The summer vacation season may be behind us, but the holidays are right around the corner. And soon enough your colleagues may be asking you to cover for them while they’re away. All of a sudden, you’re juggling not only your normal work but also someone else’s. That’s potentially more email, more tasks, more meetings, and more searching for answers to questions about items outside of your normal day-to-day.
What to Do When You’re Covering for Colleagues — and Can’t Keep Up
Strategies to help you manage an extra workload.
October 09, 2018
Summary.
When covering for a coworker who is out of the office, it’s difficult to keep up with everything the way you usually do. This sense of overload can compound when multiple individuals are out of the office or there are longer absences such as sick leave, sabbaticals, or maternity leave. What do you do when you have to carry the load of two or more people? The key is finding a solution where you keep up on the essentials but avoid putting the full weight of multiple jobs on your shoulders. Six strategies can help you to strike that delicate balance: accept reality, ask for a plan, focus on deadlines, pause the nonurgent, limit extra work time, and ask for help.
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New!
HBR Learning
Time Management Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Time Management. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
Make smarter, more purposeful choices about how you spend your day.