What’s holding you back at work? Too many pointless meetings? A fear of success? Or is it simply that you have too much to do and not enough time in which to do it?

It’s OK if the answer is all of the above, and you’re certainly not alone. A new study asked women in different industries what obstacles they face to thrive at work. The number one answer? An unmanageable workload.

The study, from the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership, aimed to look at how workplaces can better equip women to thrive, ie they feel like they’re doing good, meaningful work; they have opportunities to grow and develop; and they feel truly valued and recognised. As part of this, they quizzed women about what prevented them from reaching this state of being, and found that having too much to do came up over and over again. 

“An unmanageable workload makes it harder to deliver top quality in projects,” one of the study’s authors, Elisa van Dam, tells Stylist. “Our women respondents said they wanted to feel like their work is valuable to the organisation; an unmanageable workload detracts from this. We can also hypothesise that an overwhelming workload has a negative impact on wellbeing. We know that wellbeing is an important part of thriving.”

“There is no single or best way to deal with the issue of an unmanageable workload,” van Dam tells us. “However, some things to try include having a conversation with your manager about the impact of your workload and the consequences for the organisation and seeing if there is a way to delegate or stop doing some lower-value tasks. One effective strategy women may find beneficial is to tie one benefit for themselves (like a more manageable workload) to a benefit for the organisation (extra time to dedicate to a high-impact project).”

It might be worth forwarding your manager(s) the rest of the study (or this article, if they’re low on time), as it makes a good business case for ensuring workers are finding work enjoyable. “When thriving at work, employees are more productive, more likely to go ‘above and beyond’, and more effective,” reads the report. Those who feel like they are thriving say they’re also more able to do their best work, more creative and more committed to staying at a company. 

“Based on the responses to our survey, in practice, women feel that they are thriving when they are doing meaningful work that is valued by the organisation,” van Dam notes. “It also means they have the opportunity to learn and grow. Women report that when they are thriving, they are more effective, more productive, more confident, and happier at work.”

The study found that 96% of the women surveyed said thriving at work was either ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important, so it’s clearly something that matters to a lot of us. So alongside ensuring our workloads are actually doable, how else can workplaces enable us to thrive? The report breaks it down:

• Have good managers
• Make it safe for employees to take risks
• Provide a sense of autonomy
• Provide opportunities for learning
• Show commitment to supporting employees’ ability to thrive 

That last point might prompt you to go, ‘OK, but how?’ So the authors explained that the best ways to show that commitment are: 

• Providing resources and tools needed so staff can work in a sustainable way
• Supporting people to use their annual leave and other paid time off
• Discussing thriving in organisation-wide communications. 

Easy stuff, really. It’s basically just caring about your staff’s wellbeing and their ability to deliver great work, and taking action to ensure both. 

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Images: Getty