✅ Today’s checklist:
🤔 Trivia: What is the term for the phenomenon in which people tend to remember interrupted or incomplete tasks better than completed ones? Find out here.
🗓️ Employee Recognition: Don’t forget to celebrate Administrative Professionals Day next week (4/24).
⚕️ Health: Take an unbiased look at candida growth, exploring the science behind the common health claims and separating fact from fiction.
📣 Career: Master The Art Of Self Promotion with strategies that feel authentic and boost your visibility in the workplace without stepping out of your comfort zone.
👩👦 Motherhood: Discover the 3 Benefits of a Doula in supporting both physical and emotional health during and after pregnancy.
🧲 Retention: 11 employee retention challenges in 2024 and how you should tackle them.
Being understaffed isn’t just a temporary challenge; it’s often an ongoing hurdle.
How do leaders and teams navigate this effectively without burning out or compromising on quality?
Here are practical strategies to manage your team’s workload efficiently:
1. Prioritize and Plan: Start with a clear understanding of your team’s priorities.
What projects or tasks drive the most value to your organization?
Assessing this can help you realign efforts where they’re most needed and potentially put less critical tasks on the back burner.
Regular planning sessions can keep everyone on track and ensure that priorities are continuously aligned with team capacity.
2. Redistribute Tasks Wisely: Look at the skills and strengths of your existing team members.
Distributing tasks according to these strengths can improve efficiency and job satisfaction.
It’s also a good practice to have cross-training sessions, so team members can cover for each other during peak times without a drop in productivity.
3. Set Realistic Goals: With a reduced workforce, it’s crucial to set achievable goals.
Overloading employees with unrealistic expectations can lead to stress and a drop in morale.
Transparent communication about what is manageable within current constraints builds trust and helps in maintaining engagement.
4. Regular Check-ins: Maintain open lines of communication with your team.
Regular check-ins help you gauge the team’s morale and workload, making it easier to adjust plans and redistribute tasks as necessary.
It also helps in identifying burnout early.
5. Consider Outsourcing: For non-core activities or specialist tasks, outsourcing can be an efficient solution.
It allows your core team to focus on their primary responsibilities without the added pressure of tasks that can be effectively managed externally.
6. Leverage Technology: Utilize technology to automate mundane tasks where possible.
From project management tools that streamline collaboration to software that automates administrative tasks, technology can be a significant time-saver.
Managing an understaffed team requires a thoughtful approach to workload management and a keen understanding of your team’s capabilities and limits.
By focusing on these areas, you can maintain productivity and morale, even when the team is running lean.
Remember, the goal isn’t just to get through the workload but to do so in a way that sustains your team’s health and your organization’s standards.
ClickUp Brain has just launched and is here to enhance your daily productivity and improve your connections with projects, documents, team members, and organizational knowledge.
It breaks down into 3 parts:
Here’s what sets ClickUp Brain apart from other PM tools that offer AI services:
If you missed last Wednesday’s newsletter, catch up on part 1 here.
After the incident with Mark*, I channeled my anger and immediately called my CEO, Jeff*, who was back in the US.
I explained the situation and luckily, he gave me the warmest response as I held back tears, still trying to exhibit a professional demeanor after the most humiliating experience of my career and life.
He empathetically comforted me, and tried to bear the responsibility of it: “I’m so sorry, Thania. I’m so mad.”
We then made plans to report it to the international headquarters and founder of the parent company.
My request was that Mark take a sexual harassment course, publicly admit his behavior was inappropriate, and present his learnings to the company so others could avoid making the same mistakes.
None of that was honored — in fact, after my US CEO and I reported it to the international HQ and founder, there was no follow-up on my incident and zero consequences for Mark.
Seven years later (yes, seven), I was contacted by the company’s Global HR Director who was conducting an investigation into Mark and several sexual harassment accusations.
Turns out he had continued his behavior, and got caught so badly they could no longer deny the liability and damage he caused.
She asked me to recall details that were nearly a decade old.
While all the intricate details that once agonized my mind were memorialized as feelings instead of well-recalled incidents, I did my best to tell my story.
Thankfully, my photographic memory and the fact that I’d told close friends about it made it easier to 1) retell and 2) recall.
The times and dates were blurry — in trauma, it’s said that you often “blackout” or “brown out”. Your brain does it on purpose to protect you.
But when it comes to legal matters, it’s easy to have your words twisted.
What if I present the wrong timetable? What if I get accused of being a liar because I messed up one detail?
I didn’t care. “F*ck that guy,” I thought.
I meticulously crafted my sentences and was honest when a particular detail was blurry or not easily recalled.
I told her the important things: how he made me feel, the text he sent, the weird physical stalking I experienced after the incident, the inappropriate behavior he conducted when went to the global CEO’s house for Easter, and so much more I haven’t shared in this article.
The HR lady was professional, yet caring. She was empathetic.
My intuition told me I wasn’t the first interview that she’d conducted regarding this predator.
I felt sorry for her in a way.
Having to clean up the mess of leaders before her who hadn’t done their jobs and acted immorally; now she was here to pick up the pieces.
I also felt mad. I couldn’t believe it had taken THIS long for justice.
Imagine all the other victims who might have been saved from this had THEY done something sooner.
Had they put people over profit. Equity and equality over discomfort or bad PR.
Ultimately, Mark* was found guilty of sexual harassment in the workplace and “resigned” from his role as UK CEO.
I have zero regrets about how I handled myself, but I do regret not taking legal action and demanding more from my US CEO.
I wanted to secure that global marketing role and I didn’t want to “cause trouble”, so I played “nice”.
If you’ve ever been a fighter of sexual harassment or sexual assault, I want to honor your experience and say that I see you, and I’m proud of you — you’re amazing.
If you ever find yourself in a position of sexual harassment at work, I want to empower you to speak up, take space, and demand accountability.
You never know what positive impact your speaking up and taking action can have.
Lots of love & empowerment,
Thania Guardino (Content Mgr. at TA)
*Names have been changed to prevent inciting a witch hunt.
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📚 The Courage to Be Disliked: Explore transformative insights on happiness and freedom in The Courage to Be Disliked, a must-read that challenges your perceptions and encourages personal growth.
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