How to handle work pressure?
How to effectively manage work pressure while dealing with health issues? I have taken steps to reduce my work velocity in order to prioritize my health, which was agreed upon with my manager.
However, one of the leads continues to place significant work pressure on me, despite my direct communication about the situation. It is disheartening to experience this situation, especially considering that I received a top rating after my first year at the company. Is it common to encounter such challenges in enterprise companies, even as a high-performing employee? Unfortunately, the senior leadership team has not taken sufficient actions to address this problem.
Additionally, as I am currently on a visa, changing jobs or switching teams is not an option for me at this point. I would greatly appreciate any guidance on how to handle this situation effectively.
Discussion
(2 comments)- 1a year agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
I'm sorry to hear about your health issues and current situation overall - Wishing you the best 🙏
In general, you always want to get the extract maximum value (i.e. land the most impact) per unit of time spent, healthy or not. This issue naturally becomes more important over time due to the following reasons:
- People tend to acquire more life responsibilities as they age.
- Promotions become harder, especially when going from senior -> staff. You need to figure out a way to 2x your impact (or more) while having the same 8 hours per day (or less).
At a high-level, I recommend these strategies:
- Ruthlessly prioritize
- Delegate to others
- Build a strong flow state and aggressively organize work into focus-blocks
- Skip as many meetings as you can
- Think proactively to minimize time loss from reactive thrash
We dive deep into all those topics here: [Taro Top 10] Time Management And Productivity
- 2a year agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
However, one of the leads continues to place significant work pressure on me, despite my direct communication about the situation.
If you have an agreement with your manager to more your workload more relaxed, then you should escalate this to them. This sort of shielding is a core part of what makes an effective manager.
This is an example of a crucial conversation that feels scary/awkward to have but is absolutely necessary. I made a course around how to better address them here: Alex's Guide To Effective Communication
