ZIPHO SIKHAKHANE: Working yourself almost to death brings no benefits
We ignore the early signs of stress
At last, the world is starting realise that optimal productivity in business does not mean we all have to work ourselves into the ground to succeed. Economies worldwide lose tens of billions of US dollars in productivity each year because employees have consistently overworked themselves to the point of breakdown. Conditions such as stress, depression and anxiety have become a worldwide epidemic. Numerous surveys show that more than three-quarters of our business leaders are at or near burnout. One Harvard Business Review study found the percentage to be as high as 96%. All this has gone a long way towards proving that you cannot optimise productivity through driving humans to become superhumans. This is true from executives at major companies to the entrepreneurs responsible for the day-to-day survival of their businesses. In books and lectures, executives of Fortune 500 companies have shared stories about their wake-up call - that moment when they finally realised that operating a...
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