How much do you work as PM?
The legal rules in Poland is to work 40hours a week.
I am asking this question as currently I am feeling I am reaching the workload peak.. I am very engaged and have emotional load to my projects so I do work overtime to make the ends meets but it is as well known that you cannot work like this for long.
PS. Especially now I became a father the 2nd time ;)
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
I living in Argentina, South America. I work for an US Company. I manage programs/projects with global scope. In South America forget about what is legal or not regarding the weekly work hours. The key is try to work smart, not hard. And it depends on your project management style. Beyond that, taken your comment, the worst thing you can do is engaging emotionally to projects. Just my opinion. Saving Changes...
Sounds like you are approaching an unsustainable pace at work given your personal commitments. PM roles can often be that way if we are spending time overcoming organizational impediments (e.g. bureaucratic standards or processes). But even when things are sufficiently lean, the large number of stakeholders we have to engage with can leave little time to get caught up on project administration - that is why I am optimistic than advances in machine learning and computer assisted project management will help to alleviate this burden so we can all work a more sustainable pace.
Remember, life is a marathon, not a sprint!
Kiron
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1 reply by Kavitha Gunasekaran
Nov 17, 2019 11:32 AM
Kavitha Gunasekaran
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The large number of stakeholders is the biggest concern for product-based organisations. Completely agree with you Kiron.
Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
My experiences have been, overall, that time spent fluctuates over time. There are time when we required to put in extra time or effort as specific needs arise. There are also times when the work is quite manageable allowing for more flex time. I cannot speak to any legal requirements when it comes to work hours, but there are certainly organizations out there that place high emphasis on work-life balance.
GL! Saving Changes...
Kavitha GunasekaranProject Manager| Aerospace & Defence OrganisationChennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Nov 17, 2019 9:39 AM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Lukasz -
Sounds like you are approaching an unsustainable pace at work given your personal commitments. PM roles can often be that way if we are spending time overcoming organizational impediments (e.g. bureaucratic standards or processes). But even when things are sufficiently lean, the large number of stakeholders we have to engage with can leave little time to get caught up on project administration - that is why I am optimistic than advances in machine learning and computer assisted project management will help to alleviate this burden so we can all work a more sustainable pace.
Remember, life is a marathon, not a sprint!
Kiron
The large number of stakeholders is the biggest concern for product-based organisations. Completely agree with you Kiron. Saving Changes...
Lukasz, consider that once you burn out, you may not be able to work at all. You need to balance the workload with future anticipation of your ability to handle that workload, and what it would mean to you if for example, your health deteriorated and you could not work at all, or at reduced hours. Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Lukasz
Interesting your question
Thanks for sharing
I have a friend who took over the division management of a large multinational company
In the final interview with the CEO this one told him:
- "We have great regard for the people in our company.
We know they have a family and social life beyond our company.
We also know that they have to rest (sleep at least 7 hours a day). If this does not happen your productivity will decline over the medium to long term and of course we do not want that to happen.
We make a big point that the working hours are from 8am to 5pm with an hour break for lunch "
This friend of mine, in time, started arriving at the company at 10 am and leaving at 7 pm, 8 pm and sometimes 9 pm (forcing everyone in his division to leave at the same time as him)
When the CEO learned what was going on he called this friend of mine and said to him:
- "If you need more than 8 hours a day to do your Division's work, it is because:
Either you can't manage your time or you can't delegate "
I ask you the following questions:
- Can you manage your time?
- Can you delegate? Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Lukasz,
Congratulations on #2!
You stated, “emotional load” in your question, which is where I’ll focus my attention. Most project manager positions are, by nature, stressful, and that exponentially increases when you have multiple projects running at the same time (which appears to me what you are implying). It can become a juggling act, at first, you are juggling bean bags (not so hard), then all of a sudden you need to introduce a spinning action as you are juggling bowling pins (difficult, but doable), then, “fight or flight” kicks in when the bowling pins transform into chain saws. ;)
Luis makes a good point that you should evaluate your toolset in the area of managing your time and delegating. I would second that and add that you should expand your vocabulary to the word “No,” meaning you are not taking on anymore load, else other activities and your well being will suffer. However, I know that even when you say the word “No” and “Delegate” and “Manage your time” well, that project life can catch up to you.
Needless to say, keeping an emotional balance is paramount as a project manager because, at some point, the stress eats into your personal life and health. I call this place the PIT (Project Induced Trauma), and it’s true not just as an acronym, but in its literal meaning – i.e., a hole in the ground with four sides and no escape ladder. Simply stated, you do NOT want to get to this point.
So, where am I going with this; I’m proposing that you consider aspects of “Mindfulness” in your practice. There are good webinars and articles on this subject on this platform. It’s simply a good approach for keeping yourself out of the project PIT, regardless of the circumstances project life or general life throws at you.
By the way, juggling is a great team-building exercise and a great stress reliever for project teams. I’ve used this approach and can tell you it works. Food for thought. Saving Changes...
The standard work week in many countries including the US is 40 hours. Some companies will expect a regular level of overtime, for example 5-10% to keep the staffing levels stable and avoid hiring contractors. Others try to keep OT to a minimum. I myself belong to a labor union that sets rules as to how much OT I can be required to work.
That being said, I sometimes work up to 70 hours for short periods when there is a big deadline. I am not told to do so. I explain to my boss that it is necessary to get the job done. One of the responsibilities of being a PM sometimes is that if you don't get your job done, everyone else grinds to a halt.
You can't sustain that level for long. People get sick, find other jobs, etc. if they burn out. What I often see with senior level PMs is that we sometimes voluntarily put in the extra hours when needed, and when things are moving at a slower pace, we get a lot of flexibility to manage our own schedules. If you are always putting in a high amount of OT however, you either need to figure out how to do more with less, or figure out how long you can keep up that level of effort before your stress level forces you to stop.
Another aspect to that is when you see people who are always dealing with one crisis after another requiring excessive hours, often they created the crisis. Had they planned better, they would not be working nights and weekends to overcome the problems they baked into the projects. Saving Changes...
TUSEEF AHMED KHANProject Engineer(Power Distribution)| Saudi Electricity Company Saudi arabiaKarachi, Pakistan
50% It depends upon type of your organization ,culture and wok environment.
50% depends on you how you tackle the situation and attitude Saving Changes...
Firstly, many congratulations Lukasz on your second child.
I have to agree to all being said, it is certainly a juggling act, however, as George rightly says, you do not want to get to the point where you are peering into that dreaded project PIT.
Do you have a solid team Lukasz or are team members taking advantage because they know you are emotionally tied to your projects, do you delegate, if not, why not, there is nothing more satisfying than bringing motivated individuals together as a team so long as there a common understanding of the teams purpose and responsibility. Are there new tools or apps within the organisation which could further assist you.
Remember, you are not alone on your projects, stand back, re-evaluate, what can be done to manage your work load better.
Enjoy your growing family, spend much needed quality time with them, you will be surprised just what a knock on effect a healthy family/work balance will have on your overall well being, you soon realise those 'catastrophic' issues at work, are not actually and can easily be addressed by X,Y,Z Saving Changes...
