It is Autumn break for the schools, which means that Smallsteps is home for the week - even though her parents don't have any time off from work. Technically, I could have taken some break also, since I have so many hours owing to me, but it just isn't possible with the workload, especially now that I am managing the US side of things also. I will be glad when we are able to hire someone that can do the job, but even after we do, it will be 6-9 months before they are up to speed.
However, I am also wondering what kind of bargaining position this puts me in salary-wise, as 6-9 months is a very long time to be effectively doing two people's full-time jobs, and not getting anything extra for it for too long would be inappropriate. However, I also understand that eventually I will go back to my normal workload, so expanding my salary is also not an ideal solution for the company, as there will be no possibility to roll it back again once increased.
I also don't want to get caught in the trap of more responsibility and load that never gets reduced, with the expectation I should just do it, because I get paid more. This is how people get burned out and I am not planning on being one of them.
Some people seem to think that more money is enough of a motivator to be able to do a higher workload, but this is rarely the case. While it might make us want to do more, increased salary doesn't make us any more capable than we are and we still only have so many hours in a day in which we can perform tasks. And, even if we spend more time working, it doesn't mean that the quality of our work is going to be consistent and once the workload becomes "too much" the quality drops away very fast and there are many more failures.
Working under a little stress is beneficial, working under a lot of stress is crippling. And, it isn't just the "work" of it that causes stress, which is something that a lot of employers can forget, as life pressures have an impact too. No matter what we get paid at work, work doesn't exist inside a vacuum, as we are affected by the rest of our life too.
As a soft-skills trainer with my own consultancy, what has been interesting is that while I am hired to help people improve their work outcomes, most of the time is spent discussing and dealing with personal conditions. Because I am a "nonpartisan" party in the discussion and it is in English, people tend to feel more comfortable opening up to me and discussing a lot of personal challenges, from problems with their children, their spouses and deaths in the family. Often they dive into their childhoods and what they believe has caused them to act a certain way. It is almost a therapy, but not in the way a psychologist does it, just a friendly ear.
Through these discussions they seem to be able to unburden themselves and disempower the forces that have been consuming their thoughts and emptions, by getting a little space and self-reflective perspective. As a result, a lot of the things that were stressing them seem to lose some importance in terms of the stress load, and instead become more manageable again. This is likely because making decisions and acting when stressed takes far more energy than when not, so once they are able to reduce the load even a little, everything becomes easier again, they are looser, freer and more motivated to do what they need to do.
I have worked with people who are close to burnout and so far, none of them have stepped over that line and instead, they have drawn away from it, often rejuvenated both personally and professionally.
However, there is only so much we can take and deal with and now, on top of all of the usual suspects that cause stress, there are the additional weights of economic conditions and the ongoing and escalating, geopolitical disruptions. Where a year ago people were coping relatively well despite the strange conditions, this year it seems to be impacting people more heavily, as there are only so many hits we can take before we break.
It is like the chopped wood in the picture, cut down and ready to burn, but the supply of trees are dwindling. There is only so much pressure a population can take before society falls apart and, no amount of money is enough to stop it happening. If anything, more money can escalate the problems, as it causes increasing disparities and more problems, not to mention the stress from increased expectations.
Eventually, there aren't many left standing.
Learning to cope under stress is a skill, but it is one that has to be learned, practiced and constantly attended to, otherwise it degrades over time, as we become comfortable with our conditions. One of the most effective ways to cope is to have a strong social support network, but with the way society functions now, this is an area that has been weakened instead, so it is no surprise that people have less ability to cope under stress, meaning that it also takes less challenge to cause stress. People should always remember, that no matter how much a job pays, it won't buy the skills to cope with stress.
There is a Zen proverb:
"Before Enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water"?
Maybe "enlightenment" could be swapped out for stress.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]