Taking Care of Yourself

The various news media have all been talking about how the economy seems to be stabilizing and possibly turning around. They cite jobless claims and improved corporate earnings among many indicators that appear to point progress. Yet overall consumer confidence is down with the main reason being that most people are still highly worried about being laid off. Hence citizens across the United States are not spending their money.

Interestingly in my mind this makes sense and personally I hope that Americans have learned from the past and take steps to do things differently and hopefully better in the future. Many professionals that I speak with are still very frightened about their current positions. So much so that they are still putting in long hours and doing what their management is basically ordering them to do so that they can stay employed.

Among my peers many of the talented individuals are actually using the economy to either strike out on their own or move to other opportunities that they enjoy and that can help assist a company's bottom line. These same individuals find being ordered to do mindless tasks for no particular reason very offensive. Couple that with the long hours to do these tasks, it makes their dissatisfaction very high. Admittedly in lean times everyone should be prepared to expend a little more effort however that is really not the issue. For example, one really talented engineer who excels at back-end server engineering had been told by their manager that they would have to devote four hours of their day to fill out project plan forms. Now this would not be bad if it were their project, but instead they are for projects that are not even related to him nor his group and are essentially projects such as lease rollovers.  He has to do this work on top of his existing engineering tasks. Another example would be an enterprise architect being asked to fill out expense reports for managers who are not able to meet their filing dates per their director's request. If these requests were maybe one-offs to help out due to headcount reductions would be one thing, but in my opinion ordering valuable technical professionals to do excessive paperwork totally unrelated to their duties is a good way to drive them away.

On the other end, many of whom I would call average contributors are pretty much doing whatever they are told. As a consequence they work long hours, have high stress and have a lot of resentment. I have seen professionals working themselves so hard that they are skipping doctor appointments, their children's first soccer game or recital, their parent's funerals, etc. In at least two instances, the combined stress and fear have actually cost some people that I know their lives; one colleague succumbed to cancer due to postponing treatment because they were afraid of missing work and another died of complications due to a respitory illness aggravated by high levels of stress and lack of rest because of the long hours they were putting in due to their fear of losing their positions.

I have not seen any real decline of this unreasonable fear/reaction among either corporations nor colleagues. They are still very much concerned about their positions and being able to earn enough income for themselves and their families.

While it is true that these are trying times and many families are under tremendous stress it is important to understand that while this condition is temporary, it will last a while. So it is best to think of this as a marathon and to take things in moderation. Cut back where you can. Rest and relax because stress really affects how you feel, you think and how you approach problems. Be brave enough to push back when you are taking on too much. And finally individuals should take time to reflect upon what they are doing now and whether it is what they want to do. All too often I find many professionals in the technology field are performing tasks and functions that they do not enjoy and are not passionate about. Doing something you do not believe in or are not passionate about just makes work even more unpleasant in today's climate. 

If you take care of yourself and take the time to insure you are doing what you truly enjoy, then you will find that you will be happier with the work that you do.