At the end of the story YOU DIE! So leave work on time!

Or at least try to...

Hello there, it has been a while.

Working a full time job as an architect and doing a podcast on the side it has not been helpful for this newsletter to stay regular, but I am gonna try to change that for the future!

Today I wanted to talk to you about a very big issue across all creative industries which is working over-time, often without any compensation.

I have a very dual opinion on the topic, as I am a firm believer that in order to achieve something great you have to put in passion, love and time! Lots of time...

But hey doesn’t mean being stupid about it!

When you are young and you are just starting off your career, work as hard as you can! You are a newbie, you think you know things, but the reality is that you don’t know sh*t about fuck!

This is the time to stay humble, the time to build your skillset and professional experience. The time to gather the knowledge that will make you extremely valuable in the further stages of your career (by the way a great book on the topic is “So good that they can’t ignore you” by Cal Newport).

The more you advance in your career and in your life, things start to change, and your priorities will start to shift.

You start having a serious relationship, maybe a wife or a husband or even a kid(s). When this happens naturally you will start valuing more an hour spent with your dear once rather than staying 2 extra hours at work just to add another project in your portfolio. Simply said, your time gets more valuable so you better make start leveraging that in your favor.

In multiple organizations, specially in architecture offices, there is this artifcial sense of urgency created by project managers or the management. They make this narratives that if something “doesn’t get send by today ( or tonight, or tomorrow, or this week, you fill the gap) the apocalypse will unleash upon us”!

Well let me tell you something: I have been working 7 years now in this business, and I have learned that is just not true!

Nothing is going to happen if you miss a deadline by a day or a week. If you have been working with all your power on your tasks, during the 8 hours as you were supposed to, and you are still not able to meet the deadline, well probably the fault is not yours.

Start thinking as a freelancer. Your contract says you should work a certain amount of hours in a certain role. If you have covered that, everything on top should be payed for, or at least you should be consulted if it is ok. You are not the manager or owner, your responsability is to deliver your tasks at your best, but if the deadlines set for that are impossible, is your manager tasks to do the staffing and resource planning. If they underplan and you stay to finish the task every time, you just give them the signal that their planning actually works perfectly.

What we are talking about here, is still an organization made by humans, with human interactions and relationships. If you have a good relationship with your employer and co-workers, and if meeting that deadline is really so important, well then stay longer, but make sure to compensate the hours you worked extra,at the very first possible date!

With this message, I am not saying that you should start constantly complaining and bitching at work, I wanted just to remind you that at the end of story we all die!

That time spent at work rather than with your partner, family or friends, will never be given back to you, no matter how much money you will get paid!

Theref make sure to be spending your time on what really matters to you!

If you are so much into the project, and you have a super hight motivation to go up that career latter, than let that be the project. But if not, remember,there will be always a deadline tonight, tomorrow, this week to be met, and if you let yourself always be the chaser, the chasing will never end!

I hope you will kepp this newsletter in mind next time you are asked to stay extra time at work and you will take the right decision for yourself, not for the project.

Take care,

Georgi!

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