What to Do When You’re Overloaded

It’s easy to get burnt out and overwhelmed at work when projects are piling up and there’s not enough people to carry the load.

How can you detect the signs of overload before they reach a boiling point, and what are some tactics to divert disaster?

During the latest Communities of Practice New Supervisors in Government session on August 28, Donald Bauer (CTBME, FAC-P/PM Level III, CISSP, Chief Technology Officer, Global Talent Management, U.S. Department of State) joined GovLoop moderator Emily Jarvis to discuss how to decompress, so you and your employees can do your jobs.

“Ultimately, the signs of being overwhelmed are pretty obvious — you’re feeling tension, you’re short with each other, and you have abrupt communication,” said Bauer. “It’s also in your body language.”

He added that the first step in recognizing that you’re overwhelmed is by acknowledging it’s happening and picking a strategy to address it.

One way to address this problem is to communicate with your team. If you’re a supervisor, you can not only offer your support, but also ways that employees can get outside help.

“Sometimes the reason that others are stressed has nothing to do with work, and we have to understand life happens and not take it personally,” he said. “You can still make the offer to see if the employee needs to talk to you and remind them of your agency’s EAP if they want to talk to a neutral party.”

Bauer said it’s important to offer your staff a safe space to vent and for you to be seen as a trusted advisor.

Another way to take some of the stress off of employees is to make sure they know their priorities.

“If you have limited resources, you need to let individuals know their priorities and what’s realistic,” Bauer said.

He said that cross-training employees, so there’s not a single point of failure because only one person knows a process, can help alleviate tension.

“Employees will have less stress knowing what to do – you can’t operate in a silo or not have back-up when an unexpected problem comes up,” he said.

For more helpful tips and advice from Bauer on eliminating that overwhelmed feeling, view the CoP recording.