Rise and Shine

Less work equals more irrelevance

I wonder when I hear someone complain that he has too much work. Of course, in some cases it is really unbearable amount of work. In most cases, you would rather have too much work than too little work.

Look at how many companies have down-sized in the last few years, resulting in many staff losing jobs. It basically means that the company could not guarantee availability of much work needing all those staff. Yes, it may be about lack of money or revenue and so many issues but in the end they all mean that the work that has to be done is reduced.

This logically means that when you have more work to do, you need to smile. That guarantees your having the job tomorrow, next week and in the foreseeable future.

Have you seen people who worry because they have too little work to do at their workplace? Remember that during the economic crisis of America and Europe in the early 2000s, some employees, especially in Germany ,agreed to share jobs at half salaries each to save job losses?

Your situation may not be as dire. This is the time for you to be grateful that you have a job and work to do. Even in normal circumstances, aim to work hard. Be the busy one of the employees. When there is work that needs doing but no one wants to do it, go for it! The more work you do, the more relevant you become. Do not complain when more work comes your way. Be glad and rejoice as you embrace more work and more responsibility. That makes you more relevant and guarantees your job for tomorrow and next week.

When you have less work, be creative and find more work to do so that you can become more relevant. The less relevant you become, the more likely you will be on the top list of those to face the axe when down-sizing and other similar exercises come.

Of course, you should not just do work for the sake of doing it. Focus on work that has impact on the objectives and goals of your company or organisation. Always be mindful of where your organisation is going and the goals being chased. Make sure that there is a good link between your work and this direction and the priorities. Do not work in isolation or in a random fashion. Have a good order to your work.

You need to manage your workload so that you maintain the order. As you work hard and clear a lot of work, much more work will come your way. Remember that people like to assign work to busy people because they know that busy people get things done. Once you establish your reputation as a doer and result-oriented person, you will get more and more work. Be ready to have to manage the workload.

In this case, the prioritisation approach works best. List down all your activities and rank them in decreasing order of priority. Prioritisation must reflect the impact that each action has on the objectives of the organisation. Check and see which actions can be allocated to others—but make sure that you are able to follow through until closure. For the work that remains with you and ranked, start by clearing the high priority work and then go down the ranked actions.

When you clear your work and have less work to do, ask for more work. I get excited when some of the team members come to ask for more work to do. Be one of these rare people who are hungry to do more.

For sure when the day comes to promote some staff or to give big bonus and salary increase, your bosses should remember you vividly! Even if they forget you, keep going because the rewards may be delayed but will come your way.

This is the sure way to rise and shine. Good luck as you work to increase your relevance by doing more! n

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