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On a personal level, we also have to remember to say "No, I can't stay late tonight, I have things to do." or "I had to work a double shift yesterday, so no I a

On a personal level, we also have to remember to say "No, I can't stay late tonight, I have things to do." or "I had to work a double shift yesterday, so no I am not going to be in first thing in the morning." and so on. When we're young and don't have any clout, it's really hard (and scary) to do that. Which is exactly why those of us who are older and have the experience and acceptance to do so really need to normalize it. To make it clear that that is ok. I'm extremely lucky because my company has a culture where people can, and routinely do, say things like "My brain's fried. I can't do anything else productive today so I'm leaving early." or "I didn't sleep well, so I'll be late today and I'll make it up later." And people ask for help almost every day. And we watch out for when someone's stressed and do not pile more things on them. Everyone agrees that none of us wants somebody just adding bugs because they're too overwhelmed, and then wasting time afterward reverting and fixing them. That's not productive. I know, that is rare. It requires everyone involved to create that culture of acceptance and assistance. Management alone can't do it, but also, if all the employees are doing it, they can't stop it. It's a duty of all of us senior employees to set the right example.

wildrhythms 3y ago
+100 to this, any time I get an 'emergency request' coming in like that I flat out tell them this is not going to happen, I can't do it given the time constraint. I didn't used to do that, but I got burned too many times and it hurt my mental health scrambling to meet someone else's fabricated, and usually self-inflicted deadline. My well-being is so much more important than somebody else's lack of planning. My usual strategy for dealing with this is saying "Sorry, I can't help given the time constraint. Since it's an emergency maybe we should bring this to the attention of <relevant manager 2 levels up>?" and magically the 'emergency' goes away and I never hear about it again.
earthling8118 3y ago
I wish I was fortunate enough to work at such a place. When I'm given the ability to make those kinds of decisions for myself, I can get some serious work done. However, not many of my jobs have allowed for that. I've even been let go from a job that demanded so much of my time that I did nothing but work and doordash food supposedly because I wasn't putting in the amount of time they wanted. This industry has completely alienated me to it. I loathe the grueling hours and the job search.

wildrhythms 3y ago

+100 to this, any time I get an 'emergency request' coming in like that I flat out tell them this is not going to happen, I can't do it given the time constraint. I didn't used to do that, but I got burned too many times and it hurt my mental health scrambling to meet someone else's fabricated, and usually self-inflicted deadline. My well-being is so much more important than somebody else's lack of planning. My usual strategy for dealing with this is saying "Sorry, I can't help given the time constraint. Since it's an emergency maybe we should bring this to the attention of <relevant manager 2 levels up>?" and magically the 'emergency' goes away and I never hear about it again.

earthling8118 3y ago

I wish I was fortunate enough to work at such a place. When I'm given the ability to make those kinds of decisions for myself, I can get some serious work done. However, not many of my jobs have allowed for that. I've even been let go from a job that demanded so much of my time that I did nothing but work and doordash food supposedly because I wasn't putting in the amount of time they wanted. This industry has completely alienated me to it. I loathe the grueling hours and the job search.