Why are most teams complaining about overload?

One of the other days, I talked to some of my “corporate” and “non-corporate” friends. Some work in large corporations while others in small startups or small yet established businesses and they were all complaining that the teams they are part of are under-sized for the task they need to do.

They felt that they had 120%-140% load and no matter how much they “shovelled” they just did not see the end of it. When I told them that this is “expected behaviour” (attention not normal but expected) they gasped and called me crazy.

The first case I saw of someone being overworked was in my first job and it was someone from new products introduction who handled all the planning for the logistics for new limited series products. That person came in at 7AM and left at 9 PM because the cleaning lady sent him home. I never understood why such an effort from a person is needed however I do understand today that there are periods in your life where you may feel the need to fill one’s time with something…but that’s a story for another time.

Years later I experienced the same cringing overload that was simply suffocating. It just draws you in and if it catches you at an age where you feel like if you can do it, then do it. It is not how I feel today as this kind of sustained effort leads to burnout and to bad quality and that is about it.

Bottom line, out of the things you have on your plate, you can only deliver about 80% in high quality and 100% with medium quality. Over 100% with low to really low quality.

Some people that are “seniors” know what is mandatory and needs to be done and they do that first with high quality no matter the peer pressure and the rest they just request extended deadlines. Those are the people that help drive the business forward.

So, yes, it is natural (not saying it is ok) for businesses to direct more work than the teams can deliver towards them but here is where prioritisation needs to take place. Managers or directly individual contributors need to say no — whomever is the real “senior” will do so. That is why putting weak managers that only say “yes” in charge really suffocates a team as it moves one layer down what needs to be said one layer up.

So, next time you feel suffocated, send your manager to read this article.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.