How to show passion and motivation at workplace without working out of hours?

Question

Most German corporations are now banning out-of-hours work, with government regulations stepping in to tighten these measures in order to improve work-life balance in the country... I don't know if other countries like USA and UK will ever follow suit, but until then it seems that most employers in the English-speaking world equate "going the extra mile" with also working out of hours.

I am in a situation where - for a number of reasons I don't want to elaborate - it is getting unsustainable and energy-draining for me to work too long, and while I was one of the best employees of my company (junior manager level, promoted twice within the company), I think the only way for me to regain my balance is to work 9-5 and completely switch off from any work after that.

The question is: how can I do so without appearing as less passionate and motivated than I used to be? As an individual contributor I sometimes worked 9 to 10 pm for entire months. That may have also contributed to my promotions.

My employer generally has no rules set in stone about working hours as long as we deliver and are productive, but I fear there might be unwritten political rules in the Anglophone corporate mentality that determine progression and promotion.

My direct supervisors/line manager would not mind because he is rarely in the office anyway, but my concern is more about perception by other coworkers, my own reports and other superiors I work together with as a team but whom I don't report to (For example, there is one influential colleague who apparently has been asking why I am leaving "so early" recently. He is not my manager, but he has good connections...).

I am genuinely motivated in my work but I simply have more things in my other areas of life. I also think that my perception of exhaustion is making me less productive at work.

Answer 1

The way I see it is that you should get your job done within the regular 9-5 working hours. If you regularly have to work more hours (I'm not saying the occasional spike due to deadlines), then for me it means that there's something wrong; specifically, either (a) there's something wrong with management, because they are assigning more work than you can reasonably handle in the normal working hours, or (b) you are underperforming, and not delivering as much as you should. (Don't take (b) personally... I'm writing in general here. When I say 'you' I mean any employee in the world.)

As far as I can tell, doing a lot of extra hours actually lowers productivity. It increases a lot of stress and exhaustion (as you seem to be realising) so it's a lose-lose situation (for you and for the company). It's better to go home, relax, get a good night's sleep, and come back refreshed in the morning. It goes a long way when you feel fresh enough to think clearly.

I don't know what your company culture is vis-a-vis extra hours, but in doing a lot of extra hours earlier on, you have now placed yourself in a situation where it is difficult to stop doing them (or your productivity will appear to be visibly lower). There are different ways you can deal with this, such as having a chat with your superiors (who may take it differently depending on their nature and character). What I think I would do would be to gradually decrease my working hours over a period of time, so that the decrease in productivity is distributed over that period of time and does not cause any sudden changes that your superiors might not like.

Answer 2

I don't know your corporate culture -- but in the one I'm used to, folks are judged by what they accomplish, not which hours they accomplish it in. If you can be highly productive, highly innovative, a good organizer and team leader and team educator, and so on... management will notice.

If you're concerned, I agree with others that the right answer is to ask your manager what you need to do to earn your next promotion. That will probably involve a discussion of what direction you want your career to go in over the longer term. (Not everyone wants to eventually become a manager, and some companies are starting to realize this and have long-term technical tracks.)

Answer 3

You are right that many companies equate overtime with dedication, and they reward that with promotions and raises. Shifts are beginning to happen in some companies, as employee engagement and retention are moving to the forefront of business conversation, and it is employees such as yourself that are driving this concern, particularly as the gap between top level execs and entry level employees has grown astronomical.

What's happening recently is that people like yourself are starting to leave companies that reward this kind of imbalance for companies that understand the need for balance. Such companies are being honored as great places to work, and working for one of these great companies is something employees brag about. In investment circles, these companies are being touted at great investments because happy employees drive innovation and productivity.

This is a slow movement, and we have a LONG way to go. You may find there is no way to compete with overtimers in your particular organization unless you also are prepared to work overtime. Some thoughts:

• talk to your manager. Ask what is expected if you are hoping for raises or promotions.
• if you are hoping for promotions, demonstrate leadership/management skills. Read leadership/management books.
• make sure people notice what you are doing - quick emails perhaps as you complete steps, especially if you can tie it to a question so you are not wasting people's time ("Task X is almost finished, and I was thinking we might reprioritize task Z over Y because of... Any thoughts?")
• consider other organizations that are friendlier to their employees.

Answer 4

I've recently found myself in a very similar situation. I work in the UK and we don't have any such laws introducing, but due to a project being significantly misrepresented by a client and then under quoted by us for 9 months I was working long hours almost constantly. It led to high levels of stress and lower productivity per hour, but was necessary to complete the work.

Luckily things have now quietened down and I'm working more sensible hours again, 9 - 5 with the occasional overtime. As I work for a small company I report directly to the owners of the company. One thing I found very helpful was to keep a log of exactly what I was doing in my overtime, that way my employers knew what I was doing during my working time, and what was extra. So when things returned to normal hours with less overtime they already knew what to expect in terms of output from me.

As you've already done the overtime for a long period of time this is difficult to do retrospectively so what I recommend you do instead is keep a log for a few days of what you are doing during your normal office hours. It doesn't need to be an exact minute to minute log, but a general overview of how you break your day down. You can then show your manager this as a general representative of what they can expect from you during normal office hours. Explain that you've been working a lot longer, in some cases almost twice as long as the normal day over a significant period of time, which is why you've been able to produce so much more output.

If you have a reasonable manager then they will be impressed with your contribution and the overtime you've put in, but will tell you to stop putting in so much as you'll burn out, which from your post it seems you are. No one can keep up that level of work for ever. If they don't then you can explain that you can't keep up that level of work and you can point to the new laws coming in that you won't be able to produce that level of work any more. Your manager is then aware of how much you have been doing and what to expect of you from now on.

In summary:

1. Keep a log for a couple of days showing a break down of your daily output. Only include work for normal office hours.
2. Have a meeting with your manager and explain to him the situation that you've been working such long hours over the last few months. Show him your log and explain this is what you normally do during office hours, anything extra over the last months has been overtime.
3. Explain that you cannot keep putting in so many hours, both due to the new laws coming in and your own health / other reasons. Tell him you're worried about the impact the reduced work coming from you may look like to him.