especially if there are supervising managers present there too (an appraisal affecting concentrate). Yet, most of the professionals complain about long working hours, because not only are they usually unpaid extra working hours, but avoidable too mostly.

It’s uneasy for a good percentage of professionals to follow the ‘Work on time, leave on time’ regime for it is a very subjective scenario – some have a company culture that encourages work-life balance, some, literally quite the opposite. Must’ve crossed your mind so many times, the unfairness of how an hour of early leaving can lead to a half day salary cut, but an overtime of 5 hrs in a week doesn’t mean you get even a penny more!

When there is too much workload, as an employee, yes, it is your responsibility to stay back and work. But what if it is an everyday thing? Sometimes, it is not about the workload, it’s simply a chosen lifestyle.

In a humourous not, some might think, as it is there is nothing much to do around during lockdown, so why not work endlessly and then complain about it!

“We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.”     – Michelle Obama

 

1. Go on time, leave on time

This isn’t unethical nor unprofessional as long as you are meeting your KRAs and doing a bit more. Giving you best at work isn’t about how many hours you work; Here, efficiency is the key. The quality of work is the what determines your worth, not the number of times you stayed back in the office post your expected hours. This point holds its worth so much so that there are companies that look at over time working employees as a negative quality since it shows the candidate is not efficient to finish his work in time.

 

2. I know, Netflix and chill, bliss

How many hours are you actually left with after a day of long working hours? In most cases, you go home just a while before dinner time if not much later. You are so tired with the day and travelling, that you just want to eat in peace and have whatever possible entertainment you can have at convenience and sleep. On top of that, many don’t get Saturdays off, so weekend for most is sleeping away the entire of only day they get for themselves. Is it worth living this way?

 

3. Wishing away the best of time

With 33% of the Indian youth being unemployed (Livemint official survey,2019), we are fortunate to have jobs at our hand and do what it takes for us to keep deserving that opportunity. It’s time we enjoy our work enough to not keep wishing away the workdays for weekends. Best days of youth are the ones we outlearn our previous version and try reaching our potential.

 

4. Gives time in creating second source of income

If you only want to sustain in society, the monthly salary will do. If you want to get wealthy, a second income is certainly needed. But, in either case, out of security and stability, multiple sources of income is a smart move. The younger you start, the better and more secure it is. Giving just the right number of hours at your company will let you have right number of hours for fulfilling your dream. Create time to create that wealth you wish to have.

5. Catalyst in digital detox

A good work life balance will leave you with time to follow your hobbies. When you pursue your hobbies, it sparks happiness and creativity in you and all the more in your favour if you are trying to practice regular digital detox. Each one of you is a hidden ‘Taare Zameen Par‘.

 

6. Ups chances for the singles to mingle (the speed of reading just increased 2x)

There are endless articles on millennials refusing to marry or delaying it significantly to a later age as compared to previous generations, major reasons being career commitments along with fear of committing. Its a personal choice and respected too. Getting some time for yourself can give you a chance to work on your financial goals, insecurities, to socialize more and meet more people of your likes. And when you meet the right one, be someone who takes out time for such relationships and knows what life is actually made of to not be back being single again 😛

7. More opportunities to up-skill

There are tonnes of free unused resources available out there to work up the gray matter and upskill us. We work harder and for longer hours than needed to show competency and reliability at workplace which we think thereby gives better leverage to get promoted or a raise. But competency is high powered by efficiency, and better skills lead to better efficiency. Use the time to skill up, read the free resources, let me assure you, a solid attitude with skills and efficiency takes you to places that simply working overtime won’t.

 

8. No, there’s no “Maybe later, someday”

2019 is going hell for leather; Before we got accustomed to 2019, it’s almost come to an end. We did not realize this pace, did we? Did you feel like you have actually lived these 9 months of 2019 the way you had wished to? What you did not do in 9 months, like hell is there going to be time to do it now. You know why? Because you think you know there will be a ‘Someday later’ to do it. Ask yourself, how can you be so sure will there be? Take time off and live your dreams TODAY man!

 

9. Parents are getting older, so are you

As much as we may hate it, but we can’t have a tug of war with what we are going to inevitably lose someday. When you have the opportunity to make the best of these relations, do it today. Spending quality time with parents and making them feel like they are so much important to you will make them much happier than you having it all but ignoring them in the name of work. Live with them while you do have them, you owe it to them. ‘Taking out time for parents’ in my dictionary is a very negative way of saying, I’d rather phrase it, ‘I have a fixed time with my parents and nothing’s coming in between that’, a change in the perception will change how to act on it. And yeah, how bad is your back hurting ,oldie? (giggling)

 

10. Don’t forget living while making for a living

I read somewhere, being busy is the new lazy. By being busy, you get to avoid all the issues outside your comfortable cubicle. Without realizing, you have started choosing being busy as a reflex to fixing things that will make you put efforts and push you outside your comfort zone. You’ve got to step up and be worth every single privileges you are born with. You will only be a light to this world if you stop blocking the shine coming from you. There you go baby!!!

 

PERSONAL NOTE: Being a hard working employee with myself with a history of overworking where my first meal of the day would be my dinner. Why am I saying all this?To make it clear to you that as much workaholic as I may be, I have realized the importance of being generous about work-life balance by my observation of the older constant overworking employees and seeing how their social life has been miserably hampered, to an almost unfixable manner. This has made me wanting to help more professionals of my age and specially the freshers. Being loyal to company is one thing and a very important one, but remember, it’s not worth killing yourself for a company who will replace you within hours of your unavilability. Make your mark wherever you are posted, but don’t be ruthless to your personal life. Identify the cases where you really need to overwork, and for the rest, I hope you know what to do.

 

 

Lots of Love,

Madhvi Panchal

Visits: 4424

Madhvi Panchal

Related Posts

Finding Happiness Right Away!

Finding Happiness Right Away!

INAARA – Beam of Light (Hope)

INAARA – Beam of Light (Hope)

Why didn’t he speak up?

Why didn’t he speak up?

LOCKDOWN VIBES – Confined, not caged

LOCKDOWN VIBES – Confined, not caged

3 Comments

  1. Work life balance can land me in serious relationship.. 😰😅🤭
    Need to keep spending more time in ofc to be a forever single.. hehe..

    Nice article, thnx for covering this area, it will sure add quality to life… Cheers 🍻

    Loads of love.. ♥️

  2. I simply had to thank you very much once more. I do not know what I would’ve achieved in the absence of the type of tricks documented by you relating to my theme. Certainly was a real troublesome dilemma for me personally, but taking note of the very well-written fashion you managed it took me to leap over fulfillment. Extremely happy for this help and in addition sincerely hope you realize what an amazing job you are providing teaching the others through the use of your webpage. Probably you have never encountered all of us.

Leave a Reply to Vidhi Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

Advertisements

Categories

Reviews:

Advertisements