Workplace: How do I tell my boss that I have too much work to do?

Work has been piling up for weeks? There’s often more than one reason for this. A conversation with your supervisor will usually help. Photo: dpa/dpa-tmn/Monique Wüstenhagen

The tasks are piling up on your desk, the workload is almost impossible to manage: Anyone who has already experienced this at work knows all too well how unhappy and stressed it can make them.It’s best to get to the root of the issue and talk to your manager about it. If you decide to do so, you’ll need to know how to proceed, says career coach Bernd Slaghuis.

First of all, Slaghuis advises making a distinction: Is it a short-term peak in workload? Or are the tasks that need to be done impossible to manage during regular working hours, and it never lets up? If it’s permanent, employees should talk to their manager about the stressful situation, says the expert.