It’s one thing to have a fun place to work at but it’s another thing if you spend too much time working to the point that you’re labelled a workaholic (and worse still if you’re proud of it!). Work is work, there’s always tomorrow to finish what you started today. The Coolbert Principle believes it’s important to establish a balance between work time and personal time. How are you going to maintain your cool, calm and collected way to the top if you’re liable to kick the bucket halfway on your path through stress from overwork?
Just recently, a fellow manager peer of mine was admitted into the hospital for angina attack. You would think that it couldn’t happen to him, as he is in his late-20’s, married with kids, physically slim and leads a comfortable life. It couldn’t, but it did. He has not spoken on what may have caused the angina attack but I suspect it could be due to too much rich seafood added to the work-centric way he goes about in his profession.
I guess he didn’t quite get his personal and professional balance right in his busy life. It is easy to mislead ourselves into thinking that our bodies can cope with an unrelenting schedule and irregular meals. Our egos would like us to think we’re indestructible, but clearly we’re not.
Bill Lee-Emery, a work-life balance coach, wrote:
The Japanese have a word for it: ‘karoshi’ which means ‘death by overwork’ when workers succumb to long hours, high stress with no let-up. In fact, 10,000 Japanese workers a year die from karoshi.
However, it seems it is not the hard work that kills; it is the continuous and relentless pressure without adequate recovery time that poses the danger.
If your job is getting you down, check the hours you spend in the office. Research shows that a tendency to work late is likely to make people sick, suffer a work-related injury or illness, or just literally stress themselves to death. Other symptoms of too much stress may include overeating, sleeping disorder and lethargy.
I’m on my way to the top, and I’m still committed to doing it the cool, calm and collected way. I try to get my work done efficiently by setting up systems for doing regular periodic work, which frees me up to attend to ad-hoc matters that may arise. Same goes for my staffs too.
I always encourage my staffs to go home whenever they have finished their work because I do the same too. No point hanging around just so they can ’show’ how hard working they are. I know of some people who purposely hang around until a certain hour just to imply that they’re hard at work, and I also know of some bosses who encourage such behaviours. Sorry, no cookie points for doing this, okay?
Regardless of the work you have, if you’re supposed to go home, then GO HOME! Your wife and kids will be more than happy to see you often; can’t say the same about your boss though.
I do not know of anyone who, on their deathbed, would wish to spend another extra day at the office instead of being with their loved ones. Do you?
