When is enough enough?

One of the things I hear from coaching clients is how much work there is to do. They work long hours to get more done, but work keeps coming in like waves in the ocean - except most of them are dumpers. In case you are unfamiliar with that term, they are large waves that pick you up and churn you around until you are dumped on the shore with your swimmers full of sand.

However, we are currently witnessing a mindset struggling to change.

We hear about quiet quitting as a way people are reacting to being overworked. And there are those who are not quietly quitting, and they are quietly continuing and making themselves stressed and ill.

We hear about companies and their employees reaping the benefits of the four-day-week working 100-80-100 (100% of the work in 80% of the time for 100% remuneration).

We hear about companies that simplify their product range, services and processes and invest in having enough well-paid staff to do the work who are profitable and healthy.

The evidence is pretty clear that the price of overwork - financially, ethically and socially - is not worth paying. But we are struggling to grasp the way forward and for the most part, we stay in denial about different ways of working and are locked into the need to prove we can manage the unmanageable.