Are You in the Red Zone?
How many hours a week are you spending at work? Is your 40 hour/week job actually costing you 60+? Are you or your co-workers rewarded according to the number of hours you spend in the office?
How about this one: are you self-employed? Work out of your home? Can't ever get away from work? If you're at all like me you can work anytime you have a computer and wireless internet... and that can be a dangerous thing.
Here's a suggestion: follow the lead of the Boston Consulting Group (one of Fortune Magazine's Top 10 companies to work for in 2007 ), a firm - which doesn't bill by the hour and explicitly states that hours don't figure in promotions - that launched a program called the Red Zone three years ago to spot and tame chronic overworkers. When a consultant averages more than 60 hours per week over any five weeks, he or she is flagged on reports seen by partners and managers. If the episode is found to be more than a temporary bump, a Career Development Committee sponsor is charged with finding ways to manage the hours down - by advising the staffer on time budgeting, extending the project timeline, or bringing in new resources.
"A hero at BCG is not someone whose light is on at 10 at night," says Kermit King, the firm's head of recruiting for the Americas. "The emphasis should be on productivity per hour, and I think there's a point where productivity diminishes."
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