4 Signs You Are Working Too Hard Than You Should

Are you working too hard in your job? Here are 4 signs that you are

By Selipha Kihagi

About 2 weeks ago I crossed paths with an old friend of mine. We met up for coffee to catch up and from the conversation we had, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was working too hard than is necessary. He is the head of accounting at a top organization and has loved his job for years – one thing most people cannot relate to.   The problem though, is that work seemed to be the only steady conversation I could get out of him. When it came to family, friends and personal life, there was not much of an update. Find out in this post if your job is giving you a reason to stay.

This made me wonder how many more people are living but not actually living at all; the people working too hard in their jobs without taking a break. I understand that most people operate under the notion that they will work continuously for a certain couple of years, and then take time to rest. But this hardly ever happens. Two years turn to four, and by the time you are realizing the negative effects of working too hard, it’s already too late and despite the outer success, everything else seems to be falling apart.

So, how do you know if you are working too hard than is necessary?

On most occasions, working too hard and never taking a break is never a direct correlation to being successful. Big ideas are hardly brought up in boardrooms or in late night office meetings. No! Most ideas are the ones randomly formed when someone is napping or sitting on a rock at the top of the mountain, or beach if you are not a heights person. So why are you still insisting on working too hard? Or maybe it’s because you don’t realize it.

Signs you are working too hard than you should

1. You never have time for your child’s sports day

Are you always turning down your child when they want you to come to their school or that family get-together because you need to work? When it is okay to take work home after working hours or work a little extra to finish an important project, forgetting the last time you hanged out with your family and friends should be a wake-up call.

You don’t have to be a social frenzy to prove that you are not working too hard. You can take a break every now and then to enjoy great moments like your child’s baptism, sports day, school play or those little moments with your family that you can never take back.

2. You are almost impossible to please and hardly play nice

If you have a tendency to snap when you think your food as not dry enough or too wet enough, your drinking water not being warm or cold enough or your hotel not being good enough, you may want to check yourself. Telling people “I like things a certain way” without actualizing how exactly you want them done and never saying thank you to waiters or attendants should be a sign that you have bigger issues than you realize.

Sometimes this is usually a result of too much accumulated stress from something at work that every little thing around you becomes a nuisance. Take a few steps back from your work and allow your mind to relax; you might end up realizing that the food was alright all along or that you didn’t have to snap at the waiter for it. Your issue is probably with your job. This post here shares signs that you are in the right job.

3. Your Co-workers cringe at the thought of working with you

How well do you relate with your colleagues at work? Do they enjoy brainstorming ideas with you or are they always looking for every reason not to work with you? When you are working too hard, you hardly realize the work relationships that you break away along the way and will always blame your colleagues for not working as hard. This kind of attitude becomes the reason most of your colleagues avoid you, and since you have been working too hard you may never realize it.

If you feel you may be a victim or feel that your colleagues don’t work hard enough, it may be time to check yourself. Chances are the fact that you are working too hard is pushing everyone away from you.  And like mentioned earlier, there is no correlation between working too hard without breaks and great success. Only in knowing when to work and when to take a mind break will you achieve maximum results.

4. You almost never put your phone down

Do you always consider a work call as important even when you are having a birthday or anniversary dinner with your spouse? Do you step out of church or an important gathering to pick up that work call? If you do, then yes, you are working too hard than is healthy for you.

Some successful people have mastered the art of differentiating between working time and personal time. You will find that during office hours they never answer personal calls and during personal or family time they never answer work phones; unless of course it is an emergency. This kind of organization requires a lot of discipline and in truth; most working people have a hard time with this one. However, it can be achieved.

So, do you think you are working too hard in your job? Remember that in most cases the people who are working too hard than their colleagues are considered not smart enough, not confident, disorganized and sometimes even desperate. I hardly doubt this is the picture you would want to portray about your career, so what will it be for you?