My husband works 16-18 hours per day
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
I need some outsider perspectives on our situation. I am hoping for some helpful, productive advice at how this can be handled.
My husband works for a mid sized company (900 employees) and has been there almost 10 years. He managed a group of 9, but 6 of them have left during the pandemic. He has been trying for months and months to absorb the work of the additional 6 spots. He works from 7:30am-5:30pm, helps with dinner and bedtime for the kids, and works again from 8 or 9pm to 12-2am. He has two people currently in the on-boarding process to join his team, but it will take a significant amount of time to get them up to speed. He is such a hard worker, loyal to his company, and passionate about his job, but it is killing him. He is sleeping around 4 hours per night and still way, way behind. It is absolutely physically impossible for him to cover all of this work. It is trickling down to his physical and mental health, our family life, etc. He is salaried at $95k. What do people do in these short staffed situations? Kill themselves for their company? Work the regular 9-5 and say tough shit about the work that won't get done? Have an honest convo with his boss? Knowing my husband, I am sure that he pretends everything is fine with his boss and coworkers and don't let on about the reality behind the scenes. Are there laws surrounding this? |
Anonymous
| Not worth it for $95K. He needs to look elsewhere immediately. Lots of places are hiring. |
Anonymous
|
His company is taking advantage of him. He needs to tell them he won't work this much and it needs to change ASAP or he will move on. He has leverage if it truly takes that much time to onboard new hires.
He is killing himself slowly and taking time away from his family and personal life for a corporation, of which I doubt he would even be thanked for his efforts. He needs to get over his "loyalty" and see the damage this is doing to him long term. I would be very blunt about it. |
Anonymous
+1 He needs to leave. He also needs to raise this with his boss, and cut back on hours, as he's looking for other jobs. $95k is a fraction of what I'd expect for that amount of work. |
Anonymous
|
Mine quit his job right at the start of the pandemic. That should tell you how bad the situation was. He loves his new company and couldn’t be happier. He is on track for a promotion next Spring.
No job is worth and mental and physical abuse. |
Anonymous
| Is this a temporary situation or a permanent one? If it's for a couple of weeks, then maybe it makes sense. If it goes on for more than that, then it's not sustaintable. No job is worth those kinds of compromises. He needs to tell his boss that some work will not get done and ask for the priority in which work needs to be completed. And, if he has transferrable skills, he needs to look for another job. |
Anonymous
| The work that can’t get done doesn’t get done. It is what it is. |
Anonymous
It has already been about 6 months. One new hire started this week and will probably take 6-8 weeks to be fully on boarded. I believe a second internal hire is transferring to DH's department in the new year. |
Anonymous
This. At 95k, it's not his problem |
Anonymous
|
Did I write this post? And my DH is very critical of my work ethic (work from 8-4 and only hop every three years for more $).
|
Anonymous
|
This is 100% your husband’s fault.
What people do in this situation is work from 9–5:30 (or whatever his hours are supposed to be. Then he emails his boss and says. “I’ve made X progress on the Widget project and Y progress on the Fidget project. Both deadlines are coming up next week. There is time to finish X or Y, which would like me to prioritize?” As long as your husband does extra work, his boss never has to make hard decisions and the company never faces any consequences. In their eyes your husband is not going above and beyond, rather they were overpaying for too many team members before. |
Anonymous
| Sit with your husband and tell him you are worried about his physical and mental health. Figure out together how to handle it. You have to step in here because you can see the big picture and he is in the weeds. |
Anonymous
I wouldn't be so harsh, but your husband is setting himself up for this becoming more permanent. I oversee several managers and if the job gets done with half the staff (without complaint or honest discussions from the managers) they are telling me that the job could be done with half the staff. Since I have a budget, I'm going to make the staff reductions permanent. Your husband needs to talk to his boss ASAP. I sort of agree with the poster above - he needs to keep his boss apprised of the status of the job, but instead of asking his boss, which would you like me to prioritize, he should say, "my plan is to prioritize X, Y and Z and push back A, B and C projects" Afterall, it's his job as a manager to know which projects/jobs need highest priority. He should also ask for temporary help from other departments from his boss - the company itself may be able to provide some relief - maybe not to the extent a FTE would, but maybe could do some data entry, administrative or other tasks that don't take as long to train. |
Anonymous
This. He can tell someone, but he should just be done. They are exploiting him but he doesn’t have to help them. |
Anonymous
|
If he calls his manager and sounds like he is about to quit “We need to set aside a time to talk about the future, Jim.”), then they will be SO glad he is only announcing a return to 40 hours that the conversation will go great.
Trust me. |