Reading one of my favorite productivity blogs, Lifehack led me to an article at Cardsharp called Overtime and Startups
The message: if you are a software developer, use overtime strategically because you don’t get more work out of your programmers (you only defer their underproductive time.) So overtime should be a sprint, not a death-march.
Ministers and committees on ministry should bookmark this. We have a ministerial culture that smiles when we talk (among ourselves) about the life- and marriage-destroying (or marriage-preventing) schedules, with little security and much emotional (and sometimes physical) turmoil.
We all expect to work overtime in the crunch moments, but I think too many churches act like bad managers for all their staff, and we have too many ministers (ministers I single out for a special scolding) who are happy to oblige.
Great point, Scott. I’m working with a church consultant who tells me that I should plan on working 35 hours a week, so that when a crisis comes up (memorial service, etc.) I’ll have enough time and energy to handle the crisis.
She’s right. Question is, can I follow her advice?