You Deserve Respect & Recognition.
That’s where I come in.
I’m Susan Bellows
I help professional women avoid workplace pitfalls that lead to stress, burnout, and illness.
I’ve been in your shoes. At one point in my career, I took on a new position that paid me twice as much as my previous job, but with much less administrative support. Increasing my salary so fast made me feel I needed to do even more to justify what I was being paid.
I worked night and day for the 3 months leading up to the due date of an important project. Totally exhausted at the end, I recall waiting to be applauded for my valiant effort. But, my only reward for my diligence was to be given another project immediately with another unrealistic deadline!
That’s when I had my transformational “aha” moment: The only reward for an 80-hour week is another 80-hour week.
As the years went by and I became a consultant to companies that had morale problems, I saw a pattern that helped me understand this dynamic:
- “A” Players are the ones managers continually give work to because they can be relied upon to get the job done right, on time, and with minimal need for direction.
- “B” Players may or may not get the job done right, on time, and probably need direction.
- “C” Players go home on time, rarely volunteer for anything, and seem to have retired on the job.
This dynamic causes “A” Players to be assigned more work than anybody else. As a result, they often burn out or become demotivated when they see the inequity.
I was an “A” Player. I thought workaholism was a positive trait. I ignored the bouts of adrenal exhaustion, hives on my eyelids, and incidents of crippling myself with physical issues like the inability to stand up.
I noticed that many of my peers (especially women) tended to be overachievers and workaholics. Often, we were raised in dysfunctional families. I discovered some of the following traits from this kind of childhood can be to:
- Become an approval seeker.
- Have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility.
- Feel guilty if we stand up for ourselves, making it’s easier to give in to others.
- Become addicted to excitement, which includes running on adrenaline to get a rush.
- An unhealthy need to be needed.
More About Susan Bellows & Associates
See my professional credentials here.