We all have different work sitautions. Some of us work for someone else in the form of a job or even as a consultant or in some temporary basis. Others work for themselves completely. You may be part of a team working for someone else or may have your own team. You may be working in someone else’s team and have your own team as well at the same time. Either way, at some point in your life you will either have had a team or been the manager of the team to some extent. As the manager, you need to understand the individual members on your team and what they can handle. This means knowing their strengths and weaknesses as well as the the level of workload they can handle. While not only on the individual level, you need to also ensure that there is enough people on the team to carry the workload and also in more rare cases, not too many people on the team to waste time and efficiency as well. It is also possible to have an unbalanced work load on the team Here are five reasons scheduling your team is detrimental.
- Overscheduled team members get overwhelmed. This one is the most obvious. Anyone who is overwhelmed automatically is more concerned with how they are going to get everything done and how stressed they are more than actually getting things done. Everyone reacts to stress and overwhelm differently, but it’s never a positive experience for the team member or anyone else around them
- Overscheduled team members can spread negativity. Someone who is stressed out and is working with other people will tell them that they are stressed. This can have serious consequences on the team morale, not to mention make your job as the team leader more difficult as well.
- Overscheduling your team can lower morale. Everyone will react differently, but overscheduling or placing too many demands on the team, especially for an extended period of time can lower morale. I know from personal experienced when working in jobs where everyone who is overworked is usually not a happy place. This is still the case, even the employees are paid enough.
- Overscheduled teams have more tension. There is more tension when everyone is stressed and trying to meet deadlines. This leads to all kinds of potential problems, that go beyond people getting stressed or overwhelmed. This can also result in tensions within the team and all kinds of other factors like arguing, bickering, and finger pointing. This can result especially if there is pressure on the team and there are mistakes being made.
- Overscheduling your team comes from a mindset of overscheduling yourself. One thing to remember if you do have a team and you are the owner or the manager, is that you have a higher stake in the results than they do. You cannot have the same expectations on them as you do them. If you are the owner, you are going to have more on your mind than they do and you should, since you take the profits rather than just a paycheck. If you are the manager, you are taking a bigger paycheck than the team members most likely. Also, beware that if you have a habit of overscheduling yourself, the same things can trickle down to your team even if they are not themselves. They can pick up on your vibe of always rushing to get something done.
Just like anything else, there is a balance to finding the best way to manage your team. There are many factors outside of just making sure they are not overwhelmed. There are times where the workload is just that much or the funds or too short to keep enough on the team. This should be the exception rather than the rule. I have personally seen environments where everyone is overworked for whatever reason and the turnover was high. When it is a year or more of being overworked, people typically get more upset and less patient, but just as I said earlier, everyone is different. Some people are not as concerned with being overworked as other aspects. This is not a science and is definitely very situational