Don’t be a Martyr

I agree with the coming to work late if you need to stay late.

I think part of the issue is that the majority of SA professionals are over-achievers. They are used to multi-tasking so much and logging long hours that it has become the norm within the SA culture and in some ways (whether self-imposed or not) there is the unwritten rule that you're not doing your job well if you are saying no. I know I am guilty of this.

Working with college students, we've adopted a “10 a week 4-5 hour quadrant” schedule. Let me see if I can explain … Instead of having set hours from 8-5 and everything else being extra, we set our week by Quads, 10 total Quads of 4-5 hours that can fall anytime during the week. So each Sunday I look ahead and see what nights I need to be working and is there anything coming up on the weekend. If say I've got a Saturday morning training meeting from 8-12. Then I look during the week and take 1 Quadrant off somewhere else, say Tuesday I only work from 12-5 to compensate for the hours I'll be working Saturday morning. It helps our staff team to hold to a normal work week, while being flexible enough to work around student schedule. Also keeps us be accountable to not overworking so we can be at our best, rested and ready to go when we are meeting with students.

I know not all schedules are this flexible but I think it has freed our our staff team to operate at a much higher capacity rather than being overworked and tired all the time.

Alisha is that a CRU thing, or something unique to your staff?

I agree, and I think we burn ourselves out in the process. I work long hours because I love my job and what I am doing. Eventually it may catch up with us and we may have some burnout regardless of how much we love it.

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I agree with the coming to work late if you need to stay late.

I think part of the issue is that the majority of SA professionals are over-achievers. They are used to multi-tasking so much and logging long hours that it has become the norm within the SA culture and in some ways (whether self-imposed or not) there is the unwritten rule that you're not doing your job well if you are saying no. I know I am guilty of this.

Working with college students, we've adopted a “10 a week 4-5 hour quadrant” schedule. Let me see if I can explain … Instead of having set hours from 8-5 and everything else being extra, we set our week by Quads, 10 total Quads of 4-5 hours that can fall anytime during the week. So each Sunday I look ahead and see what nights I need to be working and is there anything coming up on the weekend. If say I've got a Saturday morning training meeting from 8-12. Then I look during the week and take 1 Quadrant off somewhere else, say Tuesday I only work from 12-5 to compensate for the hours I'll be working Saturday morning. It helps our staff team to hold to a normal work week, while being flexible enough to work around student schedule. Also keeps us be accountable to not overworking so we can be at our best, rested and ready to go when we are meeting with students.

I know not all schedules are this flexible but I think it has freed our our staff team to operate at a much higher capacity rather than being overworked and tired all the time.

Alisha is that a CRU thing, or something unique to your staff?

I agree, and I think we burn ourselves out in the process. I work long hours because I love my job and what I am doing. Eventually it may catch up with us and we may have some burnout regardless of how much we love it.