to ask how you deal with been continually given more work than you can do?

[DynamoKev]

This has happened in most jobs I've had - I know up to point it is a question of asking superiors to set priorities but they can't be abreast of everything nor can I ask every time.

How do you decide what to do and what to leave?

You ask them politely in writing to advise you what you should leave, including in your email the consequences of each option.

Once there is a paper trail, they're far less likely to demand everything is done immediately - because any failures as a result are traced immediately back to them. And they can't say they weren't aware of your workload.

I just tell my boss
"Look I can't answer the phone and make calls and do emails and online bookings all at once, what do you want me to do?"
Which is exactly what I had to do earlier today so he gave me time off the phone to do a load of emails that were flying in and then found me some support for the other stuff

I'm a teacher. My whole career has been spent NEVER having finished all of my work. I discovered quite early on, that some things will disappear and not have to be done if you just ignore them. I don't mean lessons, marking, data entry or reports, but extras.

Likewise, if a whole department email has been sent out, sometimes I will just ignore it, and someone else will deal with the issue.

I know that probably sounds lazy, but it is a matter of priorities. If I am specifically given something to do, I will do it. If I am given something I can't get done by a specific time, I will email telling whoever has given it to me and offering a solution (get me cover for 2 lessons OR sharing the task with someone OR extending the deadline).

If I just accept everything I am given to do, they will just pile on more and more.

It takes a long time but you have to just detach emotionally. Things have to be left undone. Just prioritise

They aren't going to find anyone capable of doing it all (but at a stretch, if they do the person will be completely miserable).

Don't waste your life worrying about the unachievable burden a business has put on you in order to make more profit. If you can't detach it from your pride, leave and state the reasons why.

Also tell them,currently, that you prioritise your tasks and that it's obviously inevitable with the work load. No apologies.

If you're good at just doing the job they will not wamt you to leave. It's a constant dance. Pushing to the limit, then the other has to pull back. Workplaces nowadays are just shit imo. It's down to greed.

I used to experience this all the time in a job which was heavily project management based, and like other posters have said I would ways throw it back at them and ask what was priority - if they said everything then I'd have to explain I'm not superhuman.

However, now I'm in logistics it's much easier as physical constraints are much more obvious (e.g. can't make our trucks go 2x as fast!).

If you are in a management type role, you should be aware of the big long term goals and priorities appropriately those tasks which are critical to those goals and those which aren't.

If you are in a more admin/ task based role, it's ok to ask your manager on a task by task basis. Either way, it takes some time and experience before you get into it.

Most roles are set up this way - never any slack in the system.

If it's happened in most jobs you've had then is it possible you are slower than others?
I managed a team for many years and there was always a range. Some who worked faster / more effectively than others and at the other extreme the really slow ones who needed bailing out by faster colleagues.

I used this to prioritise my work

www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm

Worked in public sector all of my life where you can’t say I can’t do it, because there is nobody else.
Generally dealt with it by working hours of unpaid overtime and fortunately saving enough to retire at 60.

Being very organised is key. In all my jobs I have a system where the first half hour and last half hour of the day is devoted to email and task management - going through inbox, deleting junk, and assigning all tasks/incoming requests to one of 4 colour coded/flagged categories - 'urgent and important', 'important but not urgent', 'urgent but not important', 'not urgent and not important'. If you didn't complete all your tasks the previous day every day- you also need to review yesterday's task list and add in anything not completed and move things around, e.g. the thing which was important but not urgent yesterday may have become urgent by today (looming deadline for instance). At the same time I'm doing this I fire off brief acknowledgement emails to anyone who has contacted me/wants something, giving a timeframe for a response - usually within 24 hours if urgent, whenever I know I can find time for the non urgent. So everyone knows where they stand.

The rest of the time is blocked out and pre-booked in my diary - (1) meetings (although if you have more work than you have time for you need to be very ruthless about your attendance at non essential meetings), (2) time to complete urgent and important work and (3) time to complete other work, in priority order: first Important but not urgent, second urgent but not important, third non urgent non important (to be honest I never get around to the last category, I count it as being things like filing, reading through things I'm sent 'for information', reading my professional body's journal etc etc). How much time I have available to do non-urgent work dictates the timescales I've told people to expect said non urgent work. Certain tasks that I know come around regularly such as monthly reporting cycles, preparing for/chairing team meetings, boards, committees, 1 to 1s with my staff etc are booked out for the whole year in advance.

It's important to stick to your planned blocks of work, particularly the time assigned to important but non urgent work, it's quite tempting once you've finally cleared off everything which is urgent to sit back a bit, check your emails, maybe reply to a few, chat to colleagues etc in a way which you wouldn't if you knew you had to do something which was really urgent. But sticking strictly to the blocking out system is the only way that the non urgent work ever gets done - if you are able to switching off your phone, email and IMs/showing yourself as 'do not disturb' helps.

Obviously the hard thing is knowing how to categorise things in particular if you are getting external pressure (something a client or colleague thinks is really important may not actually be), and also of course re-prioritising if when things shift around and previously things no-one cared about are suddenly top of the agenda is stressful too. But I think if you can get broad guidance from your manager (e.g. anything which effects a customer/delivery of key objectives is automatically important no matter what, anything which will cost the company money is automatically urgent) that will help, and also where you need to set deadlines which are longer than people will like, having this system will help you get back up from your manager, so you can say 'I have had to say to Colleague A that they won't get their report until next week, this is because I have tasks BCD that are all urgent and important for XYZ reasons and will take 10 hours to complete, the next available time I have to complete the report is Monday, unless you are able to say tasks XYZ can be delayed or I can have help completing them' - rather than saying 'I can't do colleague A's report, I have too much else to do' which as a manager is not that helpful to hear....

