The Facts and Feelings of Overwork
Do you live with the nagging sense that there's always something more you should be doing?
Jack and Ann Wald
April 1, 1983
It was Tuesday morning. Monday, my day of rest, was over, and I was sitting at my desk. As usual it was littered with mail and papers. I had phone calls to make, meetings to prepare for, and a list of people to visit. Already my appointment book was filled for the week.
It was like standing in front of a dam with twenty-two holes leaking water and knowing I had only ten fingers and ten toes to plug them. So much was happening, and my energies were so dispersed that I felt I lacked the strength to accomplish one task, let alone all of them.
Overwork is a feeling-a subjective, internal experience of being overwhelmed by your job. Others may label it fatigue, frustration, stress, or pressure. Because we are taught to live on faith, not feelings, we tend to deny or ignore our negative feelings. Unfortunately, pretending we don't feel overworked, when we do, does not solve the problem. Ignored, the feeling refuses to go away.
My feeling may be compounded with guilt when I'm reminded of the benefits of full-time pastoring. After all, my hours are flexible, I have the privilege of helping fulfill the Great Commission, and I have an influential position in the community and the personal lives of my congregation. Why should I complain?
But in spite of the benefits, in spite of an honest enjoyment of being a minister, the treadmill feeling still surfaces. Why?
The surprising fact is that feeling overworked has very little to do with the number of hours a minister puts in. Though some of the diverse tasks in the ministry are time-consuming, cutting back on hours does little to alleviate the feeling. It's simply not the volume of work that makes a pastor feel overworked.
A pastor who spends seventy hours a week preaching, teaching, counseling, ...
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