“If you always miraculously pull a rabbit out of your hat people start expecting more rabbits,” read a Twitter post from Jen Hartmann.
She reminds us that it is a fine line between stepping up for the organization and being taken advantage of because you can always seem to pull off a miracle at the last minute. To avoid regularly needing to perform your own magic show it is essential to clarify expectations and establish boundaries for your time.
It’s also helpful to keep an ongoing record of the tricks you are required to perform. Does your supervisor have any idea the number of times you needed to go the extra mile or the portion of your job that is dedicated to heroics instead of routine operations? Does your job portfolio provide enough capacity for you to put out fires and address urgent issues without requiring excessive overtime? Are there specific people or processes that are the source of your rabbit-pulling and could be changed?
Some people thrive on the adrenaline that comes from last-minute heroics but it’s not a healthy way to work or run an organization. Magic should be rare.
Thanks, Mike!
Tweet from @jenalyson December 2, 2020