As a working mom, your life does not revolve around work only. You need time and energy for other things such as running personal errands, meeting family and friends among others. If you work is denying you the time and energy for other things, the chances are you are working too much.
There are several ways of telling if your are working too much at the office. You will feel physically and mentally exhausted, burnt out and having a poor work life balance. Others signs that you are being overworked at office includes working over 50 hours per week, working without breaks, and neglecting yourself among others.
As such it is important that you balance the amount of work that you do at the office. You should avoid taking on too much tasks by changing jobs, working part time and having relevant work boundaries that limit that amount of work that your office can allocate you.
How too Much Office Work Affects you
Working too much has a lot of negative impacts on different aspects of your life. Some of the areas that overworking at the office can affect you include;
- Physical and mental health deteroriates
- Family and parenting duties are neglected
- Social life with friends and colleagues is abandoned
- Work productivity and performance is affected
Signs you are Taking Too Much Office Work
1. You Spend too much Time/Energy at the Office
In a standard job, the amount of work can be generally gauged by the number of hours and days worked per week. In a regular 5 days’ work, normally 40 hours is ok.
Sometime you can manage to occasionally do 50 hours per week. However, anything over 50 hours of work per week is too much for a mom and a sign that you are being overworked.
Also if you find that your report earlier that normal and leave later than normal, then you are taking on much work that expected. As such only report to work on the hours designated by your contract not only.
In addition you need a rest day. Rest is very crucial and everyone needs an off day to relax and re-energize. If you are not getting an off day at work, then you are working too much. If this is happening to you you need to evaluate if you need to check your work boundaries or change your career or employer.
Further you need breaks in between your shift. You need standard tea, and lunch breaks. You should be able to take other smaller breaks in between for bathroom, decompressing among other things. If you are not getting these breaks, then you are working too much and you may get burn out.
2. Your Work Performance is Negatively Affected
Poor performance is normally a result of fatigue and burnout. When you work too much, your body and mind reach a point where it can’t take anymore, which affects your focus, concentration, and ability to deliver your work.
You will therefore know that you may be taking too much work when you start performing poorly at work. When you notice a consistent drop in productivity , it is an indication that you need to take a break.
Read: How to Get a Positive Performance Review
3. You get Burnout/Fatigue
When you are overworked and always tired, you may reach burnout. Burnout is a state of constant tiredness and exhaustion. It is not only physical; but also mental and emotional.
One of the common reason for burnout among working moms is unrealistic work demands. Because of constant work demands you can get overwhelmed, and emotionally drained. As such when you are fatigued, it point to overworking and you need a break.
Read: How to Avoid Burnout and Recover Fatigue
4. You Develop Health Complications
If you notice that your health starts deteriorating you need to evaluate if the reason could be working too much. In most cases, working too much will start affecting your health. Some health complications include stress, migraines, etc.
You may notice some feeding and sleeping problems too. For moms who work on computers, your eyes may start hurting from using the computer screen for long stretches. When you notice this, it is time to take a break and adjust your work hours.
5. Your Family Relationship is Affected
Working too much will also imbalance your relations outside work because it takes away most of your time. As a result, you have minimal time to spend with your children and spouse and therefore your relationships deteriorates.
When you notice that your work is adversely affecting your relationship with your spouse and your children, you are working too much and need to adjust. You are worn out and exhausted for family such as dinner or playtime with the kids.
Read: Preventing Work Calls During Maternity Leave
6. Your Social Relations Are Affected
Similar to your family relations, poor social relations will indicate over working. Because you are working too much, you have no time to spend with your friends . You start neglecting your social circle both within and outside work. You, therefore, lose touch with them and the relationship deteriorates.
Further working too much is bound to make you more irritable and hard to relate to. You will then find that you are relating poorly with coworkers at work. When you start noticing these effects, it is time to reduce your work commitment because social relationships are important for your overall well-being.
Read: How to Have a Social Life while Still Working Full-time
7. You Neglect Yourself
As a working mum, you need time for self-care activities such as grooming, “me-time”, spiritual time, learning and development, hobby time, etc. You also need time for proper feeding and exercise for yourself. If you lack the time for all this due to work, then you are over-working.
If you start noticing that you have no time to eat, exercise, do a hobby, groom, etc., it shows an imbalance on time and you need to cut down on work.
Read: How to Create a Self-care Plan
How to Avoid Working Too Much/Reduce Office Hours
Working too much affects you mentally, physically, & emotionally as well your loved ones. You definitely should not continue working like this and must choose a way out.
If you feel you are being overworked and working too much at the office, you can do the following;
1. Adjust your Work Hours
You need to adjust the time and amount of work that you are engaged in. You can reduce the amount of time or hours you are working per day or week by requesting for part time instead of full time. Full-time jobs tend to need more time and energy than part-time jobs.
Also if you are working multiple jobs, quit the second job toe ensure you have adequate time out of work.
Read: How to Set and Enforce Work Boundaries
2. Find Flexible Employers/Careers
If your find that your employer is the major reason behind you having too much office work, then you should consider switching jobs/employer. You can effectively reduce the hours you are committed for work by choosing a job that helps you sustain your hobbies and goals but maintain a balanced lifestyle.
Choose a mom friendly job and less intensive and involving job such as administrative work or office work. Avoid jobs that require longer hours of shift stretch such as firefighters, nurses, and doctors among others.
Read: Best Mom Friendly Jobs and Careers
3. Have Work boundaries
You need to have work boundaries that your employers and colleagues should follow. For instance
- Do not work past office hours
- Do not work on tasks beyond your job description. Work only jobs aligned with your capabilities.
- Do not carry work home
- Do not work when you are supposed to be resting etc.
- Demand compensation for extra work/hours at the office such as overtime
All these boundaries will instill discipline over what time you should be working and not working to avoid getting overworked. By doing this, you will cut on the extra hours that you are engaged with work.
Read: How to go From Full Time to Part Time
4. Quit And Start Your Own Business
Another option for you is to quit their job and start your own businesses. As a mom this will give you the independence and freedom of the amount of work that you will need to put in.
Therefore it will allow you to adjust your work for manageable hours to achieve that much-needed work-life balance.
Related Articles
How Much Work Travel is too Much
How to Easily get a Positive Performance Review
