Are you over productive at work? Here’s why you might be treading the wrong path

You reach your office on time and are the last person to leave in the evening. You think twice before going for a five minute coffee break and instead, use that time to do some extra work. You have been meeting all the deadlines before time and over achieving your target. But if you think being super-efficient at work might make you the star employee of the team and increase the level of your personal satisfaction, here’s why you might be treading the wrong path.

If you are skipping your lunch break with your colleagues, avoiding going for coffee breaks and concentrating on just getting your work done, you are setting a wrong example for everyone. Unintentionally, you are encouraging others to take you for granted and soon it would be considered ‘normal’ to see you working during lunch time every day.

Since you are the over-efficient member of the team, you might always be dumped with extra work and given no credit for doing it. In fact, you might be given the toughest assignment or the task everyone is trying to pass on to others. Why? Because you have yourself set that expectation level of over performing every time.

Until and unless, you are being promoted for being over productive or rewarded in some other way, you are being paid the same amount as your other counterparts. You need to carefully brood whether your extra efforts are reaping you any kind of benefits, or just making the professional life of you other team members a smooth ride.

If you turn sluggish for even one day, your senior might not take a few hours to point it out. When you would go on breaks with your co-workers and have a light day at work, your senior might raise eyebrows on this. He/she might have started considering your ‘over achieving’ as a normal task for you. In fact, your boss might not even acknowledge what you have been accomplishing if you don’t show it.

Needless to say, you are bound to be stressed if you have been pushing yourself beyond your limits every day and sooner or later, it will impact your health. In fact, devoiding yourself of short breaks might be the culprit behind your reducing work productivity in future. According to research, listening to music, going for a brief stroll or a coffee break helps to reduce the production of a hormone called cortisol that makes your feel anxious. Also, you will be doing your muscles and strained eyes a favour by taking a break.

If you have been leaving office late every day, thinking about work at home as well or working on weekends even for a few hours—do you even have work-life balance? What about spending quality time with your family or focussing on your hobbies to relax after a tiring day at work? Remember an efficient employee finishes the work within office hours and sets the right expectation levels. Learn to say ‘no’ when your day is already crammed with work, and don’t offer to stay till late until and unless the work is really urgent.

(All images used here are representational)