Burnout or "normal" working practise?

[Stressedgiraffe]

I can't figure out if I'm burned out or if this just normal or not?
I have too much work to do, too many meetings then need to find time to do the actions/outputs from the meetings.
Today I got up at 4 and have done 2 hrs work. Just having a coffee before kids get up and get ready for school then they get a bus at 8. Then I have 8-9 to do some more work then 9-430 I have back to back meetings. I'll probably log off at 530 as I refuse to work in the evening.
Then there is dinner, dogs walking, general faffing for tomorrow and then I'm tired so will be in bed by 9 ready to get up at 4.and repeat till Friday.
Work is all critical too many different things all of the same priority. All my colleagues are also working stupid amounts mainly late in the evening. No extra resource available
Is this the new normal at work or am I burning out?

This isn't normal. The culture at your work isn't good. Is there anyone you and your colleagues can talk to?
Are all the meetings really necessary?

You're heading to burnout if you're not already there. I've found it's the expectation that people work themselves to death because "budget cuts". Its not acceptable to be waking up at the crack of dawn to do work.

That's not good enough for me, especially if there is no paid overtime or time in lieu.

A conversation with your manager is likely needed to reduce your workload.

Are you absolutely needed in all those meetings? Point out that if everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority.

Failing all that, look for another job or take some time off for stress if you feel you need it.

Definitely not normal, healthy or sustainable. Good advice from PPs.

I would also speak to your manager in the first instance. Do you have a feel form how they will react? I’m wondering how long this has been going on for and if a while then what has put you off speaking to your manager before?

Some could be an email but stuff changes on a daily basis due to higher ups changing their mind. Can't take time off as priorities change so you're in an even bigger mess trying to catch up.
My manager is sympathetic but he's working till 10 ish to finish his work.
We are a small team trying to do a huge amount of work, pressure from the business and unrealistic targets don't help.

What are the meetings about?

During Covid my work got into bad habits, with Teams meetings being scheduled for anything and everything because people were over compensating for not being in offices.

Rules were introduced

• every meeting needed an Agenda, no agenda no meeting.
• everyone in the meetings needed a purpose, no inviting people for the sake of it.
• every recurring meeting needed to be cut by 15 minutes, so if you had a static Monday 9-10 meeting, it had to become 9-9.45.
• no meetings on Friday to allow everyone a catch up day.

There was some resistance at first but the execs kept up the messaging and what happened wasn't that everyone started complying 100% but that everyone started thinking more about whether a meeting was really needed and who needed to be at it.

Now no one really thinks about the rules, but they do think about whether there's a better way that a big meeting.

4am start.
No way that is not normal or acceptable.
Can they limit the changes into a meeting a few days a week instead?
I have no idea how you do this daily.
Seriously leading to burn out for sure.

not normal.
raise it with your manager.

do you need to attend all the meetings?
are there areas where you need help to be more efficient?

and get a new mindset. meetings are work.

In my company this is pretty normal. Those that aren't putting in a fair few extra hours are badly behind and constantly pulled up on it. It shouldn't be this way, but in my experience and industry it's normal.

What industry is this? Just so I can advise my kids against it!
This is not okay.
When you are on your death bed you won't be saying 'oh I wish I'd worked more hours'
Get another job. Get a life

I work in a v niche type of IT. It's a global company so I get emails 24/7.
Usually it's great, wfh flexibility as long as the work gets done.

This sounds awful and not at all normal to me, but I have a very average job I guess. I hope you are at least being incredibly well compensated. Normal in my work would be working up to an hour late Mon-Thurs eg 8.30-5.30 but finishing on time on Friday. You can't continue to work from 4am, it will just destroy you won't it?

Perhaps a bit of calendar management might help?

