Description
"Contemporary ways of working are not working, even for professionals and managers in what used to be considered "good" jobs. Companies are responding to global competition and pressure from financial markets by adopting management practices and staffingstrategies that push workers to do more and more with less and less. New technologies facilitate always-on availability, normalizing 24/7 job expectations. This new intensity spawns chronic stress in the form of overload - feelings of too much to do and too little time to do it. Kelly and Moen argue this way of working is both unhealthy and unsustainable. Employees burn out, quit, or lack the time or energy to bring their best contributions to their jobs. Organizations lose out along with individuals, families, and communities. This book moves beyond familiar tropes about 'work-life balance' to argue that the problem lies not in the effort to 'balance' but in the very nature of contemporary work. Overload harms workers of all genders, ages, and life stages as well as the bottom lines of corporations. What can be done? Kelly and Moen draw on five years of research, including a major field experiment, in a Fortune 500 firm to describe a new approach to making work more sane and sustainable. The initiative,called STAR, prompts imaginative yet feasible changes (or work redesigns) that improve employees' health, wellbeing, and ability to manage both their personal and their work lives. They find the firm also benefits through increased job satisfaction and reduced turnover"--
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Why too much work and too little time is hurting workers and companies—and how a proven workplace redesign can benefit employees and the bottom lineToday's ways of working are not working—even for professionals in "good" jobs. Responding to global competition and pressure from financial markets, companies are asking employees to do more with less, even as new technologies normalize 24/7 job expectations. In Overload, Erin Kelly and Phyllis Moen document how this new intensification of work creates chronic stress, leading to burnout, attrition, and underperformance. "Flexible" work policies and corporate lip service about "work-life balance" don't come close to fixing the problem. But this unhealthy and unsustainable situation can be changed—and Overload shows how.Drawing on five years of research, including hundreds of interviews with employees and managers, Kelly and Moen tell the story of a major experiment that they helped design and implement at a Fortune 500 firm. The company adopted creative and practical work redesigns that gave workers more control over how and where they worked and encouraged managers to evaluate performance in new ways. The result? Employees' health, well-being, and ability to manage their personal and work lives improved, while the company benefited from higher job satisfaction and lower turnover. And, as Kelly and Moen show, such changes can—and should—be made on a wide scale.Complete with advice about ways that employees, managers, and corporate leaders can begin to question and fix one of today's most serious workplace problems, Overload is an inspiring account about how rethinking and redesigning work could transform our lives and companies.
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