Overwhelmed ≠ Powerless

Some time back, Allison Green took a question from a mission-critical employee who lamented that "My Company Is a Great Place to Work ... for Everyone But Me."

The letter reads in part:

Thus far, I've stuck around for the job security, the pay, and the potential for early retirement if our stock options pan out. But I'm being required to bear a much heavier cost than my co-workers for the same upsides, and I'm always teetering on the edge of burnout. Furthermore, the company is so heavily dependent on me for crucial functions, much of that growth potential could evaporate if I quit or even just lowered my productivity. Upper management seems to have convinced themselves (despite what I've said) that I am so emotionally invested in their mission that I will endlessly sacrifice the rest of my life to keep their gears turning. That's the story they tell other people, while telling me that I should take my PTO, but also telling me, "We know you're super busy, but we really need X and Y and Z done ASAP!" [bold added, links omitted]

Regulars here and any Ayn Rand aficionado will know that the situation provides a lead on its own answer, but almost anyone can get into a rut and fail to recognize such an opportunity or how to take advantage of it.

Green cuts through the fog:

[Y]ou don't need your employer's explicit permission to limit your work hours to reasonable ones that match what other people in your company and your field are working; you can simply proceed as if of course we all understand that you're not going to be working yourself to the point of exhaustion, and making decisions accordingly. And you aren't asking for help anymore; you're announcing what you can and can't do and sticking to that.

...

And the thing is, if you're worried about what that would mean for your job security: You have a ton of power here! Your company isn't going to be able to find someone else to handle as much work as you are -- as evidenced by the fact that you're surrounded by people who don't -- and they're highly, highly unlikely to fire the person who has been carrying most of the mission-critical work and has expertise no one possesses just because you decide to set reasonable boundaries on your energy. But you have to actually set those boundaries with both your words and your action ... and you have to mean them. [bold added]

In the words of a very knowledgable civilian contractor I once briefly worked with back in my Navy days, "What are they going to do? Fire me?"

We don't all hear something like that or have it stick the first time. Where this answer shines is that Green weaves every aspect of this situation together in such a way as to make it all but inescapable that part of being a conscientious, productive worker is taking care of oneself.

-- CAV