The modern office is a busy and stressful place to be. Targets need to be hit, orders need to be fulfilled, demands need to be met.
The role of a manager is certainly a stressful and high octane one. A lot of pressure rests on the shoulders of the person sitting at their executive office desk, making high-stakes decisions. However, putting undue pressure on employees in order to hit deadlines isn’t a fair practice.
Far too often we hear about unrealistic deadlines causing workplace stress and causing an employee to feel so overwhelmed that they spend more hours than they should at their office desk. Their home and work-life balance is affected, they start to struggle with their mood and the whole situation turns negative.
Yes, deadlines need to be met, but those deadlines need to be realistic and not completely unrealistic for a human to be able to work towards! A small amount of pressure can be a good thing. A small amount of stress can actually be a motivator to push yourself and go the extra mile. However, when that stress is too much and when it’s prolonged, it becomes chronic and that’s when the problems begin.
Managers need to support mental health in the workplace, not worsen it with unrealistic deadlines and targets.
It really comes down to this - If the business has to set deadlines that are unrealistic, what is going wrong in the workflow to cause problems to become that urgent? Surely there is something which can be tweaked along the way to make the whole situation more efficient. In that case, everything wouldn’t be left until the last minute or piled completely onto one person.
Does it come down to poor time management by employees or poor management by the actual team in charge? Either way, any deadline set by a manager should be not only realistic but very attainable. It doesn’t matter if you’re giving a deadline to one employee or a whole team, stress can easily happen in any of these situations. When that type of situation occurs, the whole office will become less productive because stress slows you down and makes you more susceptible to mistakes and lack of concentration.
Understanding productivity means knowing the important role your employees play. If you treat them well and listen to them, they’ll work harder and be able to hit their targets. If you constantly demand too much of them, it’s going to work in the opposite direction.