@Babysharkdoodoodood

I used this to prioritise my work

www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm

Yeah. Then you get everything come up as Important and Urgent.

Hence the asking somebody else to carry the can for a decision when it's clear it can't all be done when it's wanted by.

I normally stick to 'potential danger to life and limb' - 'breaking the law' - 'getting fired' - 'getting sued' - 'what will come back to bite me on the arse if it's not done' - 'getting whinged at' - 'what can be fitted in whilst also doing three of the higher priority jobs' - 'what gets me left alone for a couple of hours' - 'what can be completed immediately' - 'what needs to be done but the world won't end if it's done tomorrow morning instead' - 'what can be constantly pushed back and pushed back until it's not needed anymore'. I also try to mix up periods of moving around lots with periods of sitting and concentrating.

But when in reality, everything is urgent, even asking somebody else 'Could you do 'this', because I have to do 'this' in the next half hour, so won't have time, please?' can ease the pressure enough to not feel as overwhelmed all the time.

And always, ALWAYS, make your break an absolute priority/non negotiable unless in emergency situations or you're a teacher and half the staff are self isolating so you genuinely can't take it or there will be year 9s left unattended with all the chaos and extra work that would follow . You're entitled to it, you're not being paid for it and you will work more efficiently when you take it.

@Tyzz

If it's happened in most jobs you've had then is it possible you are slower than others? I managed a team for many years and there was always a range. Some who worked faster / more effectively than others and at the other extreme the really slow ones who needed bailing out by faster colleagues.

Yes I am slower than others.

Has working slowly been raised as an issue at appraisals etc? If so i would be wary about saying you cant do all your work and you want them to give you less, if they believe its a reasonable workload (being completed by others) they may not be very happy.

I had this in a previous job. I'm generally very organised, meet deadlines etc but this was something else. I would ask, in writing, what my priorities were but the answer I invariably got was that they all were . Or my favourite, which was a dictat from someone that something was Mega Mega Urgent at 4.30 (the end of my day. I started at 8am) and due by 9am. This would typically be something terribly complicated and would take hours. If I so much as remonstrated (say for example I needed data from a colleague that didn't start work until 10, or I was just finishing off the last task they'd asked me to do that was also due by 9) it would get back to the departmental manager who would would instruct my line manager to give me a bollocking.

When I brought this up I was told it was all my fault for not being organised and accept the need for tight turnarounds. I was once messaged at 6pm for something urgent. At 8am, as I was just opening my emails my phone went and I was yelled at for not doing the work yet. Again, that was all my fault too

It was pathetic. I ended up leaving.

A mixture between pushing back when new work is assigned ‘I’m still working on X at the moment so it might take me Y time until I can look at Z’, and talking to my boss and explaining that I can’t manage it all and what does she want me to prioritise.

I know you can’t always push back as it depends on the work and who allocates it, but I find I’m more successful when managing expectations and being open about my workload rather than outright refusing to take more on.

In cases where it hasn’t helped or my previous bosses havent really understood the extent of it then I admit I’ve purposefully let a few balls drop (smaller, less critical balls) to illustrate that I can’t manage it all. I’ve then explained that this happened because I was busy with x, y and z and need more support. Sometimes people don’t know how many plates you’re spinning until you drop one. But I know it’s really dependant on your boss, job, work culture etc.

In a previous job (public sector) when this happened, I explained I could not do all the required work, and asked for guidance around prioritisation, but was told no, it all has to be done. I quit.

Now I work for a lovely not for profit employer and if the workload gets rough, the pressure is removed. It's the same for everyone, and as a result, staff stay for years and progress, and they are able to recruit high calibre staff.

Overworking people is short sighted but is incredibly common in the cash strapped public sector due to austerity.

Unfortunately a lot of people who complain about being overworked are the ones who are least productive, hence the lack of sympathy from their managers. The key is to have an open and honest dialogue with your boss about your performance, why you cant complete your tasks and what could help (from both sides). If the issue is an unreasonable volume of work they should help manage that. If you are struggling to work at an acceptable pace then maybe some training would help

Worked in public sector all of my life where you can’t say I can’t do it, because there is nobody else.

Other side to public sector is that deadlines are really just guidelines. I have a ton of work on my plate right now and I just don't let myself get stressed by it because it doesn't really matter if its late. One project was meant to have been finished last week, it's now likely to be next year. Another was meant to have been done by February, it's still ongoing with no end in sight.

I get not all public sector jobs are like that, but office based ones, they act like it's urgent and if you ignore it for a bit, they don't come back to you generally. Whereas in private sector, I'd be hounded constantly to get something finished quicker because it meant a bigger profit to them. No profit in public.

I'm in the same situation although I don't think I'm slow as we're all in the same boat at work. I'm now at the point where people are chasing me for answers to emails that I haven't even had the chance to deal with and I'm going to be getting more work. At one point I was working longer hours but I'm now taking the attitude that I will do what I can do and everything else will have to wait.

Do your colleagues complain about their workload, too? This might offer some perspective as to whether it's too much or you are too slow. If so, why? Are you new to the role? Do you understand what's being asked of you? Do you have a lot of interruptions? How can your manager support you in this?

I’d always discuss workloads at 121 meetings and check about excess work expectations.
If you say you are slower than others, why is that? Has it been raised with you? It’s not unreasonable to expect you to deliver in line with everyone else unless there has been a need for reasonable adaptations which include lower output.
That not being the case, perhaps you should speed up?