Pace can be one of the most difficult changes that you need to deal with in a new work environment. When you’re used to a particular routine, a change of speed can throw you off, especially as you try to handle new job duties.
Because of this change, you may feel that everyone is working faster than what you can keep up with, or that you’re having too much time on your hands because you’re able to finish work faster than others.
Regardless, the different pace can be stressful for you and for your coworkers. But that doesn’t mean that either option — faster or slower work speed — is a problem in a new workplace. What really works is having everyone in sync. With a few exceptions, when people are working more or less at the same pace, workflow can be adjusted to ensure the best productivity.
If you’re starting a new job and you feel that you’re not able to adjust your workstyle to the office’s pace, communicate this to your supervisor and ask for help. Here are few points to keep in mind in this situation.
Understand pace
Identify the reasons for the difference in pace you’re experiencing. This could be the change of scope of work or the nature of the business. For example, many places that cater to a high volume of consumer businesses may be operating at a much faster pace compared to non-customer-facing businesses to ensure fewer backlogs. Within these companies’ processes, there could be a mechanism to ensure quality — at least at an accepted level — despite the speed. If you figure out how to use this mechanism and how to get adjusted to the speed, you should be able to get yourself ready to deal with the new pace.
Similarly, you may be making the shift to a place where pace is much slower, with more generous deadlines and relaxed work flow. Although your first instinct may be to look for inefficiencies and make use of all the extra time, you may be missing out on the big picture: This type of work may be more thorough and with lower tolerance for errors. You also may be getting less help from support staff.
The point is before you judge the pace in your new workplace, make sure you’re comparing apples to apples and that you’re actually getting the full picture of requirements, work duties and time restrictions.
Make adjustments
You still may find in very comparable workplaces that the same work is being done at difference paces. In this case, you will need to adjust yourself if the required speed is much faster. To do so, ask your supervisor for patience and help. You may be to do better and meet deadlines if you get a heads-up on upcoming projects or slightly longer timelines until you catch up with the regular schedule.
If you’re working in a place where work seems to be dragging beyond what you perceive as reasonable timelines, take a look at what else needs your attention. It is not advisable to stretch your work to fill the time, but you can instead build your knowledge of the job, which will help you shorten your learning curve and begin to innovate. Your ability to accomplish more in a shorter period of time should be noticeable by your supervisor, which eventually should make you a candidate for special projects and even promotion.
Remain respectful
People have different work speeds, and with the exception of procrastinators, no one is really wrong. Being respectful of others’ abilities and approaches should earn you respect, especially if you move up to a supervisory level.
To handle individual differences, have the fast, efficient ones in jobs that require speed and quick turnaround times. Meanwhile, have those who take their time to understand, research, plan and study in job duties that require more in-depth analysis and are not completely time-sensitive.
— Rania Oteify, a former Gulf News Business Features Editor, is a Seattle-based editor.
