Don't Be a Salad Walker

Happy Monday, my Corporate Sisters!

I hope I don’t stir the pot too badly with this one (jk, I hope I do). But here it goes:

If your plate is too full, let someone know. You can’t be your best self for long if you’re constantly drained and overworked. 

I totally get how it can feel rewarding to be insanely busy, do it all yourself, and see it make an impact on the company. But burnout is very real, and it can cause real problems in your non-work life. 

Don’t let the optics of “looking busy and productive” take away your quality of life - it’s just not worth it! There’s so much more to life than your job.

When people constantly talk about how they “worked until 10pm” or “didn’t have time to take lunch,” it makes me think one of three things. Either they’re terrible at time management, they think it makes them look like the hardest worker on the team, or they truly have too much on their plate and they can’t (or won’t) let their boss know they need help.

Have y’all heard of “salad walkers?” I forget where I saw this (I can’t take credit for coining the term), but they’re people who walk around while they eat their lunch and tell everyone else how they’re so busy they can’t even sit down to take lunch. But in reality, they aren’t big contributors, so they feel the need to look busy. Don’t be a Salad Walker!

I promise, you can be the ultimate team player, work hard, and make impactful contributions between the hours of 8 and 5 (with a lunch break).

And if you truly have too much on your plate, say something! You don’t have to say “I’m not doing that new project you’re trying to give me,” but you can say something like “Is this new project a higher priority than my current projects? My current workload doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room, so I’d love your help prioritizing what needs to be done first.”

If your boss is the type to say “it all needs to get done - figure it out,” then that’s a different conversation. Now, if it’s once in a blue moon that you’re asked to stay late to help push something over the finish line, that’s just how the corporate world works. Sometimes crazy things come up. But it shouldn’t be an all-the-time expectation.

In my opinion, we as a society have finally started to move past the idea that you have to dedicate your whole life to your job. The younger generations entering the workforce are drawing some nice boundaries and saying “I’m not working 70 hours per week on a 40 hour salary.” Work-life balance is SO important to me, so I love it. 

I’ll see you next week! Remember, you can either kick this week’s ass, or let it kick yours.