Corporate Communications can be a stressful and demanding job with competing priorities. Many professionals address the seemingly endless stream of tasks by putting in long hours to the detriment of a good work/life balance.
While long days will be necessary from time-to-time to be successful, thinking in terms of investments of your time can help you decide what needs after hours attention and what should wait. For me, there are three categories of tasks that I will sacrifice family time to accomplish.
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C-level requests – if you are interested in moving up at your current employer, investing time to satisfy requests from the C-suite makes sense. In larger companies this may also include individuals who don’t necessarily hold a C-level title but are critical to career growth (skip level managers, division leaders, etc.). These senior leaders are in a position to improve your career prospects and delivering high quality work on time is important to impressing them. Most good leaders will recognize when you have gone above and beyond in service of there goals and reward that diligence.
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Supporting global colleagues – if you work for a global company, investing in the well being of your colleagues by shifting your schedule to accommodate their normal work hours occasionally can pay dividends for you, especially if your success is dependent on them. They will pay back your investment by ensuring you get what you need to be successful. I also view this time shifting exercise as a way to trade for time I need during my regular business day to address personal matters that can’t be addressed after hours. Not all work days need to fit the classic 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. mode and good companies understand that dedicated employees will make appropriate trade-offs.
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Career enhancing projects – there are projects that will grow your experience that you may not be able to complete during the day because of they are too large or require a level of focus unattainable while dealing with daily tasks. I tend to think of these as resume builders – things I’ve never done before that will improve my future job prospects at my company or elsewhere. This shouldn’t be the 70th product release or the 200th tracking report or any other task you have mastered but projects that will increase your skills and make you marketable within or outside your company.
If you are consistently working late and the projects/tasks that you are being asked to tackle after hours don’t fall into these buckets, you need to have a conversation with your boss about properly resourcing your function or re-prioritizing your workload. A good manager doesn’t want to burn out their employees and should want to work with you to address the situation. A bad manager will insist that your continued overtime work is critical and, if they do, you need to start focusing on a change in role or a change in company. A leader who frequently demands an extra commitment is not going to value you and their callousness towards your well being won’t be fixed no matter how hard you work or how many successful projects you deliver for them.
What other tasks would you consider investments that warrant after hours commitment? Comment below.
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