Collaboration Overload
With more and more companies becoming globally known, thanks to the ever-increasing use and development of technology, as well as the internet, it’s no surprise to see more and more people coming together to work and collaborate to ensure that their businesses survive. At many companies, the percentage of time spent in meetings, working with others and responding to emails about the latest project or update is around 80%. This is high. Only 20% of an average 9-5 working week is given to the employer to get their own crucial work done. This is only 8 hours, out of a potential 40. Because of this performance can suffer drastically. On top of this, it’s estimated that around 1/3 of the actual good work from these companies only comes from a small percentage of the work force, meaning that, that small percentage of workers, is incredibly overworked on top of their own individual work, meanwhile the others take credit for work that they haven’t helped with. This is where collaboration can potentially be a problem.
To succeed, you’ll need a good balance between collaborative work, and individual work. With just collaborative work, you can potentially become over-reliant on other people, and also miss out on the satisfaction and praise which is sometimes required. Overburdening yourself with individual work can have the opposite effect. It can make you selfish and greedy for praise and attention, but also stress you out as you would most likely be putting too much pressure on yourself. So, in order to keep your work balance, and yourself healthy, you’ll need to blend both collaboration and individual at a ratio that will help you.
Collaboration is something we all have to do, and at times it can be difficult, frustrating and exhausting. But knowing how to collaborate effectively, as well as knowing when to try to work on your own, can be a great help in discovering the best way to work.