How to get stuff done without running yourself ragged

Photos / Tim Greenway Nancy Marshall, left, and Ann Leamon are regular contributors to Mainebiz.

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By Ann Leamon and Nancy Marshall

Never tell us the universe is humorless: the very week our column about the importance of vacations was published, we saw companies advertising their brutal work schedules.

The Wall Street Journal profiled corporations seeking workers who will embrace long hours, high stress and a fiercely competitive environment, whether as a product manager who can “keep up an unrelenting pace” or a senior engineer eager to work 70-hour weeks in person.

An estimated 16% more meetings occurred after 8 p.m. this year than last, Microsoft research shows. With the current economic uncertainty, contractions in headcount and longer time for job searches, corporations are now in the driver’s seat when it comes to hiring and productivity expectations.

With 24/7 access to employees via email, text, Slack and other communications methods, employers sometimes take advantage of employees’ availability. Some employees establish "boundaries," some quietly quit their jobs and do other things while still taking a paycheck and some work like dogs to keep up with hopes of getting ahead.

Does this make sense from the perspective of holistic, creative management and productivity? Sergey Brinn of Google claims that working 60 hours a week is the “sweet spot of productivity.” While we’re hardly the founders of multi-billion dollar companies, we beg to differ.

Research shows that productivity drops after 50 hours per week, and “falls off a cliff” after 55 hours. As women who started work in the 1980s, at a time when women had to prove themselves in the workplace, we’ve both felt the exhaustion that sets in when you’re trying to meet impossible deadlines or expectations.

One company in the WSJ article boasted of the chief engineer who slept in his office for 10 days. We would question the quality of that end product. The engineer shouldn’t have to do that. Someone’s priorities were off — why was the company so thinly staffed?

What does this mean functionally, though? Should you aim for brutality? Or should you try to create the sort of work culture that you’d like to have, yourself? But if you want to do the latter, how do you handle the occasional rush job, the crazy deadline or the “all hands-on deck” delivery?

Work culture vs. balance

If you’ve been running your own business as long as we have, you probably agree that your salaried employees should expect to work as long as necessary to get the work done. It shouldn’t be a steady diet of 10- and 12-hour days. But a few will always occur. After the crisis is met, though, they should be over.

Even before Ann started her company, there were situations when she had to miss a personal milestone and unexpectedly travel to a meeting in London or Canada. She didn’t like doing it but it was part of her job. She also worked through various holidays due to project deadlines, demonstrating to the team that she was on their side (and proofing the reports that went out).

Nancy started her career in PR at Sugarloaf. In her first year, she asked if she would have Thanksgiving Day off, and she was told that she worked in a resort now, so there would be no holidays off. She had not been told that in the job interview, so this was somewhat of a shock. She ended up getting Thanksgiving afternoon off, giving her enough time to drive the 1.5 hours to her parents’ home to celebrate with her family.

Teamwork works

A big part of dealing with work crises and creating a culture is teamwork. Team members need to feel they’re not alone. Perhaps the manager isn’t in the office, but knowing they’re available, at the end of the Slack or a phone call, provides a sense of support. Who wants to feel that they’re nailed to the desk while the boss is at a cook-out? Remember, if the team wasn’t there, you’d be doing the work yourself.

As with everything, the work culture at your office needs to be balanced. Yes, you need to hustle and meet deadlines. But you shouldn’t have to sleep there most nights or work every weekend. That’s not just due to cultural humanity, but to retain creativity and productivity.

We can sustain almost anything for a short period. When one of Ann’s staff came into her office in tears due to a difficult project, she did two things. First, she problem-solved with him to reallocate the work across the rest of the staff. Second, she assured him that this would not be the tenor of the rest of his time with the company. To acknowledge his work, she allocated him compensatory time off. He felt heard and supported and the client received their project on time.

Identify bottlenecks

Some companies pride themselves on their brutal schedules. Some workers pride themselves on their toughness and ability to endure such situations. Junior employees at Goldman Sachs rarely have two days off in a row over their first two years. To them, we say, “Congratulations! Enjoy!”

That’s not the culture we want or value. No one will want their gravestone to say, “I wish I’d spent more time in the office.”

If you find your team is working a brutal schedule, you’re likely short-changing them to line your own pockets. Identify the bottleneck and hire another person. You’ll have better quality output, which will delight your customers, and your team will have a better life. So, probably, will you.

About the authors

Nancy Marshall, a regular Mainebiz columnist, is CEO of Marshall Communications.

Ann Leamon is a freelance writer and co-founder of Bella Private Markets.

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