"Overworked and underpaid" is a standard response to the question, "How are you doing?" We often see ourselves as the rats in Pavlov's cage, so let's just talk about the stress that comes from feeling over-worked. Recently I was reading a book written in the late 30's by a popular psychologist imploring people to learn to use leisure because there was going to be so much of it due to labor-saving devices and the necessity for working shorter hours on the job. It all seems pretty naive under today's "over-worked" situation. The leisure generation didn't materialize — we even work hard at our play!
Work itself is not the stress producer. Years ago I was talking to some of the doctors at Mayo inquiring if a person could physically work themselves to death. They said it couldn't be done unless there was stress accompanying it. They said just physical work would make the body so tired that it would go to sleep, and so you couldn't work yourself to death but you could certainly stress yourself to death.
Those who are having stress at their work many times treat their work as an addiction. I have known several executives who became workaholics, defining themselves by their work and valuing themselves by what they did. They measured themselves by their progress and titles. Socially we reinforce this because we always ask, "What do you do?" And when we encounter retired people we generally inquire, "What did you do?"
Once I was the dinner speaker for the dealers meeting of the Gamble-Skogmo stores. Bert Gamble, the chairman, was sitting next to me. He was obviously a man up in his years so, I asked him why he didn't retire. He gave me one of the shortest, most honest answers I'd ever heard. "At the office I have seventeen buttons on my desk, any one of which I can push and something happens, and at home I haven't got a damn one. "
A frantic pace isn't necessary for achievement. We create a persona of productivity that includes breathless activity. I was fortunate to be mentored by Maxey Jarman, the chairman of Genesco. He built the company from 75 employees to 83,000. I never at any time saw him either excessively rushed nor loafing. Some executives I know are not running a business, they're running a fire department. Maxey told us to watch the number of emergencies we had because emergencies meant we were not good managers.
Do you have the "if you want it done right, do it yourself" philosophy? You are probably a poor delegator and generally a micro-manager. Your stress is self-induced and you are probably a stress — carrier. Check with your people. Once I spoke to a national convention of secretaries. The one complaint I consistently heard was that the boss did not utilize their highest talents. We know that when we over-supervise a good person, they resent it and will generally find another boss. Guy Martin, one of the most successful automobile dealers on the west coast, said when he started building his chain of automobile dealerships he realized that he had to be willing to accept executives who wouldn't produce more than eighty percent of what he could have personally produced. But this philosophy enabled him to multiply his efforts and grow people, as well.
I have always been an "energy-conserving" executive, which you might vulgarly call lazy. I always admire those executives who seem to be getting a lot of results with very little effort. One of the secrets I picked up in avoiding work is that people will go to whoever gets results for them. If you will let your secretary and assistant get results for people, they will go to them instead of coming to you. In order to do that, of course you must pick the right people who can be competent. You must credentialize them with others to give them the authority that is needed. What you want to build is a strong team of "go-to" people, not "go-fer" associates. This allows you to focus your efforts on what only you can do and reduce the stress of trying to do it all.
One of my favorite executives is Roger Soles, former chairman of Jefferson-Pilot Companies. Roger is a tough-minded, common-sense country boy from North Carolina. who has done a great job with the corporation. Once we were on a cruise together and chatting about executive responsibility when he surprised me by saying, "I can't find enough in my job to keep me really busy eight hours a day without doing somebody else's work. I'm not going to pay somebody else and do their work." This stuck in my mind and the next time I went to Greensboro I dropped in unannounced to visit with Roger for a few minutes. He suggested that we go out and play golf. I was surprised that he could do that on the spur of the moment, but then he called up the President of another corporation and said, "join us out at the club in an hour to play golf, and if you can't you're a lousy president." Of course the fellow joined us. I became convinced that Roger had his job totally under control. His ego wasn't tied into being the busiest man in the building. He focused on results, not breathless activity. Work-related stress can be managed by a simple recognition of what our work really is and then disciplining ourselves to do just that.
