197these tasks in the time you are willing to give, your boss may need
to hire temporary help to complete those tasks. You may also wish
to review your job description with your boss at this time if you
think you are doing things that fall outside your domain.
If your boss still has unreasonable expectations of you, you
may wish to take a co-worker or two along with you to a second
meeting (according to the biblical model in Matthew 18), or you
may wish to discuss your problem with the appropriate person
in your personnel department. If even then he remains unrea-
sonable about what he thinks you can accomplish, you may need
to begin looking for other job opportunities within your com-
pany or outside.
You may need to go to night school and get some further
training to open up other opportunities. You may need to chase
down hundreds of employment ads and send out stacks of
resumes. (Consult the book How to Get a Job by James Bram-
lett for information on job searches.^1 ) You may wish to start your
own business. You may wish to start an emergency fund to sur-
vive between quitting your present job and starting a new one.
Whatever you do, remember that your job overload is your
responsibility and your problem. If your job is driving you crazy,
you need to do something about it. Own the problem. Stop being
a victim of an abusive situation and start setting some limits.
Problem #3: Misplaced Priorities
We have talked about setting limits on someone else. You
also need to set limits on yourself. You need to realize how much
time and energy you have, and manage your work accordingly.
Know what you can do and when you can do it, and say no to
everything else. Learn to know your limits and enforce them, as
Laurie did. Say to your team or your boss, “If I am going to do
A today, I will not be able to do B until Wednesday. Is that okay
or do we need to rethink which one I need to be working on?”
Effective workers do two things: they strive to do excellent
work, and they spend their time on the most important things.
Many people do excellent work but allow themselves to get side-
tracked by unimportant things; they may do unimportant things
Boundaries and Work