1. What are your working hours? Are these the default in your calendar? This prevents people leeching into your time as they will get an "outside working hours" message.
2. Block off the first 60 to 90 minutes each morning to give yourself time to deal with e- mails or meeting prep/actions you have.
3. Block 30 to 60 minutes at lunchtime, for lunch! But also to look at e-mails or have capacity for any "emergency" actions.
4. As PP said, meetings should have an agenda and a clear , desired outcome.
5. On the mail front, write a rule that sends any mail on which you are in cc or bcc to a separate folder that you can skim through first or last thing. This applies to meeting invitations as well.
6. Never accept any meeting invitation where you are "optional". If people need to to attend they should invite you directly and state clearly why you need to be there.
7. Again, as PP said, review all meeting invitations and determine your acceptance according to agenda, outcome and the contribution expected from you.
8. Finally, but not calendar related, if you can set your phone or audio contact to voicemail, do it. You can deal with messages and requests just before lunch or at the end of the afternoon. Obviously this is not viable if you work in a customer services area.

But also please tells us what you actually do and how much autonomy you have, as this could influence the replies/recommendations.

The only way to solve this is to stop doing it and you realise the sky won’t fall in. You then need to question why you are doing it, why have you got sucked into this cult of busyness and drama where everything is urgent. And I say that as someone who has had similar tendencies in the past.

seriously just stop.

I think you're not thinking straight which nigh indicate burn out.
If you can't see that waking up at 4am to work what I presume are regular office hours then something's not right.

What happens if you decline a meeting?

By chance, is your company American? We did work with a US based company a while back and these seemed to the expectations, even for the UK based workers. I don't know how it can be sustainable - at least in the US they're paid silly money to have no life, but we certainly aren't.

It's normal for me but I'm self employed so I work when the work is there. 60hrs in 5 days is pretty normal, and I'm a single parent with dogs so have all of that to organise too. However, no way would I be working these kind of hours for anyone other than myself.

Sounds like your manger is at that point where they can't see the wood for the trees either.

Therefore, I would tell them that I am reducing my hours as burnout will make it worse for everyone. So I would be prioritising workload myself by blocking out my calendar for tasks on a daily/weekly basis and this is the only work that will get done. If manager wants you to reprioritise then they can review your calendar and let you know.

The company won't go bust if you don't get your work done. There is an issue your manager won't/can't solve and therefore it needs senior management attention. Don't do your mental health harm just because your manager is trying to save face.

No it's a British company and I'm paid ok but not brilliantly.
Can't decline meeting, you end up being called into it.

It can become normalised within organisations.

Decisions get changed on a whim because there is a department or person who will pick up the pieces. Essentially there is no cost to the person/department changing their mind.

One way I have seen this change is using project planning techniques. It takes a strong director (doesnt need to be senior but does need some grit) to hold to it. To say to another team:

'you missed your slot, you knew when it was, you agreed to when it was, you will now have to wait until a space opens up'

Organisations only change behaviour when there is a cost to not changing. Often they are happy with the status quo as it has no cost to them.

Being paid okay means nothing to me (especially on MN!) 40k? 70k? 100k+?

What are your paid hours of work? That's what you should be doing

You definitely need to look after yourself better. Those hours are not sustainable.

Does someone look after or walk the dogs in the day? 8 and a half hours is a long time to leave them on their own if not.

Work life balance tilted the wrong way at the moment.

They need to prioritise a meeting which includes your manager and higher manager which is focussing on the fact that (1) you are wasting a lot of time with meetings and (2) you clearly haven't got enough staff and need to recruit more, urgently.

The only answer to this is for you to stop trying to do the impossible and start pushing stuff overboard. Start job hunting too while you're at it, because these cultures are difficult to change.

Ruining your health because this company doesn't know how to prioritise would be utterly stupid and pointless. You are a human being and you can only do what you can do. That is not something you can change by trying. It is a law or the universe.

All that happens if you do those kinds of hours for more than a very short period is that you get slower and stupider due to exhaustion and burnout, and either you don't actually get any more "done" or the quality of your cognitive processes has degraded so much that your work is bad anyway. Research has pretty stably shown that six hours of brainwork is the max that people can do sustainably a day before things start deteriorating.