Is everyone else pretending they’re drowning in work?

[Shareadog]

I’ve worked in office jobs for about 25 years, and I’ve always wondered: do people in self-directed, knowledge-based roles actually spend 37-40 hours a week actively working?

I almost never have, the only exceptions have been during major pitches. However, I’ve consistently received strong reviews and positive feedback. I was promoted last year.

In my current, fairly senior role, I’m regularly praised for both the quality and speed of my work and I definitely don’t avoid taking on extra work or projects. Maybe I’ve just been unusually lucky with manageable workloads, but after this many years that seems unlikely.

I’m not off doing anything exciting—I’m available and responsive—but there are decent stretches when I just don’t have much to do.

Everyone else around me constantly complains they’re drowning, overworked etc.

Am I the weird one, or is everyone else stretching the truth about how busy they are in these type of senior roles?

I think you need to be a bit careful about this. It’s not always your call as to whether a meeting is “pointless” or not, and pretty insulting to the organisers if you decide this unilaterally and do not show up.

Some meetings are indeed pointless. But not all meetings are pointless, and “lone wolves” who perpetuate the myth that everything can be done by email are not good colleagues.

That sounds fab, sometimes I dream of a role like this! But then, as I've mentioned above the pay where I work isn't great, I am vastly underpaid for my M.A Qualification but, I do so little that some weeks I don't feel like I have a 30 hour a week job at all. (And I never have to leave the house. I would need a humongous pay rise to do that again).

Yes I manage a team for a housing association and I’m busy from the second I start to the second I finish.
I receive about 300+ emails a day, expected to do site visits and manage the team/service.
i don’t ever stop and often work late to finish

Some people are just really inneficient, or they make pointless work for themselves. I work in a team of 4 and we all share the same work, although there are some aspects of the job that only I can do. With the shared work, I have noticed that I work at least twice as fast as the other 3 members of the team - but I can't slow down, I'd get bored! Honestly I don't know how they work so slowly. It's a recurring theme in any job I have ever done.

When I worked in a leadership role in the public sector I was always overworked with loads to do, peope to support and constant meetings because my job end up being made up of multiple roles where peope had left and not been replaced. Now I work in the private sector and I experience the same as you. I can get my actual work done easily and I’m often bored and unfulfilled. Other people around me seem to be really busy and overwhelmed with work but I can’t really see what they are all doing and I do wonder if it’s just a lot of procrastination. When I have something to do I get it done straight away. I hate having a full to-do list and inbox so I get it all done.

@Shareadog i work in the charity sector and am usually very busy, however I find I’m more productive when I have lots of things to do. Members of my wider team are also usually working flat out, there are exceptions and peaks and troughs of work loads based on projects.

In the 20+ years I’ve worked in this sector those who never seem to be that busy and are massively under productive are the male staff. It’s not all men, there’s the odd one who pulls their weight, but majority woman I have worked with are very productive compared to the men who like to bullshit a lot about what they’re doing but never actually do anything, instead thinking their gods gift for being so magnanimous as to work for a charity. I think this is partly due to the sector and the type of people it attracts. In a high production person, often get comments about how much I get done compared to others. This is just me working as normal and I get everyone has different levels of what’s manageable but as a result I don’t often feel overworked but know I do work hard.

NHS, always drowning in work. Never ending work. Never have a quiet minute or a project end, it’s a constant conveyor belt of attempting to spin all the plates without dropping them all

All the uni admin roles I’ve had seemed to have everyone else snowed under, and every meeting would begin with the listing how busy they were. I’ve always worked fast and picked things up fast. Computer literate and can figure things out. I’ve never been as busy as they claim. But I think many people make a job for themselves. They hide what they really do from others and don’t like anyone ‘taking over’ their job.

I work for a large organisation - everyone around me is always ‘insanely busy’ (and some of them genuinely are) … however, many of my colleagues seem to take forever to do a simple task that should only take a few minutes. I used to work in a genuinely pressured environment with multiple hard deadlines which could never be missed and I learned how to work very efficiently. I now have a reputation as someone who ‘gets stuff done’ and I get glowing appraisals but most of the time I’m only working at about 50% capacity - there simply isn’t enough to do to keep me really busy 🤷‍♀️

This is me - consultancy and SLT and like above I count it lucky if I get a loo break between meetings. Setting boundaries re meeting cadence and attendance only goes so far when you run the division! And then there is all the work to do before and/ or after the meetings finish. I do find a lot of my friends and family don't experience the same pace and intensity of a role like mine so don't quite understand it. It is interesting and pays the bills though and when I do say I'm going to take a 9-5 type of role, they joke its not in my nature - within a year I'd be running the place again 🤔

I did when younger in a finance supervisory role. Would often have to work till 10 o’clock at night. Realised now I made this issue myself as I never turned down work or raised it as an issue (young and naive). Since that role, I’ve ensured I don’t take amount on again as it was genuinely awful

Ive found managing surprisingly time consuming. Im fairly new to it and i suppose i just thought people would get on with thier jobs but it seems they need lots of guidance and reassurance and focusing them into what they are paid to do. I definitely need to unskill in this area. I am meant to do weekly 1 to 1s. All I can think is 'could you just kinda do your job please' and my team are good people. Goodness knows what rubbish people are like to manage.

