"Pieces of one of my teeth fell out this week," a CEO told me. "I haven't had time to go to the dentist."
That quote may be the poster boy announcing what everybody knew: the impact of the rise of pressure and overload in today’s workplace. His teeth are falling out, and he cannot get that fixed because he’s too busy? Are we mad? Isn’t that the tipping point, my friends?
But the better question for business and government leaders is this: “What vital operating parts of your organization may be falling out due to today’s frenzied workplace?” And is anyone responsible for the success of the organization doing anything about pressure and its effect on your operation?
Runners up in the I’m Overwhelmed category of the American workplace abound: 12-hour workdays, doing the work of three people, spans of control that are out of control. (It is now routine, for example, for human resources representatives to be expected to handle the HR needs of 750 or 1,100, even 2,000 people. P.S. – there is no one to whom they can delegate.) A pharmaceutical executive sums up the now-too-familiar landscape: “My job feels like the perfect storm.”
The typical American employee is now quite aware of a pace and workload that has substantially cranked up since the 1990s. People have complained about the “rat race” for years – though the rats seem to be racing far faster, mentally and physically. Even Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, noted that with 10 percent fewer worker hours in 2009 (mostly due to labor force cutbacks), output of those remaining was up dramatically. It appears that employee panic over possibly losing one’s job may have cranked up the trend toward heavy workloads even further.