Are you working too much?
This week in the press there’s been prominent attention on the case of Sally Rugg, Chief of Staff to Dr Monique Ryan MP, Federal Member for Kooyong. Ms Rugg is pursuing legal action, claiming that the salary she was paid was not adequate compensation for the hours she was expected to work.
Lawyers for Ms Rugg have said that she ‘was working 70-plus hours most weeks and most weekends. A salary of $130,000-ish, with a top-up of about $30,000 doesn’t justify a person working 80 hours week in, week out.’
I don’t intend to comment on an ongoing legal case, which is now set to go to trial, but much will depend on what the court determines to be ‘reasonable’ in this case. Lawyer Josh Bornstein remarked that it could have ‘far-reaching ramifications for all Australians who work in industries where long hours are expected and normalised.’
Reflecting on this case prompts me to ask whether long hours are normalised in your industry or in your workplace? Are you routinely expected to work significant extra hours? Will it be frowned upon if you leave on time when everyone else is staying back late?
Take a moment to reflect on your own working arrangements and how reasonable you think they are. Of course, sometimes the most onerous expectations are not imposed by others, but are those that we impose upon ourselves. Working significant additional hours should be the exception, not the expectation.
How we set boundaries in our professional and personal lives has a big impact on our energy and our ability to do our best work. If you let your work continually overrun your personal time and space, in the long-term this will negatively impact your health, your work performance and your overall career success.
Setting and maintaining boundaries is one of the most common challenges for the leaders that I coach. It’s an ongoing challenge to set and re-set your boundaries, as both work and personal responsibilities evolve. It’s easy to let a ‘one-off’ turn into a regular occurrence, which can be detrimental to yourself, your team and your family.
Setting boundaries is just one aspect of how we manage our energy and support ourselves to do our best work. If you’d like to explore these further, I’ve put together a short assessment to help you determine the areas where you might need to make changes.
My Personal Energy Scorecard is free and takes less than two minutes to complete.
It will give you an indicator of how you’re going and some easy tips you can implement now to boost and sustain your energy levels.
You can take the scorecard here:
