Time Management: How to know when your team is working too many hours

Sometimes our reviewers take on tons of work and work many hours to meet their deadlines, which we greatly appreciate. But how do you know if your team is working too much?

Often an overworked team will display signs of stress, such as short tempers, mistakes in routine tasks, fatigue and impatience.

However, every team is unique and may display it's own unique side effects of working too many hours. Our team is no exception, please have fun with us and read our top ten list.

Top 10 Signs that the Nigro Firm Team is Working Too Much

10. Extra toothbrushes and other toiletries appear in the guest bath. We have a guest room for our team members that work late and don't want to drive home or for when one our team members gets stranded by a bad snow storm.

9. Both refrigerators are full of food, all three meals. We have two refrigerators at the office and when they are full of everything from eggs and bacon to steaks for the grill, we know that our team members have basically moved in and spend more time at the office than at home.

8. The dogs are working overtime. We have two beagles who work in the office as stress reducers and morale boosters and when they are working all of the time, the team is working around the clock as well. However, they are usually much better at taking exercise breaks and naps than the other team members.

7. Supplies dwindle. When everything from toilet paper to Diet Pepsi is running low and we have to make extra trips to Costco to resupply, we know our team is working a lot (and eating way too many M&M's).

6. The SEO consultant is cooking. When our SEO consultant walks into a room of hungry, scowling faces, she knows just what to do - feed them. Often when people are working tons of hours the first thing that goes out the window is healthy eating, so she will cook the team a home cooked meal.

5. Everything is funny. When our team is tired they laugh a lot and at very trivial and seemingly unfunny things. But since laughter is a great stress reducer, why not?

4. They can no longer speak English. When your team members start to refer to the bathroom as the room with the water and start calling Mountain Dew, Dr. Dew, you know they need a break.

3. They dream about architectural drawings. Remember that old Windows screen saver with the repeating, growing pipes? One of our team members actually dreamed that all night after checking plumbing drawings.

2. The Rangpur Gin is gone. When our supply of gin is gone or the scotch is getting low, we know the stress is high and people are settling in for the night...or celebrating?

1. A team member becomes spontaneously illiterate. This really happened, after days and days of checking drawings one of our reviewers walked into the room and said, "I can't check drawings anymore, I am illiterate."

Author: Pamela S. Stevens (SEO consultant and team cook)