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It doesn't happen very often, at least not recently. But there have been times when the responsible thing to do was mention what was going on and see if things could be adjusted. I mean, if you can't keep up and it's going to create issues, it's better to speak up and deal with it rather than try to be the hero and risk letting people down.
I tell them and also try to get the work done
Nope. I've only been with my current employer for 7 months and don't feel secure enough in my role to potentially seem like I'm complaining. If it gets too much worse, I'll probably have to, but for now I'm at least getting by.
Pro
You’re not complaining…. They don’t know how you are doing if you don’t talk to them about it. They hired you because they want you to work at the company. Therefore they will understand having candid conversations about the workload.
The professional thing to do is talk with your manager. Ask the manager to help you prioritize. Let them know what the challenges are.
It’s your boss’s job to understand your workload and have reasonable expectations about how many hours it will take to complete the assigned tasks. Now it’s on the individual engineer to understand what those expectations are and to manage all the work assigned to them. When you have multiple tasks it’s a good exercise to layout how many hours you think the tasks will take. From there you can see if the due date is realistic or if you need more time to complete them. Most boss’s will be more than thrilled to see a well planned out work forecast. If you can clearly see how much work you have to do, along with due dates, and how much time it should take to complete the work, then you can sit down with your boss to help assign priorities. Some of the work may not be as important as others, which means there’s no need to stress over not getting it completed. The stress and feeling overwhelmed usually hits when you don’t have a clear plan of action. But yes you should talk to your boss, but it helps if you come with reasonable solutions and not just problems
Another idea- depending on your seniority and status - but I have done this. Feeling overwhelmed? Look at the younger people in your group. Could you spin off one of your projects or responsibilities to a younger coworker. To be offered as a stretch development opportunity. Suggest to your boss. You can still tell your boss you are feeling overwhelmed, but you are offering a solution. You can offer to mentor the person. Win win win! Boss gets to glow about how they are creating dev ops for their juniors, the junior gets valuable experience and mentoring, you rid of some work and gather mentoring experience. I’ve done this many times in my R&D product development life! “Hey boss, let’s get that newbie design engineer’s feet wet in the component tooling development and qualification process? It will make them a better design engineer and help me out too.”
I am pretty honest
Pro
You should definitely be open and honest with your manager / task giver. They cannot read your mind and they will think you’re handling things. And if you complete them successfully, they may give you more! If you’re being over worked, have a candid, respectful conversation with them so they know what’s going on. Never hide things.
I have not in almost 11 years at my company. But then again, I have never been so overwhelmed that it is affecting my mental health. If I ever reached that point, I would feel comfortable telling my manager.
For me, any feeling of overwhelm short of that is normal and I can work through it.
I have before and have been lucky to have bosses that have helped me figure out the best path forward. I’d rather bring it up now so if things do go sideways later, at least I can say I tried getting help.
I’m honest. It’s better to get resources when you need them in a timely manner than to ask for help a week before the deadline.
Well maybe I shouldn't say anything on here because I'm still going to college for my degree. But isn't what your describing call the Peter principle?
No. Peter Principle is more about promoting someone until they reach a level they can’t handle- then firing them
Yes, I do, In Europe most line managers pay attention and support. But in Asia, it’s seen as weakness Abd goes on deaf ears!
I am can be honest about my workload. Often, I'm just busy for a few weeks, then the workload tends to even itself out. There's only so much a person can do in a day. But if it's too much, I can say I don't have enough time.
I am blessed with a boss who is both a good manager and a good person. I feel safe asking for help but I also look 12-18 months ahead to frame the question of 'is this a permanent need' or can I juggle my department or delay something. I try to always ask for the achievable first, then the difficult/impossible. It shows not only I am aware of need and scope, but the needs and overall business picture for the group and company. That makes it both a call for help AND promotion justification.
If I'm overwhelmed to the point where I'm overtasked and not going to make deadlines, I'll let them know and that they need to prioritize whats being worked on. Its all work that needs to be done and isn't for me to stress over. If they haven't planned properly or are multitasking people, they need to know that their deadlines are at risk.
I like to keep it all to myself until I have a bad day completely unrelated to work and make it an issue.