Problem of Overwork

Ask any person whether an Officer, Executive or Assistant in any organization or any establishment or an office he would say he is badly overworked. He is just unable to discharge even his social and familial obligations that emanate from expectations of his wife, children and other relatives surrounding him. He would elaborate his engagement with a range of expressions showing his helplessness to handle the situation born out of such overwork. He is often found to say he has no time to spend with his near and dear ones for reasons of workload and other official engagements. He is down with the workload heaped upon him by his boss or superiors.
While the complain of this sort is genuine given the design of prevailing work culture that leaves scope of being off the work shrinking day by day. Application for leave is frowned upon by the bosses. Demanding leave even under emergent circumstances is whiningly sanctioned by bosses who are by and large incompetent. The outcome of this approach is that employees tend to malinger and pose false reasons for getting their leave sanctioned.
But this is not problem of Overwork, it is something related to issues other than Overwork. The objective of the instant article is to explore various aspects of Overwork together with ways & means to handle them.
What is this Overwork? - Reasons and remedies
First of all it should be made clear that Overwork is not hardwork. Whereas hardwork is necessary for mental and physical requirements of the work for reasons of it being a tonic for health and longevity Overwork is simply tax upon our mental and physical wellbeing. It should be shunned by taking recourse to revisit our strategy of doing the task assigned.
Reasons for Overwork -
Overwork arises mainly due to poor organization of work and defective Time Budgeting. The result is that not only work executed remains incomplete and short of target on a continuing basis but it also causes a sense of frustration, worry and negativity in our psyche for obvious reasons. An Overworked personnel is never happy with the task he is assigned in contrast to a hardworking ones who takes the task as an opportunity to test one's potential and abilities.
1. Tips for organizing work.
A. Know and get hold the control key of the work you do.
Every assignment or work essentially has some control function. It is our duty to identify the control element of the task we are supposed to execute. So it is in the interest of efficient and effective execution of the task that we know where the control key of the work lies and if possible we must get hold of that key.
B. Analysis of work/work components and prioritizing them.
The work we do may appear upon analysis as routine, special, emergent or innovative or mixture of all. Accordingly should be our strategy of performing/executing it. While emergency work must be attended with top priority and fullest attention, the work of special nature should be carried under personal supervision. Routine work be given to the competent juniors who may do it under your guidance.
Thus learning prioritization is critical to efficient and effective execution of the work. This is where we mostly miss and end up creating a mess of things.
C. Proper Identification and training of people meant to assist us for the purpose of delegation
This is highly important for saving ourselves not only against Overwork but also important in respect of saving time for searching ways and means to do the work in hand innovatively.
One of the basic reasons of Overwork lies in our tendency to do all work by ourselves. We fail to delegate such work which could be performed by our subordinates. We do not want to empower even our capable subordinates by training them upon work of higher responsibility. We overlook the fact that effective delegation provides us bonus time to invest in creative/innovative work which require Higher Order Thinking Skill(HOTS). Meaningful delegation serves as an effective Time and Labour Saving Device.
So the people who have complain about their workload should learn to delegate his work to the extent such work happens to be routine in nature. They should be able to identify the routine component of the work they do for it to be delegated to their juniors having capability to perform.
Identification, selection and teaching/training of subordinates is a must for successful and effective delegation, otherwise we further create mess of things by entrusting some part of our work to juniors who are less than Competent or faithful or persons of doubtful integrity.
D. Don't be a luddite.
Generally we are found to love the way we have been doing as a matter of habit even though such ways and means of doing that work may have become time worn. We should remain updated with the latest update of the ways and means of the work that we do. It is always beneficial to try new methods of doing with making ourselves conversant with the latest technique and technology associated with the work in hand. Striking a balance of speed with accuracy is antidote to Overwork and completion related anxiety. Shedding archaic ways of doing help maintaining speed and accuracy expected from us.
2. Budgeting the Available Time we have.
As indicated earlier Overwork is often the outcome of poor time management. The saying 'Time is money' remains in our knowledge only, its importance is not heeded to be practised by those affected by malady of Overwork.
It is in everybody's knowledge that the day and night together has only 24 hours for all. But not all utilize it in their best interest for their mental and physical wellbeing. If we divide this period of 24 hours into a number of time slots and each time slot is so allocated to sub serve the Time Budget for the performance of our stipulated activities right from dawn to dusk, it goes a long way to protect us against Overwork. Besides, proper Time Budgeting has a regenerative effect upon our stamina and potential. Proper Time Budgeting helps us  plan for giving ourselves to recreational requirements and fulfilment of socialization needs of the individuals.
R.R.Prabhakar.
16.11.2019.