I have a job like this, OP. Sound very similar to you with the positive feedback etc. Just had glowing feedback in my half year review. I think at some point you start getting paid for your level of accountability rather than simply your output.

Lol and that is exactly why I only directly manage 1 person

I don't understand why ppl can't just do their fucking job either but years of experience has taught me that they can't and don't which is why I stipulated very little line managing in my new role

Wow I wish this was my job 😂
I’m in a community mental health team as a therapist and I love my job and I’m not AS busy as the nurses, but it’s still pretty much non stop 9-5 Monday to Friday unless I get a few people cancelling or not turning up

I know what you mean, I’m not in a senior role (I was but under promoted myself as I hated it) in my new role in local government, I work 3 days a week and I get all my work done and have hours spare in the day. All my other colleagues complain about the work load and are always behind with the their whereas I’m always on top of it, bar a couple others. I’m part time and work more efficiently than the full time ones. I don’t take breaks and just crack on a solid 4-5 hours non stop work then my day is pretty much done and I’m waiting for things to come to me. I think ppl just work differently, I’m super efficient, hate having a full inbox/things outstanding, I am busy to be honest and the work is a lot, I just don’t waste time and get it all done in under a day and never finish my day with something left to do.

oh this is what I thought when I decided to go for it and went for a management job, didn’t realise how hard work it was! I did it for a few years and ended up fed up of it and demoted myself and never want to manage a team again, you get your good eggs you can just leave to do it but Jesus, the ones who are like headless little chickens in the team were exhausting! I never had a spare moment at work as it was constant questions, problems, this, that - wow I do not miss it!

A middle manager in the NHS: unrealistic workload and yes, always drowning and massively stressed out. I really wish I had some breathing space but can’t remember the last time that happened

I am ridiculously busy. I work for a GP surgery - my job has evolved over the years and tbh no one really knows what I do ! I could easily get away with doing nothing although eventually people would realise that something was wrong when the back ground work isnt happening. I have mentioned a few times that it would be helpful if someone understood my job in case I won the lottery but nothing has been forthcoming so hey, ho - not my problem.

I dont stop from the minute I log in until I finish 6 hours later. I do take a lunchbreak but it is very short as otherwise I really wouldnt get my work finished. Fortunately I really like my job so I dont mind - but I completely refuse to work any more overtime.

I am over qualified for my role and very efficient but I never pretend I'm super busy. I just do my job well and stay under the radar. My employer needs to pay someone to do my role and so long as it gets done, I don't think they care how long it takes me.

I have come to realise I’m just really quick at getting things done. I’ve observed other people working on projects from a far and was shocked at how slow some people are. I do think I’m one of the many 40 something women slipped through the adhd net though as I do need a fast approaching deadline!

I work in procurement for a large IT consultancy and can safely say I am genuinely drowning. I am paid to work 24 hours a week but I actually work at least full time hours (probably more). Our main problem is that we have a small team in the UK who are meant to be more strategic and act as escalation points for when our European and APAC teams aren’t doing what they need to be doing, but that tends to be pretty much all the time, so we spend almost all of our time firefighting because of other people’s incompetencies, leaving all of us very little time to actually do the more strategic and proactive work where we would actually add value. In the meantime though, that work and the need for it doesn’t go away - the “to do” list just gets longer and longer every day! Think I’m pretty much at burnout!

Agree with the busyness culture.

And also that a lot of people just don't plan their time very well, and take all day over something that could have been knocked out in two hours. Kids help to cure this sort of procrastination! If you've got to finish at five then you plan more effectively.

Also thinking ahead during lighter weeks to take the pressure off the busy weeks - can't understand why some people I work with just take it easy then struggle when they have two deadlines close together! It's as if finishing one task early to focus on the next is just not an option!!

I once worked in a job where the men did, to the extent I was concerned as a single parent about taking on promotion. Eventually I did, and found the role quite manageable within an average day, with a few exceptions. Eventually I managed many of them.

OP, if you’re in something like marketing the biggest efficiency is whether you have autonomy, and if not, whether the stakeholders are structured and disciplined about when and how the give input. Most marketing jobs can be done very quickly by the right person, empowered to make decisions. They just do it all once. It’s when everyone wants to see it nearly finished and then chime in with pointless matters of opinion that you get people chasing their tails because every single thing is being done several times.