The Danger of Project Manager Burnout
Following 20 years at a large Canadian telecommunications firm, Bruce established the project management consulting firm Solutions Management Inc (SMI). Since 1999, he has provided contract project/program management services, been a source for project management support personnel and created/delivered courses to over 7,000 participants in Canada, the United States and England.
I made a huge mistake recently. I had the opportunity for an employer to share the cost of my laptop. I thought it was a good idea to centralize everything on one device, and because the laptop and the network I use is very secure, the employer was comfortable with having corporate emails and files on the same device as my personal files.
Not only was there a small financial benefit, but I thought it would be convenient. Now, all from one device, I can access emails related to that employer, as well as my various project management consulting work and even personal correspondences. My thinking was that I could simply open the laptop and focus on whatever was most important to me at that moment. Bad idea!
I use my laptop from the time I get up in the morning to read the news, to the end of the day when I am looking at whatever is important in that moment (it could be a personal email or entertainment). This isn’t to say I use it every moment of every day, but it is used a lot every day of the week. I indeed get the convenience I was looking for, but I created a difficult issue.
Email notifications from my various accounts pop up in the corner of the screen regardless of what I am doing. I could be happily wasting time watching a YouTube video about a funny subject and then find myself immediately drawn to a work issue. The next thing I know, I am rapidly typing a …
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"Impartial observers from other planets would consider ours an utterly bizarre enclave if it were populated by birds, defined as flying animals, that nevertheless rarely or never actually flew. They would also be perplexed if they encountered in our seas, lakes, rivers and ponds, creatures defined as swimmers that never did any swimming. But they would be even more surprised to encounter a species defined as a thinking animal if, in fact, the creature very rarely indulged in actual thinking." - Steve Allen |
