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Comment by honkycat | Hacker News Reader

Really glad I read this.

I quite like my current job, but this really resonated:

> By volume, I’m referring to the total number of obligations that you’re committed to complete—from answering a minor question to finishing a major project. As this volume increases past a certain threshold, the weight of these efforts can become unbearably stressful.

I have this happening to me RIGHT NOW. I am on 4 different projects, PLUS I am expected to on-board a new engineer onto our team.

The thing is: I also have a ton of meetings I am forced to attend.

I'm sinking! I'm going to have to work late for at least a week! It is stressful for no reason!

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Please, please do not work late. If your managers have assigned you too many projects for you to complete in the week, that is their fault, not yours. Respect your own time and talk to your manager about this.

This is the right attitude for staying off the promotions list, and staying on the layoffs list.

and probably a great way of finding out you didn't want to work at the high-speed, well funded company you thought you did.

Depends on what position you're shooting for, in C-level I only wanted people who tried to think through projects while I tried to finish them. The different attitudes brings about best product.

> I'm going to have to work late for at least a week!

That's one option. Another is just get less done. Cowards get pushed until the brink of collapse. Your only duty is to communicate to leadership that less is going to get done and it's their job to then adjust priorities and/or higher more staff.

There's no sense in calling them a coward

Feel free to turn down meeting invites. If you really don’t need to be there, or the meeting could be an email, simply say so. If people have a problem with you not attending some meetings, discuss with your manager.

I think there are some people who plan meetings because they don't know how to really be productive. So a meeting becomes a bad proxy for productivity. I always try to turn those down. A few clues:

- People tend to use the meeting to 'collaborate' on work that should have already been done. E.g., filling in spreadsheets, drafting emails etc.

- If a standing meeting seems to bring up the same issues over and over without any movement towards resolution

- If you tend to be a fly-on-the-wall and don't have much input to the discussion, it might be better to just not attend ask for meeting notes instead

- If there's no clear agenda or action items, or it seems to devolve into discussions that should be one-on-one

> I'm going to have to work late for at least a week!

Don't work for free. Stick to your contracted hours, and if there aren't enough hours in the day to complete everything you're expected to, that's a failure of your manager(s), not yourself.

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