If requests to stay late or complete work tasks in your free time appear regularly, then this is a reason to think about it and diplomatically set boundaries, Yulia Sanina, director of personnel and organizational development of the Rabota.ru service, told socialbites.ca.
First of all, an expert must know his rights.
“As an employee, you “sell” your time and professional skills for hours, and you get paid for it. Therefore, constant unpaid overtime is not a good thing. Of course, you can “sell” your time not for money, but for social benefits – respect from colleagues, approval from your boss, new experience, improved skills, a sense of personal satisfaction. But here you have to decide for yourself how far you are willing to go for such a reward,” he explained.
According to the law, you are required to pay overtime only if the employer himself asks you about it and gives an appropriate order. In other cases, you act outside the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Such delays in work are your initiative; no one is obliged to pay for it or otherwise take into account your efforts.
“If you have to stay up late every day because there is too much work to do during working hours, you are working too hard. Analyze whether you are just fulfilling your responsibilities or whether someone else is silently taking over from you; are they giving you enough time to complete the tasks, the expert suggested.
If there are problems with this and you feel uncomfortable working outside of the established working hours, you should contact the management. In a conversation, it is better not to attack, justify everything with facts and evidence, and stick to the business tone of the conversation.
“Try to use specific examples to explain to your superiors how much time is spent on your current tasks. For example, show that it takes eight hours to create a presentation instead of one hour. Explain that it is difficult for you to cope with other people’s work – your own tasks suffer and you get distracted. Let your dialogue be an opportunity for more effective collaboration, not a cause for conflict,” Sanina advises.
If you feel like your professional skills are lacking, it’s time to improve them. Find training courses or books online and study them yourself. Either ask the company to pay for your training or assign a mentor to help you dive into the subject quickly.
It’s great to be fulfilled at work, but don’t forget about balance. Life also includes work, fun and hobbies, spending time with family and personal interests, traveling, and developing new skills. Balancing all of these things isn’t easy if you don’t have the free time.
“To achieve clarity, try to create a “balance wheel”, a visualization that allows you to evaluate achievements in each area and highlight priority areas that require special attention. You will see the distribution of current priorities and understand which areas you want to devote more time to. This should motivate you to work more efficiently and not be late for work,” concluded the expert.
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