However, before even think to change attitudes at work, it is necessary to change mindsets in private life.
"I have a morgage thus I need to put up with anything at work?". That is the reading I make from some comments.
Well, you choose that!, did you evalutaded in depth if you really needed a morgage? does it add real value to your life?. Did you priotize freedom and development vs. owning a house?

I don't agree with all points, but prioritization (one way or another) is accomplished through communication.

1. Force your boss to prioritize – really, it's not what you say, but how you say it – and even then people don't get it. I've never been able to force anyone to do anything they did not want to do. Some bosses I've been straight up, told them that what they wanted was not do-able, and they picked what was important. Other bosses did not care and wanted things done anyway – less here: bosses that can communicate, do. Those who cannot, just expect you to do everything. For heaven's sake, don't **force** anyone to do anything because you will get yourself in a world of hurt.

2. If your boss won't prioritize, do it yourself. – You can do this, you may already do. However, make sure your boss knows you are doing this, and point it out. Communicating too much covers your own arse, than not communicating at all.

3. Get comfortable with ignoring some tasks.
This is probably the worst advice I've ever heard. I've witnessed bosses have accused employees that they are ignoring tasks even though those same employees are going 'above and beyond the call of duty' to get things done. Ignoring things WILL get you in a world of hurt – IF you don't know what to ignore. Again, communication IS the key. Communicating with bosses and coworkers will allow one to find out what is and what isn't important, and if you choose to ignore it – you at least know what you are getting into.

4. Stop complaining before it ruins your life.
Complaining does ruin your life, but you should not stop doing it. Complaining is just the surfacing of underlying problems. If no one on top of you wants to do something, complaining has the potential to mobilize your colleagues to do something about it. You cannot take on an organization just by yourself, and quitting is not always an option.

5. Take responsibility for being overworked, then change it.
Yes, in the end it is partly your own responsibility. If you dont like the situation, you can go somewhere else, and sometimes that may be the case. It would be great if we could all find an environment that suits our needs as individual employees, however that is not always the case, and you don't always get good matches. As commenters have posted, people have mortgages and expenses, and like my father's generation keeps telling me "just take a job, and deal with it for as long as you have to, at least you've got income". I find that sometimes you need to do what you need to do in order to make it, and quitting is not an option.

While it would be nice if we could follow these steps without repercussions, the truth is that all workplaces are not the same. Communication is what is needed to make everyone a happy employee – not ignoring issues, forcing people to do anything, or cutting corners. If you cannot communicate with your boss, then maybe that is a sign of things to come, and you need to start looking elsewhere before things get uglier.

I have a pretty good boss. If an employee stays very late he will tell them to leave because he wants them to have a life. If a process doesn't work, he changes it. If his staff is overworked he hires more people (I was one of them). He engages constant communication between his bosses, his employees, and other departments. And even my boss would still think I was joking if I told him I wasn't going to do w, x, and y.

Most people don't have bosses like that. Telling them you won't do things will get you fired.

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It's not WHAT you tell someone, it's HOW you tell them. If you lay things out in a logical way and are respectful in how you talk, then many bosses — and it seems like yours would be one — would understand the problem and take some action.

–Penelope

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I'm working on it too! It's very hard to do it consistently.

-Penelope

Jay Gaulteri wrote:

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My own boss would probably laugh, others who follow your advice would have projects w, x, y, AND z cleared off their plate because they’d be fired…. Ultimately decisions about how the company I work for is run is not my concern. My concern is my paycheck, and I’m a lot happier for it.
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If you have the workload that most professionals do, you already prioritize whether intentionally or unintentionally, controlled or uncontrolled – simply by the fact that you can't do everything. So rather than just a blind rule like first-come-first-serve, I agree with the good advice to engage your boss / client in a discussion and agree on scope and expectations.

If you're not in this situation and you don't face the need to make trade-offs: congratulations, but it may mean you're not exploring all the work you could be doing. If you're really in the loop the *possible* jobs to do should exceed the time you have available. So the people who always get everything done – are they really helping the boss or are they flying under the radar?

And do we stay until the job is done no matter what? Two points – sometimes you can pull all-nighters and you still can't get it done. There just isn't time in the day or the night – again if this never happens to you, congratulations but maybe you should be asking for more work. And second point: consider that getting out of balance and overworking now means you trade-off home life, outside interests, courses, etc. that among other things help you work harder later. So are you really helping the boss if you burn yourself out?

People who don't admit that there are trade-offs are a big part of the problem, because they can set up unrealistic expectations and make it harder for the rest of us. But in the end a successful pro knows how to have that discussion with the boss/client in a way that doesn't get yourself fired.