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Are You Suffering from Overload?

November 29, 1999

The transition from hard work to overwork can be a gradual one, so it pays to know what the warning signs are.  As you review the following checkpoints, be as honest as you can in asking whether they apply to you.

* Frequent bouts of what feels like jet lag, even when you haven't been traveling; difficulty in concentrating; listening but not grasping the content of what you have heard; flashes of extreme tiredness, even early in the day; felling discouraged or emotionally down without an obvious reason.
* An increase in the usual panoply of stress-related physical symptoms, such as over - or underactive digestive tract; difficulty in sleeping; an increase in smoking (or any other behavior you indulge in when you feel nervous or stressed); unusual forgetfulness; increases in heart rate or blood pressure.
* Recurring thoughts, accompanied by feeling of guilt or sadness, about neglecting your family or your hobbies and other interests.  Anger at your job because it never seems to let go of you.
* Complaints form those at home being ignored or being left with the entire burden or raising the family; or that you're forgetful; or that "you love your job more than you love me."
* Anger and disappointment because your family or significant others don't appreciate all you're doing for them.
* Ambivalence about your successes, that is, feeling proud when you have brought in a successful project and at the same time feeling oddly disappointed.
* A nagging sense e that the quality of your work is suffering. 
Specifically:
* You're spending less time on preparation and follow-through.  Thus perhaps you find yourself putting off coaching subordinates or not making the effort to listen to your staff or customers.  In other words, you're letting the urgent - i.e. financial reports - drive out the important.
* You're unusually impatient about the time it takes to solve problems, because you want to move on to the next one.  You've begun to fall back on tried-and-true solutions just to dispose of issues rather than searching for new and better approaches.
* Squeaky wheels and a constant sense of urgency are ruling your days.  You're tending to give equal attention to every aspect of your job without discriminating between the key tasks and those that are less important.
* You find yourself doing more of exactly those thing that you know, or have been told, are the least effective behaviors in your repertoire.  For example, you're starting to: analyze things to death; sell your bosses, subordinates, or customers too hard; back away form dealing directly with poor performers; or otherwise indulging what you know to be the flaws in your own style of working.
* Even though you're aware that these behaviors constitute poor management (of your lie as well as your work), you feel trapped.  .  You continue to slog along, feeling tired and anxious, but convinced that there is nothing that you can do about the pressures bearing down on you.  You tell yourself or others that "it comes with the territory" or "I'm only doing what I'm getting paid for," while ignoring hints from others that your effectiveness is falling off (Bramson, 1989, pp. 15-17)."

If most or all of these warning signs are showing up in your life, it's time to learn how to cope with overload.  The first step is to understand why it's happening.

Reference:  Bramson, R.M. (1989).  Coping with the fast track blues: a survival guide for your climb to the top.  New York: Doubleday.

Are you suffering from overload?

* Coping with the Fast Track Blues is available on loan at the OSU Leadership Center.  A listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~leaders

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Created: 2009-01-06, Updated: 2009-01-16