Rule 3: There is Always More Work Than People

The rules so far:

1. Prioritise the work
2. Don’t make your customer wait

This would be OK but for Rule 3 which states that: There is always more work than people.

This rule can be expressed in many ways:

• You never have enough time
• There is always more you could do
• You never have enough money
• Demand outstrips supply
• Or maybe just the observation that your boss is an idiot

How you express it depends on what kind of day you are having, but it always comes down to the same thing: there is always too much work.

It doesn’t matter how many people you have

There is never have enough time, people or money to do everything you want to do.  If you think the solution to the problem is simply to hire more people you will always be flat-out disappointed.

As a wise old man once said to me, “deal with it”.

Don’t rely on getting more people to solve your problem. Rely on understanding the work.  Get organised, get creative, find another way.

Rule 3: There is always more work than people

Addendum to the rule:

Oddly, the better you understand the work and the fewer staff you need to do it, the happier your boss will be to give you some more people. This is analogous to the fact that banks are always delighted to lend you money when you have plenty.

This blog post has been re-published by kind permission of James Lawther – View the original post