Are you tired?

Do you need to work those long hours? If so, do you have the energy to sustain the effort?

Almost 1 in 5 people in Australia work more than 50 hours per week. And that's just the average figure. I've spoken with clients from a cross section of industries and in some areas such as engineering services and mining, that number is a lot higher.


What typically happens toward the end of the year is that people get tired. The difference this year is that there's nothing left in the tank. Most people have been working at 100% for the past two years to get through the GFC and now have to continue to work hard to keep business moving forward. But there's only so long that people can keep operating at this speed.


Most people need to rebuild their energy yet companies are failing to give them the opportunity to do so. In the absence of a letup in the relentless pressure, I think individuals will make their own decisions and look for a change. The seasonal churn after the Christmas break next year will probably be higher than usual as people decide over the holiday period to make a change then start looking for a new job.



In response to these issues, we've offered our Resilience for Knowledge Workers program as a public workshop for the first time in October. The demand was so great that we've rescheduled another one for November. This shows to me that energy levels are low and people are looking for a practical solution to increase energy to get them through to Christmas and through 2011.



Look after yourself. If you do decide to change, make sure that you think it through carefully.