Time Management
Proper research during a job search can result in fewer disgruntled employeesIn pursuit of happiness on the jobI've never been one to count the hours I put in at the office or working from home, and that's become an issue to those in my life from time to time. |
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 [ 2007-12-12 ] |
Sometimes it's my kids wondering when I'm going to stop working and start paying attention, at other times it's my partner wondering when I'm going to come home. It's quite obvious to those who know me that my life-work balance is often out of whack.
BALANCE
Both health and human resources experts will tell you that the lack of a good work-life balance is not good for you and it's not good in the long run for the company because it often leads to stress-related illnesses, burnout, exhaustion and other conditions, mental and physical.
And an ill employee is not a productive employee.
This is all pretty much common sense.
However, my company doesn't mandate my hours of work. In fact, the position I'm in requires me, technically, to only put in enough hours to complete on a daily basis the job for which I've been hired.
How many hours that takes and how efficient my use of time is comes down to my own time-management skills, the amount of work I choose to do and the amount of work I choose to delegate.
It seems, however, that there's a trend in other workplaces for employees to claim that they are made to work more hours than they are required and they're not compensated for those hours.
Most recently, Scotiabank was hit with a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit alleging years of unpaid overtime. This comes on the heels of a similar lawsuit filed against the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
However, lawyers involved in the Scotiabank case told The Canadian Press that more lawsuits against other companies are likely to be announced in the future.
"I think I can safely say that I will be very surprised if this is the last lawsuit of this type," said Douglas Elliott, who is a partner at Roy Elliott Kim O'Connor LLP, one of two law firms that filed the Scotiabank lawsuit in an Ontario court Monday.
"We're looking at all Canadian employers -- we're not excluding anyone."
While that might sound like the beginnings of a witch hunt, I don't doubt Elliott's sincerity and that he truly thinks his law firm is trying to help workers recover compensation that they believe has been unfairly kept from them.
What I don't understand is why all of this is coming to a head now -- or, really, ever at all.
Part of anyone's job search is to properly research the company with which you are trying to obtain employment. At least part of your research needs to be on the employer's work environment and management style.
This means that before you sign on to work at XYZ company, you need to talk to some people who work for the company or who have worked for it in the recent past. And the more people you talk to, the clearer your picture will be of how things are done and why they're done that way.
If you don't like what you hear, don't join the company.
DON'T WASTE TIME
If you don't do your research and you sign on only to find you don't like the workplace environment, then don't waste your time -- leave the job quickly and find an environment that's more suited to your lifestyle.
We spend a large portion of our lives at work and it's just not worth it to be unhappy while we're there.
Companies would also be wise to weed out those who aren't a good fit with the workplace environment sooner rather than later in order to keep staffing morale and production at elevated rates.
Remember, the first few months of most employment terms allow each party -- the employee and the employer -- to end the relationship without penalty to either side.
Maybe if we exercised that option more often, we'd have fewer disgruntled employees and more productive and happier staff members, no matter the workplace.
How many hours a week do you work?