Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but has your job gotten even busier? Do you find yourself with an ever-increasing workload and a decreasing amount of time and resources to complete your tasks? Guess what – you’re not alone. Corporate America’s fascination with simultaneously maximizing profits while streamlining resources and staffing seems close to reaching a breaking point. Consider your own current role. Are you managing more tasks than ever before? Have the staffing levels risen to meet this challenge? Have you been provided with adequate resources to make up for these productivity gaps?
If you answered no to this last set of questions, we’ve got two follow-up questions of our own for you – just how much longer do you intend to put up with this situation? If you feel like you’re fast approaching a breaking point in what you can accomplish every day, what might your life look like if you directed that energy and effort to your own interests?
These considerations all sprung from a recent blog post, “The Expanding Job”, written by Anne Helen Petersen, author of a self-published newsletter, “Culture Study.” Petersen makes a compelling case that our overworked society has been heading in this direction for some time now – and the pandemic has only accelerated this problematic issue. Consider these points:
Under the guise of “corporate culture,” employees are encouraged to remain in constant contact with their jobs. After-hours emails, calls, texts, and messaging apps now call for 24/7 monitoring. Under the remote work guidelines, oversight was tightened – even though in most cases productivity actually increased! Is this what we signed up for from a job description that describes a “full-time employee” as someone who works 36 hours per week?
Employee burnout used to affect select professions, such as accounting. Now, it can be found regardless of the industry or business category. It’s become a primary driver of the Great Resignation – still going strong the last time we checked.
Not every employee is equipped to handle an ever-expanding job. Those with built-in support systems (resources and relationships not enjoyed by all) have an advantage over those without a safety net.
The blog ends with a warning shot for employees caught in this vicious cycle. If you can’t sustain these ever-expanding expectations, you need to start over for the sake of your health and sanity – damn the consequences. Or, as the blog so eloquently puts it, “The wreckage will come, one way or another.” If you find yourself in this situation, take stock of what you’re putting into your full-time job. Add up the hours, the stress, and the indignities. After tallying your results, if you’re so inclined, imagine what you could accomplish with these commitments for an entrepreneurial venture of your own.
If you currently feel “put upon” at work, with increased responsibilities and a pay grade that isn’t equal to your contributions, we’d like to hear from you. We are uniquely qualified to match your potential with the possibilities that come from small business ownership through franchising. All you have to do is let FranNet of DFW & Oklahoma be your guide. Our no-cost, no-obligation consultations have helped hundreds of entrepreneurs in North Texas and Oklahoma secure a future that belongs to them and them alone. If you’d like to get started on your own entrepreneurial journey, we’d love to introduce you to a whole new world of possibilities through franchise ownership.