Today I saw a short workplace video. It was roughly about A asking B to grab dinner after work, but B said they still had a lot of work left to finish. A had already seen B working overtime for several days straight and knew that B had already reported to the supervisor—after another colleague left, almost all the work fell on B, and B really couldn’t handle it anymore. The problem was, even with an overwhelming workload, B would still push through and get everything done.
B never left any tasks unfinished, never caused major mistakes, and never delayed things too much. So from HR’s perspective, it became “B can actually do the work of two people.” From the supervisor’s view, it became “Although B mentioned being tired, they seem to be holding up for now,” so the urgency to hire someone else kept getting pushed further back.
Watching that clip, I instantly thought of myself.
I’m apparently the same type of person. Since I started this job, I’ve been taking on a lot of tasks. At first, because I was still getting used to the environment, I just felt busy every day with tons of work. But it wasn’t until six months later that I truly understood how unbalanced the workload distribution in our department really was.
On the board production line side, it can be broken down into subcontracting, sampling, mass production, rework, and packaging—each handled by different people. Subcontracting even covers both boards and systems. Our department has seven people; besides me, almost everyone is on the board line. I’m the only one handling sampling, mass production, rework, and packaging, and now I’m also taking on new lines and product introductions for subsidiaries.
Most of the time, it’s not that I don’t want to say I’m tired, but the tasks are time-sensitive. If I don’t do them, they’ll just get stuck with no one to pick them up. Over time, it becomes a terrifying cycle—because I always end up finishing the work, everyone thinks, “She should be fine.”
I’ve reported the workload issue to my supervisor many times, but I’ve gradually realized that some supervisors aren’t unwilling to help you; it’s just that as long as things are still running, it’s hard for them to truly grasp the severity. In their eyes, orders are still shipping, schedules are still moving, and even though you’re working overtime every day, at least nothing has collapsed yet.
So I’ve also started reflecting—maybe it’s because I’m too quick to tough it out and too used to shouldering responsibilities that others think I can handle it. But honestly, I can’t deliberately slack off or just leave things alone either.
A sense of responsibility isn’t always a strength or a weakness; it’s more like an instinct. You know it’s exhausting, but you still subconsciously want to wrap things up properly and finish them, not wanting to affect others or let things blow up. But now I’m slowly realizing that just toughing it out doesn’t work. What really matters isn’t proving how capable you are, but making sure your supervisor truly understands that this workload isn’t something one person can sustain long-term.
Some things aren’t “reasonable just because you can finish them.” You have to look at how much time, energy, and life it consumes in the process. So instead of just pushing through, I now feel it’s more important to find balance, keep pushing the supervisor to face the problem, and actually find someone who can share the work. Otherwise, no matter how resilient someone is, they’ll eventually burn out.