Work is more than just our direct responsibilities. Direct superiors and higher-ups have their own agendas and biases, and can sometimes complicate our day with unnecessary nonsense.
This rings especially true for Reddit user A-Truckers-Thoughts. Talking to the platform’s ‘Malicious Compliance‘ community, the employee recalled the unjust scrutiny they had faced from a difficult supervisor.
However, as the tension between them kept rising, the Redditor decided to give the lady a taste of her own medicine by subjecting her to additional workload, just like she had been imposing on them.
Unmanageable workload can take a toll on us
Image credits: Tima Miroshnichenko / pexels (not the actual photo)
But this employee’s supervisor didn’t listen to their concerns
Image credits: Tima Miroshnichenko / pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Anna Shvets / pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: A-Truckers-Thoughts
Even otherwise good leaders can inadvertently create false urgency and damage their team’s morale, well-being, and performance
Far too many teams are buckling under deadlines and stress.
According to a recent survey of 10,243 full-time desk-based workers from six countries including, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, and Japan, 42% said they are burned out.
This might seem like a personal problem, but when Stanford researchers looked into how workplace stress affects health costs and mortality in the United States, they found that it led to spending of nearly $190 billion — roughly 8% of national healthcare outlays — and nearly 120,000 deaths each year.
If those numbers aren’t scary to the Redditor’s bosses, they should consider the fact that companies without systems to support the well-being of their workers have higher turnover, lower productivity, and higher healthcare costs, according to the American Psychological Association (APA).
So it’s in everyone’s best interest to create a healthy work environment, one without redundant responsibilities that add extra burden without generating any real value.
Which is, sadly, far too common.
A survey of 7,500 full-time employees by Gallup found the top five reasons for burnout are:
Unfair treatment at work;
Unmanageable workload;
Lack of role clarity;
Lack of communication and support from their manager;
Unreasonable time pressure.
Image credits: Startup Stock Photos / pexels (not the actual photo)