In my 14yrs IT exp, currently I lead 100+ member team. yes, this is important topic to discuss. I'll share a few thoughts. 1. For both company and employee, its essential that employee stay in great health, and fresh mind, so employee can do innovative work. 2. Constant overtime demands is wrong from both company and also from employee to accept it. Yes, phases will come, where for a month or 2, you would need to do that, but those phases shoudl then stop. It cannot be constant for ever. 3. Employee should care about client, project and take responsility to deliver work on time. At the same time company should care, they are not crushing employees for the sake of unrealistic timelines. Agile also says people.

This is a common challenge in current workplace environments. Maintaining a balance between workload and overtime requires clear prioritization, effective time management, and setting realistic boundaries. To deal with this situation, start by breaking down tasks, identifying most urgent and critical ones, focusing on high-impact activities that align with business goals. It is essential to communicate clearly with your superiors as related to workload and to set clear expectations to avoid excessive overtime. Furthermore, delegating whenever feasible and using productivity instruments can help manage tasks more efficiently, creating space for a healthy work-life balance.

Understand that we want to accomplish the given roles and tasks professionally. There was a time, I have to work 7 days a week, 15hrs a day, and for a continuously 6months. It was madness and no family time. Under such circumstances, I would plan a long holiday in that year. This would help my family and self, and also HR in clearing my leave. Do your best to delegate and empower your staff. If you have been mentoring and coaching your staff and including beyond the staff roles, this would be useful to lessen the leadership load.

You are in control of your decisions. Consider whether you will push yourself to work overtime, sacrificing your family time and potentially your health, or if you will establish clear boundaries for yourself. It can be as simple as saying, "I’ll work an extra hour each day this week to catch up." However, if working overtime becomes a common theme, it’s crucial to recognize when it's time to decide that enough is enough. Don't feel obligated to be the hero and solve everything alone. If you need help or support, don't hesitate to ask for it. There's no shame in that.

I need to be honest: I hesitated to respond to this LinkedIn post because I don’t see myself as an example of perfect time management or an ideal balance between an executive role and personal life. However, I’m fully aware that what I haven’t yet balanced needs improvement, and I have been working on managing my time more effectively. Here’s my simple approach: I try to organize my week by prioritizing commitments, delegate as much as possible, and empower my teams to make decisions. On the personal side, I aim to maintain a calm and home-centered life; I make time for physical activities in the mornings at least twice a week, including weekends.