Your job is important to you. You’ll set an alarm, wake up on time and arrive to the office promptly every day. But your boss seems to be pushing the issue. A typical work day is extended by just 2 hours, weekends are a thing of the past and yet your boss wants more.

These are signs that it’s time to regain control of your life.

Bosses, especially entrepreneurs, will often work obsessive hours in an attempt to become successful. You need to find a perfect work-life balance to ensure you can enjoy the spoils of hard work as well as avoid burnout. Stress, restless nights and anxiety can also be eliminated. But you need to take control first, which is very difficult to do.

4 Tips to Regain Your Life When Working for a Workaholic Boss

1.Stop Allowing the Behavior to Exist

You may be an enabler. By remaining quiet and praising your boss for working you like a horse, you’re actually doing yourself a disservice. You want to begin by:

  • Saying no.
  • Stop praising him or her for projects that ended with you dead on the floor.

Someone that is a workaholic may not realize the error of their ways, and you need to help them in this area. If you’re boss talks to you about how working 12 hours a day is normal, argue back and tell him or her that they’re wrong.

2.Start Communicating Your Needs

Your life is your own. If you don’t express your needs, no one else will. If you’re missing your anniversary, haven’t watched your daughter’s soccer game or haven’t been to the doctor because you’re stuck in a cubicle all day, it’s time to sit down and talk to your boss.

“My anniversary is this Friday; I really need to leave the office at 5.”

You can also send an email, or several, to remind your boss of a pertinent doctor’s visit, or that working this weekend isn’t possible. Just because he or she is willing to work until they drop to the floor, that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable.

3.Tackle One Day at a Time

All too often, a workaholic boss will cause the quality of your work to suffer. You’re in the middle of one project, and suddenly, 20 more pop up and you are told to push off your first project. Clients are mad, your boss is even madder, and all you were doing was following orders.

Instead, tackle one day at a time, and do the work that needs to be done.

Let your clients be the determining factor of your success.

4.Become Proactive

Bosses tend to get caught up in the end result and ignore the archaic processes that slow down productivity. It’s a wise choice to start calling for change. Recommend the removal of processes and procedures that slow down results.

Suggest processes that may speed up work.

If your boss gives you a project at 5pm (right when you’re going out the door) that needs to be finished on another weekend away from home, question the decision. Ask how work can be better assigned so that working overtime isn’t always a necessity.

Being the catalyst for change will help you put an end to the unruly boss that wants to burn the midnight candle.

About the Author

Helen Evans, Marketing manager of JobTonic.in, has been in the career development field for 5 years. She likes to share interesting tips to help people find their dream job. Her goal is to share what she has learned about searching job. Dream job is closer than you imagine!