"To qualify as an extreme jobber, a worker must meet the following standards: first, work 60 hours a week or more, then, meet at least five of the following conditions: have work whose flow is unpredictable, work under tight deadlines, have work events outside of regular work hours, be available to clients 24/7, have P&L responsibility, have a large amount of travel, or a large number of direct reports, have a scope of responsibility that amounts to more than one job.
According to Hewlett, the pool of workers who meet the standard for extreme is growing. More than 20% of U.S. workers qualify, she says, and 45% of professionals in global companies. Measured by sheer work hours alone, 48% say they’re working an average of 16.6 hours more per week than they did five hours ago."
If you exclude that bit about the large number of direct reports, then I am an extreme jobber too ! I guess most freelancers would be. People might crib about work-life balance, but for a person whose work becomes life the distinctions become more and more blurry.
As a team leader in HR in one of my previous organizations used to tell his team "For us work is fun. So let's have some more fun!"
As Richard Watson in his latest column, "The Future of Work."says :
"People divide their lives into work and play. But a clever few realize that if you pick the right work it ceases to be work and becomes play. The trick is finding something that you are passionate about and then devoting your life to it. This won't necessarily make you a fortune but it will make you happy. It may also turn you into a successful innovator, because playfulness is an essential prerequisite for invention."
Actually, I guess there could be some extra parameters added to this list:
ReplyDelete1. Is always expected to answer an email within 8 hours, whether awake or asleep
2. Handling 2 separate projects at one time, both of which can take up a regular job
With these extra paramteres, I would expect a lot more software folks to fit in
What is the diffrence between Pressur of perform and performing under pressure.Which one is better to avoid the burn out. Your comment please.
ReplyDeleteThe extreme jobbers of today are the burned-out middle-agers of tomorrow who wonder what happened to their lives. Don't take my word for it, find an extreme jobber over the age of 45 who has a healthy life (by the way, you need to ask that person's wife or kids whether their life is healthy or not). They are few and far between. There is an old saying about no one on their deathbed wished they spent more time at work. It's not a cliche - it is the story I hear everyday in my executive coaching practice. You can get a clue now, or crash and burn later. You do have choices. Choose wisely.
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