Growing at Work
A career is long. How you work in year five decides how you work in year fifteen.
Early on, long hours can feel like the price of getting ahead. Some of it is. But a way of working that cannot be kept up is a debt, and it usually comes due in a bad year. This session takes the long view: how experienced professionals decide what to say yes to, where they draw lines, and how they tell a hard stretch from a pattern. It is a group conversation, not counselling or therapy.
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The people who last are rarely the ones who never said no.
Sustained work is a skill, not only a matter of stamina. People who work well for decades usually have a way of choosing what to take on, protecting time to think and recover, and talking early when something will not fit. Those who do not tend to find out the hard way, often in a year when something else in life also needs them.
This session is a companion to those on noticing workload early and talking to a manager about pressure. It takes a longer, career-wide view and is about choices and boundaries rather than the first signs. It is not counselling, and it does not diagnose anyone.
What the session covers
29 topics across 6 areas. Six parts, from the long view to where help is. 5 apply to almost any business; the rest only in a particular case.
A Hard Season or a PatternBoth are real. They need different responses.5
- Work with a visible end, such as a launch or a close
- Work that has become the permanent baseline
- Asking what you are getting in exchange, and whether you agreed to it
- Whether things improve after the deadline
- Checking against your own normal, not the office's
Deciding What to Say Yes ToEverything you accept is something else you decline.5
- Which work builds your career and which only fills it
- Being known as the person who always helps
- Asking what would move if you took it on
- Saying 'not this week' or 'yes, if' instead of only yes or no
- Trade-offs you are comfortable making, and ones you are not
Boundaries That HoldSpecific enough to explain and to keep.5
Rules on working hours, overtime and rest differ by sector, state and the terms of your contract. A Right to Disconnect Bill was introduced in Parliament as a private member's bill in December 2025; check whether anything has changed. In practice, most workplaces rely on the contract, company policy and what the team agrees, so know yours.
- Agreeing what out-of-hours contact is for, with your team
- Handling messages on leave, weekends and late evenings
- Staying reachable for real emergencies without being always on
- Holding a boundary without a long justification
- Not asking others to follow one you do not keep yourself
Recovery as Part of the WorkIt is not a reward for finishing.5
- Taking the leave you are entitled to, and switching off in it
- Sleep, food and movement on the days that are full
- One protected block of thinking time
- Having something outside work you would miss
- What actually helps, and what only feels like rest
When You Manage OthersYour habits become the team's expectations.4
- The message you send at midnight, and what it asks of others
- Noticing overload in people who will not say so
- Making it safe to say 'this does not fit'
- Taking your own leave visibly
When It Is More Than a Busy StretchIf it appliesWhere this session stops and professional help starts.5
If any of these apply, talk to a doctor or a qualified mental health professional. In India, the government's Tele-MANAS mental health helpline is free and available 24 hours a day on 14416. If anybody is in immediate danger, call the emergency number 112.
- Low mood, worry or exhaustion lasting for weeks
- Changes in sleep, appetite or health that concern you
- Using alcohol or other substances to get through the week
- Pressure spilling into relationships at home
- Feeling unable to cope, or unsafe
Facilitators do not diagnose or advise on treatment. Their part is to make sure people know where to go.
Questions to ask yourself once a quarter
- Is the pace of the last three months one I could keep for three years?
- What have I stopped doing that I used to value?
- What did I say yes to that I should not have?
- Who would notice if I were struggling?
- What is one boundary I would like to try?
What this session is not
- Not counselling or therapy
- Not a diagnosis of anybody
- Not a place where anyone has to share personal details
- Not legal advice on hours or overtime
- Not a call to do less; it is about doing it sustainably
How the session runs
An experienced professional opens with what they have seen about sustainable and unsustainable ways of working, then participants reflect privately on their own last quarter and choose one boundary or habit to try. The group discussion is about what tends to help at work, and nobody is asked to share anything personal. The session closes with where to find professional support, including Tele-MANAS on 14416.
What your students leave with
- A way to tell a demanding season from a way of working that cannot last
- A clearer sense of the boundaries that matter to them, and why
- Language for saying no, or not yet, to a request at work
- Habits for recovery that do not depend on finding spare time
- An understanding of what the law and their contract do and do not say about hours
- Knowing where to find professional help if it is more than work
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
A career is a long run. The pace you set in the first years is the one you will find hardest to change.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.