Heidi Hancock, principal and lead consultant at Mosaic provides us with this “stat” of the day: 57% on nonprofit communicators feel overworked. 5% reported feeling underworked, while 38% said things were just right. This caused me to reflect on the nonprofit people I work with on a daily basis. If I had to guess, I’d say that most of them would fall into the category of overworked. Maybe it’s because most of the nonprofits we work with are small to mid-sized nonprofits, usually with limited staffs and budgets.
I wondered if, by extension, “overworked” meant unhappy. So I asked several of them a couple of questions of my own: first, if they felt “overworked” and, if so, did that also mean they were unhappy in their jobs. On the contrary, most said they were not at all unhappy on the job, but merely frustrated that they weren’t able to accomplish more for their nonprofit.
I asked those who told me that things felt “just right” to explain why this was so. Surprisingly, most of them weren’t able to put their finger on exactly why they felt that way other than to say that they felt like they were getting enough support from their executive director or board of directors to be able to reach, and in some cases, exceed their goals and objectives.
What about you? Please add your comments here. Do you feel overworked, underworked, or like Baby Bear in the Goldilocks fairy tale, juuuuust right?