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Working the weekend

4 replies

Ananxious · 27/11/2023 08:27

I work a standard Monday-Friday job. I was promoted a few weeks ago and it's been hard. I have a new manager who is new to the department themselves and while I've tried to share that I'm feeling overwhelmed, they have assured me things will get better. I'm inundated with emails from various senior members of staff every day chasing me for various things and I feel it's impossible to catch up. I've taken to spending some of my weekends working as I struggle to be productive in the large office I have to work in through the week. It's going some way to ease my anxiety and feel more prepared when I'm at work but my manager is very unhappy that I'm taking things home with me. Does anyone else struggle with this? I get the whole work/life balance thing but I struggle to relax on a Sunday afternoon thinking about the mountain of work waiting for me on Monday that I think, maybe I need to just ease the load now.

OP posts:
mondaytosunday · 27/11/2023 09:21

I don't think my husband ever spent a weekend without a few hours dedicated to work - but he was very senior and well paid.
Hopefully things will ease a bit as you get used to your new role, but if you find you just can't do your job without those weekend hours, I'd ask to talk to your manager again. Perhaps you may need an assistant or have someone you can delegate some tasks to? Dreading Monday mornings too much and you'll soon burn out.

Ren34 · 27/11/2023 09:25

I used to do a lot of work from home but find less need to now have been in the job for a while as you do learn to be more efficient

tribpot · 27/11/2023 09:34

Email is a productivity killer. At a minimum, I would suggest only checking email once every couple of hours, nothing that's truly urgent should be sent by email anyway. Have a look at this video from the excellent Leila Gharani - the simplest version would be to have Outlook closed except for certain times of the day, e.g. 8am, 11am, 2pm, 4pm. Block half an hour at each of those times in your diary to go through email but don't look at it otherwise.

I haven't worked in an actual office for years (I WFH long before the pandemic) but the noise and chatter can be v unhelpful when you're trying to focus. Do you have headphones? (I assume people still do this in the office, put noise cancelling headphones on when they need to focus). If you've got something you really need to concentrate on, can you do that away from your desk, i.e. in a meeting room or quiet space somewhere?

I would maybe limit yourself to no more than 1 hour on a Sunday afternoon, so you can clear off the most urgent stuff ahead of Monday. And consider this a short term measure whilst you're finding your feet, not something you should keep permanently.

Have a look at what you're spending time on. These chasing emails, is it just progress updates on ongoing projects? Can these senior managers have access to this information in a way that doesn't involve hassling you all the time, e.g. shared tools like Microsoft Planner? Project update reports at set times in the week, like maybe a Wednesday check-in or similar?

FloralAxilot288 · 29/11/2023 16:16

If your manager is unhappy that you are taking work home then they need to be helping you more to lower the load.

Make a list of all the current, and ongoing tasks you have and show is to your manager, requesting that they determine which of these tasks are the most important (make sure you also get this in writing).

Request that they help you manage your workload, detailing how you feel and that you have to keep taking work home with you on the weekends.
If this can't be done, or isn't adhered to by your manager then take it up with HR and request a meeting with your manager with a HR support person present.

I'm sorry that you are feeling anxious, it is a horrible feeling especially when it is work related, but please know that your manager should be doing their best to help you.

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