🛠 TREE 148: Honour your contract

Your company is buying your skills, expertise and labour for the number of hours per week that are specified in your contract. Honour that contract. By which I mean when you have worked the hours, stop working.

When I was self-employed in the 2000s, I didn’t understand this. I had no contract with myself, so I worked all the hours. I crawled out of self-employment just in time to escape burnout. Now, I struggle to imagine a pay packet big enough that I would choose put my work email or Teams on my phone. When I’m at work, I try to be 100% at work. When I’m not, I’m very very not.

Sleep, family, friends and other interests are not just important for you, they are important for your company. They make you a smarter, more productive employee.

Some nuance:

I’m writing about ‘normal’ jobs here. There are many ways of working without time-based contracts. In those jobs, time not working is just as important.

Once in a while, the work exceeds the hours. No big deal, unless it happens all the time. Then it’s a good idea to ask some questions about your work habits and/or your company’s culture.

You are a biological, not a digital, entity. That means switching isn’t always instant. You probably need some transition time between work and not work. Sometimes on the weekend your brain will start thinking about something at work. If it’s an interesting problem and you’re enjoying it, follow your brain. If it’s obsessing about something that you can’t change, point your brain at something fun or useful.

Grow slowly
Jeff

Had to be done:

The Memory of TREE playlist – every song from every email: